Synergy Between Retail Real Estate And Modern Retail Growth

India’s retail sector has been undergoing structural changes for the last two decades. Shopping malls, lined with specialty retailers, started dotting the retail markets of the country’s top cities during the mid-1990s. Since then, the ‘mall culture’ gradually pervaded the population, especially in the metros and mini-metros, heralding the beginning of the modern retail movement in India.

- Samantak Das

India modern retail evolution

The pace of mall construction was moderate during the first five to seven years and gained substantial momentum after that. The impact of the global financial crisis on the Indian economy in 2008 and 2009 checked this pace, and this trend continues today. The next big wave that has changed the skyline of the retail sector in India and accelerated the presence of modern retail is e-tailing, or the sale of products and services through the internet, telephone and television. This trend started in 2010 and has become prominent in the last three years. We believe that the modern retail segment in India will be driven by e-tailing as well as the brickand-mortar modern retail format through an integrated approach.

Another trend that is becoming conspicuous since the last couple of years is the transformation of non-modern stores in shopping streets into modern formats. This trend is likely to gain momentum in times to come because of the prevailing consumer preference for a modern and organised shopping experience.

India has gradually become one of the important retail markets for global retailers. Other than the fact that it is one of the biggest economies in the world, its demographics also work in its favour. Mumbai, Bangalore and the NCR are at the epicentre of this retail wave. The majority of the global retailers planning to enter the country are considering these three locations in the first phase.