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Retail's tug of war: India needs smart policies for ecommerce, local retail

The retailer in India traditionally provides a low-margin service, frequently provides credit, and may source merchandise for specific needs

ecommerce, Retail Industry, Retail stores
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Now we are faced with this unfortunate conflict — the large gig economy players providing a phenomenal range of goods at low prices versus the small retailer, not always but sometimes informal | Illustration: Binay Sinha

Laveesh Bhandari

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Retail is changing in character, and India is undoubtedly at the forefront of this development globally. It is quite evident that consumers in India have taken to ecommerce in a big way. My home, for instance, has shifted almost completely to ordering online — so much so that even the maid is doing so. And if stories are to be believed, tier-III and tier-IV cities, as well as rural India, are also seeing rapid growth in online ecommerce. No doubt, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Aadhaar and other components of India’s digital public infrastructure have helped drive this growth. Easy
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