Retailing has been practiced from the early years of mankind in the form of barter to the current technologically sophisticated e-tailing in the 21st century. In any format, retailing involves the sale of goods and services to the final consumer. The forms of retailing are bricks-and-mortar stores, non-store bases, or a combination of a store and a non-store base. The assortment of goods in these businesses is planned, purchased, and presented by the retailer for the convenience of the consumer. The objective was to gain a deeper understanding into the world of retailing, its formats, store image and current trends occurring in the retailing sector and we visualized that this exercise would provide credible insights into business metrics and processes that run the industry today. We looked further to rediscover Indian retail, an industry that has burgeoned at high velocity. It will help in identify improvement opportunities for tomorrow and lead us towards future excellence in the growing retailing sector.

Retailing has been practiced from the early years of mankind in the form of barter to the current technologically sophisticated e-tailing in the 21st century. In any format, retailing involves the sale of goods and services to the final consumer. The form

The origins of retail are old as trade itself. Barter was the oldest form of trade. For centuries, most merchandise was sold in market place or by peddlers. Medieval markets were dependent on local sources for supplies of perishable food because Journey was far too slow to allow for long distance transportation. However, customer did travel considerable distance for specialty items. The peddler, who provided people with the basic goods and necessities that they could not be self sufficient in, followed one of the earliest forms of retail trade. Even in prehistoric time, the peddler traveled long distances to bring products to locations which were in short supply. “They could be termed as early entrepreneurs who saw the opportunity in serving the needs of the consumers at a profit” Later retailers opened small shops, stocking them with such produce. As towns and cities grew, these retail stores began stocking a mix of convenience merchandise, enabling the formation of high-street bazaars that become the hub retail activity in every city. In the great sweep of social and retail history, the ‘modern’ shopping experience can be said to have commenced with the appearance of the department store in the middle of the 19th century.

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: The Indian market is one of the key future markets for foreign investors and foreign companies. In 2010 the Indian market is estimated to be as big as the European Union with regard to the number of customers. Moreover, the Indian economy shows solid economic growth since the economical reform started in 1991, and the number of middle class households is continuously increasing. Thus, the purchasing power is rising in India. Hence, the Indian market has huge potential for foreign investment. All in all, the Indian market is a market multi-national companies should not miss because of its future importance. This diploma thesis focuses on India as a destination for Western retailers. The Indian market is especially attractive to Western retailers searching for markets with huge potential and wishing to explore markets which are yet unsaturated in contrast to the home markets of the Western retailers. Both the Global Retail Development Index of 2005 and 2006 rank India as the top destination for Western retailers among the emerging markets with regard to the risk associated with doing business in India and the market attractiveness. India ranks even before East European countries and rising stars like China or Russia because the Indian retail market combines low market saturation with stable economic growth and moderate political risk. However, India is a country with a very complex culture which needs to be considered if a foreign retail company plans to enter the Indian market. India is a country full of contrasts and a conglomerate of diverse cultural influences (Penner 2002; Kreuser, 2002). Thus, Indianizing, i.e. adapting e.g. a retail company s assortment, pricing strategy and approach to personnel management to the Indian market, is the key success factor for foreign retailers in India. To be able to succeed in the Indian retail market, knowledge of the unique characteristics of the Indian market and culture is vital. Thus, this diploma thesis starts with an overview of the opportunities of the Indian (retail) market such as growing consumption and a demographic advantage. The diploma thesis also describes the challenges of the Indian (retail) market such as the weak infrastructure and the challenges the Indian culture provides. Based on this knowledge, the second part of the diploma thesis introduces strategic decisions. Necessary adaptations to the Indian market, regarding e.g. dealing with Indian personnel or [...]

The author has highlighted important aspects of RETAILING. For the last ten years, retailing in India has been continuously expanding its horizons from a small haatdi, a filthy kirana store, to multi operational, well organised SUPERMARKETS. Today, the Indian retail industry is one the largest in the world and is estimated to be worth over 450 billion USD. Due to this rapid growth in Indian retailing, global giant retailers like WAL-MART, GAP, and TESCO are trying to penetrate the Indian market. This book is addressed to students enrolled for Marketing at undergraduate levels.

With only two percent of the entire Indian retail landscape dominated by the organized sector, the industry is certainly at an embryonic stage. Organized retailing made its presence felt in the country only during the last decade after the first lot of en