A Study on Popular Retail formats Adopted by Retailers in India

Retailing is a set of business activities that adds value to the product and service sold to the consumer for the personal or family use. The study mainly focused on popular retail formats adopted by various retailers, their current position. The study was based on secondary data. The major formats adopted by retailers in India were Kirana stores, Hypermarkets, Supermarkets and Departmental stores.

Retailing is a set of business activities that adds value to the product and service sold to the consumer for the personal or family use. The Indian retail market, over the last decade, has shown greater acceptance for organized retailing formats. The Indian retail industry has grown at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.3 percent for the period year 2006-2010. India's retail market, valued at US$ 353 billion in the year 2010, is projected to grow at a rate of 12 per cent per annum and is projected to reach at US $ 543 billion by the year 2014 according to the report of IBEF 2010.

It is difficult for the retailers to fit a successful international format directly and expect a similar kind of performance in India. Before adopting a format it is necessary to access local conditions, culture, buying behavior of consumer and so on. In country like India the taste and preference of consumer vary from time to time, to match with the same the retailers have also done experiments by launching more than one format to identify the winning format suited to different geographies and segment. Apart from geography even rural and urban divide poses different kind of challenges to retailers. Pantaloons has adopted several retail formats to cater to a wide segment of consumer in the market. With the help of formats the retailer can segment the market. With over 12 million outlets, the country has highest retail outlet density in the world.