Premium retail -Is India ready ?

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March ie the last month was an extremely bad month for most premium retailers in India ,inflation( of late may be ) ,the share market crash , the sudden question on the Indian economy growth rates , the dollar pressure on the Indian rupee ( lower spends from the IT employees as most of them are worried abt their jobs currently ! ) has all led to a Big Worry among premium retailers in India on the following::

i) Customer Spends ::and its all evident ,speak to brands and they tell u the struggle of getting customers in to their section /stores , everyone is worried .
ii) Space Spends ::there is a slow down message given by most premium retailers on space acquisition , the Indian space rush is surely slowing down , retailers are pausing and using this as an opportunity to look back at the trails created and the clean up needed .Retailers are quickly realising the need to drive operational efficiencies and saying No to the Retail space Rush
iii) Change of Business model or stop ! :: This should summarise the mood among most premium retailers ___There is a brand which launched super premium furniture opened a couple of stores across the country , suddenly realised that this is not profitable and a closure is all that's needed ! part of a Big business House based out of Mumbai !

So we seem to be in the midst of a Great Indian spending crunch .......it also raises the qns of the readiness of the Indian Premium retail market , as it seems to be dependent on too many variables like a good strong stock market /strong dollar and a strong feel good factor as was evident till December 07 ! The answer could be a NO not yet though March is too short a time to take this call,but things don't look rosy either in April so far ! Whatever it is we will have to see some more progress to stabilise , as the current feel good factor ,spends power etc looks like a bubble, which already has burst !

Comments

Unknown said…
The reason for slow down is also due to the unrealistic real estate prices. With the increase in the number of malls and other prime real estate it is just a matter of time the real estate prices reaches a parity which could be a indicator for retailers to shift gears.
April 14, 2008 at 10:15 PM
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