Retailing in India: The impact of hypermarkets Essay

1. How might a hypermarket located in India appeal to consumers and orient them to shopping in larger stores? – The trick lies in differentiating themselves from local kirana stores. If a hypermarket is offering same products, a customer will obviously prefer kirana store over the hypermarket because of the convenience and long years of service. Turning shopping into an experience should be the differentiating factor. This can be done by understanding the consumption basket of a consumer in an area, introducing new products in the hypermarket along with the old ones, having products catering to latest fads and fashions, and helping and assisting customers at every step of buying process. Also, promotions and discounts aligned with holidays and festivals would be a good way to appeal consumers. 2. Is the Indian government’s willingness to spend $500 billion to improve the nation’s infrastructure good news for international retailers? Why or why not? – The Indian government’s willingness to spend $500 billion to improve infrastructure is certainly good news for international retailers, because a good infrastructure helps stores to decrease their costs and improve profits. 3. Identify the main changes that mark Indian consumers. How can international retailers learn more about India’s youthful demographic? – More than half of India’s current population is younger than 25 years. – Due to the jobs created by IT and services boom, young consumers have more disposable income. – Due to the ever growing education scenario, students are also rising as a very important consumer class. – Nuclear working families have less time to shop. International retailers can study trends of migration of people of Indians origin, understand changing demographics in rural and urban areas due to urbanization of towns and up-gradation of villages, study penetration of retail product organizations in various markets and indigenous competition, and create models that include best practices of kirana stores that appeal