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India, being a country of small shopkeepers, is having
approximately 12 million retailers. Hence, we can say that
retailing is in our blood—either as a shopkeeper or
as a shopper. The Indian retail sector is expected to grow
to the size of $427 bn by 2010 and $637 bn by 2015 from
its current size of $330 bn. The ratio of organized and
unorganized retail, which was 3:97 in 2004, is expected
to be 9:91 by 2010.
Retailers inspired by the Wal-Mart story of growth in the
small towns of America, are tempted to focus on tier II
and III cities and also the villages of India. However,
a critical analysis of town-wise population reveals an entirely
different picture of the country and its market. The share
of these towns in retail market is expected to grow from
21% today to 40% by 2025.¹ Within top 35 towns, an
estimated 70 to 80% of retail trade would be in the organized
sector. This is similar to the experience in China where
cities like Shanghai and Beijing, the organized sector accounts
for 70 to 80% of the overall retail trade in certain categories.
Apart from this, with the reduced fair rates of aviation
companies, a large chunk of people, now prefer to travel
by air both for official as well as personal causes. As
consumers will be feeling very relaxed traveling on a plane,
having a stipulated time to spend, it is like a tacit invitation
for the marketers to come forward and introduce their products
to them. Some consumers are even of the opinion that any
shopping can be a better use of time while traveling and
prefer to shop during the journey. This travel has opened
new direction towards the expansion of Indian retail industry.
Retailing in air is all about catching the potential customers
while they are flying. We all know that location is a key
dimension of retailing and non-traditional locations are
now emerging as key areas to target retailing. Retailing
in air (airport retailing as well as in-flight) is entirely
new phenomenon even in the western countries.
With international travel becoming very common and affordable,
utilizing retail opportunities at the airport as well as
in-flight is important for retailers. The arena of retailing
in air uses terms like `concessions and concessionaires'
in the global context. With the galloping Indian retail
industry and booming aviation sector, it's the right time
for retailers to think about this new avenue which can help
them target many customers having deep pockets.
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