Budget 2014-15 Wish list: Retail sector

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Key developments
Customer engagement:  The Indian retail experience has gone beyond the traditional bricks-and-mortar store and includes numerous touch points like online stores, social networks, call centres, etc. Changing economic dynamics, diverse choices in products and services, numerous shopping formats and unparalleled access to information has empowered customers to expect more from their retail experience.   

Streamlining the supply chain: Operational efficiency, process improvisation, and overall profitability enhancement have been a key focus area for the retailer through 2013. The year has seen the supply chain teams use innovative technologies to increase throughput and cut costs yet maintaining high standard of service levels. The focus has largely been to improvise to ensure scalability of the Distribution Centres (DCs) as the number of stores increase, without increasing the number of DCs proportionally.

Innovation: Shoppers are exposed to a lot of information and the increasing use of the online medium has raised their expectations from retailers. Thus, to capture the mind share and the wallet share of their customers, retailers have been innovating in areas like mobile apps, website analytics, in-store kiosks, e-mail marketing and social media programs (including user reviews, grievance settlement).  

Omni channel: A lot of Indian retailers have realised the importance of omni-channel retailing as their customers are increasingly using digital technologies for their buying. Globally, the omni-channel model has helped retailers innovate and be in step with evolving consumer needs. It provides a wealth of customer data across touch points, which retailers can analyse to derive shopper insights. This, in turn, helps retailers provide personalized and better experiences, leading to an increase in repeat purchases as well as basket sizes.

Showrooming is the practice of examining a product at a brick and mortar store and then ordering it for less online. This is a growing trend and will increase much more over a period of time. However since touching and feeling is important for the Indian consumer we will see more on-line companies open physical stores where the consumer can walk in to examine the product but order on-line in the store.