Retail industry is basically that sector of the economy which is engaged in selling finished products to end consumers. Most of the goods sold are made by some third party though these days big retail chains have introduced their brand line as well which is known as private labels. As per the AT Kearney ranking, India is at number four in the list of thirty emerging countries for retail development.

Basically there are three kinds of retailers that are generally available¹ –

· Organized Retail – These are owned by private or government and are based on some principles and procedures like Wal-Mart, Big Bazaar. Possess license to sell the product.

· Unorganized Retail – Owned by an individual and they are also based on some principles.

· Grey Market – Unauthorized small stores that are owned by an individual. They are not bound by any principles or rules as they are run illegally.

Organized retailers often many advantages which an unorganized store could not offer e.g. consumer now has a wider range of choices of goods, better shopping experience, more convenient and many other benefits. They also offer great discounts with some supermarkets offering more than 5% below MRP whereas unorganized stores generally sell products at MRP. The number of SKUs available is also much more than that available in unorganized stores and so there are less problems of stock out or no stock. The farmers have also benefited from organized retailing as they are in direct touch with the retailers and resulting in bypassing of the intermediaries who used to eat away the margin of both retailer and farmer. In a way they have helped in boosting the growth of other sectors which are related to them like agriculture, manufacturing etc. Companies are also in direct touch with the customer and so they have better awareness that which products are selling and which are consuming the shelf space. It has also enhanced the employment potential by providing direct employment to many people who are involved in many activities that take place during organized retailing.

In organized retail sector we generally have modern format stores which include supermarkets, hypermarkets, discount stores, departmental stores, shopping malls and similar kind of stores. While in unorganized sector we have small kirana stores which are the local shops that are owned and operated on a small scale generally in a limited space. Owners themselves operate it so it has the benefit of low operational costs. As they are in the near locality they have better understanding of customer requirements.

In India it was in 1995 when organized retail finally started taking shape when the Indian government had started relaxing policies and market liberalization was taking place. The sector has undoubtedly drawn benefit in that period because of the liberalization as the government is encouraging more and more FDIs into the country. At that time almost 90-95% of the retail sector was still unorganized in India. The sector continued to flourish encouraging many Indian industrialists to enter into organized retail sector.

The sector reached its peak growth in 2006 when consumers were more seeking organized retail format and there was greater exposure to foreign brands. The retail shopping districts started developing and more shopping centers, lifestyle malls and shopping complexes have emerged offering people shopping, entertainment and food chains at the same place. This concept first took shape in tier I cities but soon it spread into tier II and III cities as well. Many bigwigs have become popular in this industry including Big Bazaar, Reliance Fresh, Nilgiris, More and many others

Right now the industry has reached its matured phase with growing Indian economy. Salary is expected to rise by an average of 13% and consumer spending is expected to increase by 12%. As per the emerging trends, the disposable income of people has increased over the time which is expected to grow further and they are spending more than earlier. There has been an increase in working population in the range of 19-60 years which is expected to reach 620 million in 2012. Even young people are purchasing more and have become specific about from where they are purchasing. At this point of time, organized retailers are focusing more on tier II and III cities where there is still scope of further growth. Retail companies are now emphasizing more on increasing their presence in the new emerging retail formats such as supermarkets, convenience stores, hypermarkets and specialty stores.

As per the Business Monitor International (BMI) India Retail Report, the total retail sales in India is expected to grow from US$ 395.96 billion in 2011 to US$ 785.12 billion by 2015. This is all due to the increase in earning and spending power of people and as a result many international companies including Wal-Mart are planning to enter into retailing in India which will boost the competition in the retail industry.

The growth of organized retail in India

The Indian retail industry has experienced high growth over the last decade with a noticeable shift towards organised retailing formats. The industry is moving towards a modern concept of retailing. The size of India's retail market was estimated at US$ 435 billion in 2010. Of this, US$ 414 billion (95% of the market) was traditional retail and US$ 21 billion (5% of the market) was organized retail. India's retail market is expected to grow at 7% over the next 10 years, reaching a size of US$ 850 billion by 2020. Traditional retail is expected to grow at 5% and reach a size of US$ 650 billion (76%), while organized retail is expected to grow at 25% and reach a size of US$ 200 billion by 2020.

The US-based global management consulting firm, A T Kearney, in its Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) 2011, has ranked India as the fourth most attractive nation for retail investment, among 30 emerging markets. As India’s retail industry is aggressively expanding itself, great demand for real estate is being created. The cumulative retail demand for real estate across India is expected to reach 43 million square feet by 2013. Around 46 per cent of the total estimated demand between 2009 and 2013 will be come from Tier-1 cities. For instance, Pantaloon Retail added 2.26 million square feet (sq. ft.) of retail space during the fiscal 2011 and booked over 9 million sq. ft of retail space to fructify its expansion plans in future.

Sector Prospects

The penetration of organized retail will happen much faster in the coming decade, even in tier 2 and tier 3 Indian cities, because of the changing demographics of India’s population and a healthy rate of economic growth. With good underlying economic growth, increase in disposable income, increased awareness due to penetration of broadband and mobile devices with internet accessibility, the demand for consumer goods will rise. With better systems and processes in place, all this is bound to assist in increasing the penetration of the organized retail sector in India.

Rural retailing is also poised to grow multifold in India. With several states in the country permitting retailers to purchase produce directly from farmers, the farmers too are adapting to the new opportunity to cultivate assigned crops and take special care of the same. This gets them instant credit at higher prices than what they received from the erstwhile traders/middlemen. Corporate retailers like ITC, Godrej, Reliance, AV Birla, Mahindra and Mahindra and many others have already established the farm linkages.

India’s rural markets offer a sea of an opportunity for the Retail sector. According to National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER)² reports, rural India is home to 720 million consumers across 627,000 villages. 17% of these villages account for 50% of the rural population as well as 60% of rural wealth. This implies that reaching out to just 100,000 plus villages will ensure access to most of the rural opportunity.

Some of the key players in the Indian retail market, with a dominant share are³:

Name of holding company	Prime Banners
Pantaloon Retail	· Pantaloons · Central · Brand Factory · Ezone · Hometown · Planet sports · Bigbazar · Foodbazar · KB’s Fair Price Shop
K Raheja Group	· Shoppers stop · Crossword, · Inorbit · Hyper city
Tata Group	· Croma · Landmark · Poltrona Frau Group Design Center · Star Bazaar · Tashi · Westside
RPG Group	· Spencer’s · Books and Beyond · MusicWorld
Landmark Group	· Centrepoint · Babyshop · Splash · Shoe Mart · Lifestyle · Beautybay · Iconic · Q Home Décor · Candelite · Max · Shoexpress · Emax · Lifestyle Department Stores · SPAR hypermarkets · Landmark International · Footwear Division
Parimal Group	· Piramyd Megastore · Piramyd Supermarket · Jamin
Reliance	· Reliance Fresh · Reliance Trends · Reliance FootPrint · Reliance Digital

- Carrefour which opened its first cash-and-carry store in India in New Delhi.

- Germany-based Metro Cash and Carry which opened six wholesale centers in the country.

- Walmart in a JV with Bharti Retail, owner of Easy Day store—plans to invest about US$ 2.5 billion over the next five years to add about 10 million sq ft of retail space in the country.

- British retailer Tesco Plc (TSCO) in 2008, signed an agreement with Trent Ltd. (TRENT), the retail arm of India’s Tata Group, to set up cash-and-carry stores.

- Marks and Spencers have a JV with Reliance retail.

The Indian retail sector accounts for 22 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and contributes to 8 per cent of the total employment. India continues to be among the most attractive investment propositions for global retailers. Cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in single-brand retail trading, during April 2000 to June 2011, stood at US$ 69.26 million. Till now FDI up to 100 per cent was allowed for cash and carry wholesale trading and export trading under the automatic route, and FDI up to 51 per cent was allowed in single-brand products, with prior government approvals. However, the Government recently passed a cabinet note and permitted FDI upto 51% in multibrand retailing with prior Government approval and 100% in single brand retailing thus further liberalizing the sector. This policy initiative is expected to provide further fillip to the growth of the sector.

OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH STUDY:

· To study organized retail industry in India.

· To study organized retailer and services provided by them.

· To examine the impact of services provided by organize retailers an its impact on consumer buying behavour.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

Two stage sampling plan has been used for collecting data from the retailerss. In the first stage four big cities and four small cities of Madhya Pradesh have been selected on the basis of convenience sampling. The cities have been divided into urban and sub urban category. In the urban cities I have selected Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur. In sub urban city I have selected Rewa, Sidhi, Shahdol and Ujjain. In the second stage 10 samples from each city are taken on the basis of convenience random sampling.

HYPOTHESIS:

H01 There is no significant difference in the facility provided by the different retailers of organised brands

S.No.	Facilities	Big Bazaar	V Mart	Reliance Mart	Koutons
1.	Home delivery	23	35	28	14
2.	Better and free parking	52	38	25	22
3.	Accepting credit cards	68	32	45	71
4.	Trial rooms	0	0	0	89
5.	Food zone	45	27	46	0
	Total	188	132	144	196

Retail store	O_f	E_f	O_f - E_f	(O_f - E_f)²/ E_f
Big Bazaar	188	203.57	-15.57	1.190868
Reliance	132	217.8	-85.8	33.8
V Mart	144	237.6	-93.6	36.87273
Koutons	196	658.97	-462.97	325.267
chi square value				397.1306

The tabulated value of chi square for 6 df at 95% level of confidence is 21.026 but the calculated value (397.13) is greater than the tabulated value. Hence, undertaken hypothesis is rejected. So, There is significant difference in the facility provided by the different retailers of organized brands

CONCLUSION:

The Indian organized retail sector's impact changed the lifestyle of the Indian consumers drastically. The evident increase in consumerist activity is colossal which has already chipped out a money making recess for the Indian organized retail sector. With the onset of a globalized economy in India, the Indian consumer's psyche has been changed. People have become aware of the value of money. Nowadays the Indian consumers are well versed with the concepts about quality of products and services. These demands are the visible impacts of the Indian organized retail sector. Since the liberalization policy of 1990, the Indian economy, and its consumers are getting whiff of the latest national and international products, with the help of print and electronic media. The social changes with the rapid economic growth due to trained personnel, fast modernization, and enhanced availableness of retail space is the positive effects of liberalization. The non-food sector, segments comprising apparel, accessories, fashion, lifestyle felt the significant change with the emergence of new stores formats like convenience stores, mini marts, mini supermarkets, large supermarkets, and hyper marts. Even food retailing has became an important retail business in the national arena, with large format retail stores, establishing stores all over India. With the entry of packaged foods like MTR, ITC Ashirbad, fast foods chains like McDonald's, KFC, beverage parlors like Nescafe, Tata Tea, Café Coffee and Barista, the Indian food habits has been altered.

REFERENCES:

1. Guruswamy Mohan, Sharma Kamal,Mohanty J.P., Korah Thomas J., FDI in India’s retail secotr more bad than good, CPAS, New Delhi

2. Kalhan Anuradha, impact of malls on small shops and Hawkers,Economic and Political weekly, June 2, 2007

3. Business Line. 2007. ITC to take retail biz

Received on 08.01.2014 Modified on 12.01.2014

Asian J. Management 5(2): April-June, 2014 page 121-124