In recent months doubts have been cast on the future of Indian retailing and the financial viability of organised retail formats. Given the size, the geographical cultural and socio-economics diversity of India, at present there is no national role model for Indian suppliers and retailers to adapt and expand in the Indian context. Therefore the big question today is `What is the future of organised retailing in India and what will be the recipe for success?

In the past, retailing was easy as there was not competition, choices and options were was limited and it was largely seller's market. Today, the customer expectations both in term of product and services has undergone a sea change and still undergoing major changes which has made the retail business quite complex. The competition is on the increase and the customer expectations are growing. The economy is slowing down and future is uncertain.

In such a scenario, only retailers with the best practices can survive. As a matter of fact retailing is not prone to any recession as long as retailers are adapting to the best practices in terms of investment in the people, merchandise mix, supply information system and customer relation management. Actually retail has got strong fundamentals, which are good enough for sustaining success in the business. India needs to create 110 million sq. ft. of retail space per year for several years to meet the sustained rate of growth of GDP at 6 percent.

Copying,surviving and growing during recessions, with over 12 million retail outlets of all sizes and styles (or non-styles), it has now become crucial for any player to increase customer loyalty and build a strong market. Remember that the economy has slowed, but it has not stalled. As long as there are companies and people doing business, thing will be bought and sold. For smart retailers, now is the time to grab the opportunity to get new customers, increase customer loyalty and solidify market position.
Because it is when the competition cuts back that an opportunity presents itself. To ensure this, merchandise should be in accordance with the expectations of customers. Differentiation along with a value proposition for the customer should be given utmost importance. Therefore the players who could not cope up or acclimatise with the rate of change outside their company will be heading for a failure. The new retail start ups must have a very well thoughts of unique selling proposition which on the one hand enables them to attract consumers away from traditional shopping options and on the other hand offer additional value to the consumer while generating the required operating margin to pay for growing cost of operation.

Knowing the customer will be the key. There is a common mistake prevalent among all the major players in retail that they do not know their costumers' are. Everybody is targeting the same customer with the same offer. There is no focus on the brand preferences and proposition even there advertisements are just creating awareness and not building the preferences.

The customer will continue to change will be far more demanding. The next few years will be most interesting than we have ever seen. Retailer needs to know the customer's needs.

Retailers with the customer centric approach along with the value proposition, in accordance with the needs will hold the key to success. Value preposition should create the differentiation and sustainability. Value earlier was price, today value is complex equation having quality, image and convenience on one side and price, time taken to shop around on the other.

The future will be about `knows' and `know-nots'. Knowledge is the key and innovation is critical for survival. The right phasing of IT and investment in the information system to achieve optimum efficiency in category management, supply chain management. Some retailers have difficulty determining what their technologies needs really are because their manual system of operation is not clearly defined from the start. The solution is to prepare a detailed needs analysis which will make it easier to quantify benefits and cost-justify expenditures.

Some retailers only want the cheapest hardware and software. So they purchase unreliable hardware that puts their business at risk. Retail is still about the basic and selling in hard times can grow your business faster and more effectively than doing so in the boom times. And the only mantra for success is: sell the right item, at the right price, at the right place, a right time, in the right quantity with the right service.