The Indian retail industry, ranked as the 5th largest in the world, has also made its mark as the largest and most fast-paced industry in India. Valued at $600 billion in 2019, the sector is further projected to multiply manifolds over the coming decade. Making up around 10% of India’s GDP, it further adds to the National employment by 8%. Analysts expect the Indian retail industry to grow 25 percent annually. The figures, in themself, reveal the vast scope for development and opportunities that this versatile industrial section holds. The entire concept of sales and purchase is observing a drastic transformation with the entrance of digitalization and technological advancements which are waging a revolution in Indian shopping culture. However, the landscape is not free of its own protracted setbacks and challenges. Here’s walking you through a series of roadblocks that the retail industry is faced within 2020.
Indian retailing-
Indian retailing is undergoing a transition with the rise of super and hypermarkets. Urbanization, rise in income, increase in working women and allowing FDI are some of the factors triggering this growth. The industry has evolved greatly from fragmented local markets to larger centralized wholesale markets. India, rich in its cultural diversity, plays host to over 7 million retail outlets of variable sizes and styles. However, the sector still falls short of cutting-edge features that set it on par with the international standards of retailing.
Ever since its inception in the 1990s, the Indian retail industry continues to be a disorganized sector, suffering from an insufficient supply chain management at large. This is owing to the fragmented and predominantly small and family-owned business persisting due to poor access to capital, technology, and regulations. An efficient supply chain management is the key to cutting down on inventory cost which can eventually be passed on to the customers in the form of low pricing. The ineffectual organization of retail sectors and its parallel incessant growth has, nevertheless, paved the way to Retail frauds involving thefts, shoplifting, vendor frauds, and inaccurate supervision and administration, making it one of the primary challenges that the industry is faced with.
The enormous boom in the Indian retail sector has accompanied a huge and sudden demand for real estate. From recording 500 supermarkets in 2006, India has grown to serve homes for 9,500 hypermarkets and 7,000 supermarkets by 2018. The lack of retail space has led most retail outlets in India to confine to a mere 500 square feet in area. This sudden outburst has also given way to an acute human resource shortage. While it is getting harder for retailers to find trained workers, it is getting much more expensive to retail them. This is affecting the influx of profit levels of retailers by large. The huge size, socio-economic and cultural diversity that India is blessed within itself is a challenge as this makes it harder for the industry to establish a consolidated model or consumption pattern throughout the country.
Despite the flaws and shortcomings plaguing its efficiency, the Indian retail is striding towards optimum performance and development at a majestic pace. This can be chalked up to the revolution that e-commerce has triggered in the subcontinent. Online shopping is one of the highest-grossing sectors today, appeasing consumers everywhere with its ease of operation, enabling them to shop for authentic products from the comfort of their homes.
Role of Aaslidesi-
Aaslidesi, the new marketplace for Indian consumers is a novel initiative dedicated to encouraging trade in goods hand-made through age-old practices by craftsmen of India. While retailing was greatly boosting up, this had consequently marked a replacement of the traditionally produced products by the modern. Today, the trends are boomeranging with people keen on going back in time and assuming an organic lifestyle. Aaslidesi works towards delivering the same with its range of curated products and food supplies features on the Aasli Desi platform. The company has, within a short period, reached branched out to the remotest corners of the nation, sifting out the best producers of organically produced goods and taking them in the loop to assemble together the best that nature has to offer.
With this unified approach, Aasli Desi tries to tackle the persisting challenges in the Indian retail industry by improving employment prospects, creating a portfolio for the organic farmers and producers on the national front and above all, professing the essence of green practices. The people, especially youth, of today are extensively growing aware of the environmental and physical benefits that the use of organic produce entails. That affected by the fact that youth forms a large chunk of Indian online shoppers, with 35% in the 18-25 age group and 55% between 26-35 years, unveils great prospects for the flourishing of trade of organic goods in India.
India stands open to an abundance of novel ventures for retail investors both from within the nation and beyond. Despite accommodating over 5 million retail outlets throughout, India lacks the framework that an influential retail market demands. This has opened a sea of opportunities for traders at large. Indian retail industry, as per, is being projected to improvise and grow stronger than GDP growth over the following decade driven by changing lifestyles, burgeoning income, and favorable demographic outline.
