The Retail industry in India has emerged as one of the most dynamic and fast paced industries with both domestic and international players entering the market. With government policies becoming favorable and emerging technologies facilitating the business operations, India is positioned as the most attractive market for retail investment.

The Indian retail market, which is the fifth largest retail destination globally, according to industry estimates is estimated to grow from the US$ 330 billion in 2007 to US$ 427 billion by 2010 and US$ 637 billion by 2015*. Simultaneously, modern retail is likely to increase its share in the total retail market to 22 per cent by 2010.

The main driver for the growth story of Indian retail sector primarily is its burgeoning middle class. The growing size of its upbeat middle class market is driving India to focus extensively on organized retailing making it the most attractive market place for retail players. According to industry estimates, Indian retail market is estimated to grow by leaps and bounds and likewise modern retail is likely to increase its share in the total retail market.

The global retail industry is realizing the value of investing in IT to enhance efficiency as well as improve customer service and profitability in an increasingly competitive environment.

In order to augment their business potential and enhance their customer’s experience, both mid-size and big retail players are investing in technology. Both customers and suppliers are extensively using the Internet and this has changed the way the supply chain operates. Structured implementation of IT solutions will organize the entire retail business improving customer satisfaction, operational efficiencies and by extension profitability.

Complexity of products, supply chain challenges, relentless competition puts a great demand on retailers to streamline their business processes by incorporating structured IT solutions. Retailers today are investing in IT solutions that can be leveraged for optimization of Planning, Forecasting, Sales & Promotions, operations integration, Purchasing, Stores / Warehouse Inventory management, and financial tracking. According to the current market search, retail sector will witness robust expansion in IT take-up, with IT revenue expected to grow at an exponential rate. 

Though the Retail in India is still evolving and there is a lot of experimentation in terms of formats, store design and transforming unorganized retailing in to a structured and organized practice. Retail industry has truly become a customer-centric sector devising new processes to retain customer’s loyalty and adding new profiles to their list. Retailers are specifically targeting specific customer segments through both marketing and in-store product assortments.      

The shift in the shopper demographics is driving the retailing industry to plan for the business process convergence of traditional workflows with changing demands. There is an immediate need to acquire new levels of customer intelligence by understanding and analyzing major market and technology trends that will directly influence global retailing and the resulting shopper experience around the world.

The demand of the hour is that now retailers must plan to bring together the business process convergence of traditional workflows with enterprise resource planning. It is imperative that retailers evaluate the real time solutions that they would now eventually require to integrate real-time demand, supply, and customer intelligence to be able to upgrade their business to the next level. In addition, retailers should align with suppliers to test and measure emerging targeted advertising options and build those evaluations results into existing promotion effectiveness metrics.

Planning for global capability in technology infrastructure is also a necessary strategy and vendors should clearly define their capabilities for supporting retailer global expansion, including specific regional or country-specific configurations that exist. *AT Kearney’s annual Global Retail Development Index (GRDI)