India’s retail sector will become a $1.3 trillion opportunity by 2020, according to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
In a white paper on the subject, FICCI said consumption will be driven through integrated multi-channel retailing. Modern retailers have in the past tried to capitalise on this opportunity by increasing their store presence across major cities. On the other hand, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies have tried to enhance their distribution reach.
White paper
The white paper, titled “Driving Indian Consumption through Integrated Multichannel Retailing”, proposes a forward-looking 4i Multichannel Maturity Model. Through this model, retailers can fully leverage the potential of all contemporary channels accessible to the Indian consumers — brick and mortar stores, digital and mobile.
Conventional model
However, this cannot be solely addressed by the conventional brick and mortar retail channel because the opportunity is dispersed across the country, the chamber said, where a billion plus customers need a million sales and service touch points.
FICCI believes that modern retailers have the potential to reach $10 billion of sales through digital, mobile and other non-conventional channels by 2020.
Most Indian retailers are yet to start their multi channel journey, though some of them are in individual stage and some in independent stage of multichannel maturity, the report adds.