Supermarkets In India: Is India Ready to Open Its Golden Retail Gate for the World? A Case Study

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Supermarkets in India: Is India ready to open its golden retail gate for the world?

A case study

By Akhil Gupta

Dissertation submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Postgraduate Course, Master of Business Administration (Full Time) at the University of Northampton

September 2006

This dissertation is being presented as a part of the Post Graduate degree, Master of Business Administration, at the University of Northampton.

The Indian consumer is changing rapidly. The average consumer today is richer, younger and more aspirational in his/her needs than ever before. Consumers now value convenience and choice at par with getting value for their hard-earned money. A range of modern retailers are attempting to serve the needs of the 'new' Indian consumer. The last few years have witnessed an explosion of organised retail formats like supermarkets and hypermarkets in an otherwise fragmented Indian retail market.

To tap this growth opportunity, Indian retail organisations need to be prepared for a quick scale up across dimensions of people, processes and technology in addition to identifying the right formats and value proposition for the Indian consumer.

With this backdrop, this dissertation is aimed to gain a better insight into the retail sector of India. The objective was to meet CEOs and other employees of six major and a few small retail organisations in India to get their perspective on the readiness of Indian retailers across these dimensions. This dissertation is a synthesis of the findings from this study conducted over the last four months.

The literature review discussed in the dissertation attempts to find the suitability of India for the retail boom. The research was conducted in a qualitative manner using semi-structured telephonic interviews and email along with a personal visit. Where possible, a quantitative questionnaire was also introduced to evaluate certain requirements that the supermarkets...