Tier-II cities to usher in second phase of retail revolution

Vantage point: Insights from cutting-edge research

The retail sector in tier-II and-III cities has witnessed a much higher investment of US$ 6,192 million between 2006 and 2017 as against US$ 1,295 million that came to tier I metro cities during the same period, according to a report titled, ‘Fuelling the Retail Revolution — The Paradigm of Emerging Cities’. The report has been published by real estate consultants JLL India in association with the CII National Retail Summit, 2017. Highlighting the withdrawal of malls across tier 1 cities, the report identifies 20 cities including tier 2 cities such as Lucknow, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Kochi, Patna, Bhubaneshwar, Indore and Nagpur among the leading cities, as the next retail destinations in the country. The study bases its findings on key parameters such as total retail stock, upcoming supply, retailer presence, retailer expansion plans and investments. It gives details on various formats of developments that tier 2 and 3 cities are currently witnessing. Factors like lack of available space in retail malls in metro cities, increasing lease rentals in metro malls, and high land prices in tier 1 cities have made it difficult for retailers to own real estate in these cities. These factors, the report adds, have become a deterrent for expansion and growth of malls in big cities. Making a strong case for tier 2 cities, the report says that factors like international airport connectivity across cities such as Lucknow, Kochi, Bhubaneswar, Nagpur to name a few, rising levels of disposable income have prompted various global and local brands to plan their expansion plans in these cities. Pankaj Renjhen, managing director — Retail, JLL India said, “The retail sector is among the top three employers in the country and its growth will drive the economy of our future cities. Emerging destinations like Lucknow, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Kochi, Indore, Nagpur and Bhubaneshwar are going to be the next big retail hubs. It is for this reason, retailers and private equity firms have started taking an increased interest in Indian retail sector through investments in high-end retail malls in tier 2 and 3 cities.”

Firms of all sizes adopting web application firewall

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Frost & Sullivan’s Global Web Application Firewall (WAF) Market Analysis, Forecast to 2021, forecasts that the WAF market is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13.7 per cent from 2016 to 2021, reaching over $1.1 billion by 2021. Web applications are vital technologies used by every online company to communicate with employees, partners, customers, and potential customers. The exposed nature of these applications provides hackers with many opportunities to test defences. Furthermore, constantly changing technologies open up new opportunities for hackers to find vulnerabilities to exploit. Organisations of all sizes require comprehensive web application firewall (WAF) solutions to protect exposed threat vectors. To grow in a fast-paced environment, the report recommends that WAF vendors should support the application development lifecycle through deep integration with DAST/SAST tools;enable APT and threat hunting through adding complementary technologies such as SIEMs to help identify notable security events;protect applications with consistent policies, regardless of where they are deployed, including public and private cloud environments;and address emerging trends such as IoT (internet of things) risk; and deliver solutions for upcoming verticals such as manufacturing. 

“Going forward, web technologies are changing rapidly to support the global digital transformation trend, including proliferation of mobile devices, the Internet of Things and cloud computing. This rapid rate of change can present challenges for traditional WAF solutions,” said Frost & Sullivan’s network security analyst. “WAF vendors must continue to innovate to address these new threats and add customer value by improving their product offering through innovative features such as API security, bot detection and controlled technology.”