Retail has played a major role world over in increasing productivity across a wide range of consumer goods and services. The impact can be seen in countries like the US, the UK, Mexico, Thailand and more recently China. Economics of countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and Dubai are also heavily assisted by the retail sector.

Given the size of the market, many new retailers , Indian and foreign, are expected to come into the country. This will enhance further boom and expansion in retail market.

Traditionally, in India most of the shops have been mom-and-pop stores, with hardly any organized retail or chain stores. However, organized retail space development in India has undergone a sea change in the last couple of years.

Indian corporate developers like Tatas, Rahejas, Reliance, ITC. Godrej, Kumar's, Hero Group, RPG Enterprises, KK Modi, Bharati, Wipro, and Mega-retailers like Crosswords, Shoppers Shop, Pantaloons are revolutionizing the retailing sector. These developers have picked up models from the West, and changed them to suit the Indian context.

Organized retailing is projected to grow at the rate of 25-30 per cent per annum to touch $9 billion rupees by end-2006 and $24 billion rupees by 2010, said the Images study

Investments in the retail sector are estimated at between $400 million and $500 million over the next two to three years, and over $4 billion by the end of 2010.. The total mall space is increasing rapidly in the six A-Grade cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata and in the seven non-metro cities - Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Indore, Jaipur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, and Pune.

The Indian retail industry is on the threshold of a revolutionary change with all the big players eyeing this key segment.

Reason ? The strong growth of the Indian economy and the surge in the spending power of the largest middle class population in the world has made the retail industry a very attractive proposition.

Particularly of interest to the local and global corporate's is the food and grocery retailing business, since these are a basic daily necessity of every household and the sales revenue being the greatest in this area.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer with over 2000 stores and US$285 billion sales revenue, has shown a keen eagerness to enter India. Other giant retailers like Carrefour - France, Metro - Germany, and Tesco - UK have also expressed great interest to enter this lucrative market.

Looking to cash in on the growth of India's consumer-centric economy, Reliance Industries Ltd announced on Tuesday 27th June 2006, a big-ticket expansion in retailing business, which would have presence in 1,500 cities across India at an investment of about Rs 25,000 crore generating over 10 lakh new jobs.

Addressing the company's shareholders in its 32nd annual general meeting, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani said a new company Reliance Retail Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of RIL, would spearhead the retail initiative in which it is expected to "spend more than Rs 25,000 crore in the years to come".

Ambani said Reliance's retail business would focus on several verticals, which includes food and grocery; FMCG; apparels and footwear; consumer durables; farm implements and inputs; travel services; entertainment and leisure; health and well-being products; and educational products and services.
He said the retail business of the company would adopt a pan-India approach and have presence in over 1,500 cities and towns "embracing all strata of society".

To be rolled out in a mix format of neighborhood convenience stores, supermarkets, specialty stores and hypermarkets,

Besides, the company would also develop partnerships with international brands to bring them to India, he added.

Ambani said Reliance would also develop opportunities in agriculture and food processing that would support organized retailing business, which would help deliver "better returns to the Indian farmer and producer by connecting them directly to Indian and global consumers".

The rapid growth in retailing sector is opening up tremendous employment opportunities.

This course is designed to develop skilled manpower to fulfill today’s acute shortage of trained retailing professionals.

Students completing our Diploma in Retail Management can look forward to excellent job opportunities and career-growth opportunities in Retailing.