Organised retail to form 18% of overall retail pie: McKinsey

This may be good news for leading global retail players waiting to enter the Indian retail bazaar scene: the organised segment of the retail industry is expected to grow from the current 5 per cent of the total market to about 14-18 per cent of the expected Rs 18-lakh crore market by 2015. But a report by leading management consulting firm McKinsey and Co cautions global players waiting to enter the great Indian retail bazaar that a ‘cut and paste’ format of their stores elsewhere would not work here.

“They need to have innovative formats based on where to participate in the retail value chain, which geographies to play in and what price points to offer. They also have to craft a customer-insight driven merchandise strategy and create an efficient retail operating platform,” suggests the report.

Indian shopper
McKinsey’s retail report also talks about the uniqueness of the Indian shopper vis-À-vis the rest of the world: least loyal to a single retailer, dislike for pre-packaged fresh foods, willingness to pay more for convenience and services but not a premium price for a brand and demands ethnicity in apparel accessories. And, in the absence of quality control, information about the product and trust in retailers, brands serve as a proxy for all these factors.

Of the current 204 million households in India, the report estimates that only about 13 million households have the income to patronise organised retail. The great news is that this relevant consumer segment will grow five fold from 13 million to 65 million households in the next eight years but mom and pop stores would continue to be relevant across the country, in both small and large towns.

The report, titled ‘The Great Indian Bazaar: Organised Retail Comes of Age in India,’ also suggests retailing in India would require an approach that is distinctively different from the rest of the world. To achieve leadership position in the sector, players would have to integrate real estate into the business model, create an effective and scalable supply chain, increase basket size by shaping consumption, develop and retain talent, influence regulation to ensure healthy development of the sector and to de-risk margins.

“Given the nascent state of organised retail and the rapid evolution of the industry, it is imperative for retailers, manufacturers, real estate developers, logistics providers and partners along the value chain to work in a collaborative spirit,” says Mr Laxman Narasimhan, Director, McKinsey & Co and leader of the Consumer, Retail and Media Practice in India.

The 7S McKinsey model

Most of us grew up learning about 'the 4Ps' of the marketing mix: product, price, place, promotion. And this model still works when the focus is on product marketing. However most developed economies have moved on, with an ever-increasing focus on service businesses, and therefore service marketing. To better represent the challenges of service marketing, McKinsey developed a new framework for analyzing and improving organizational effectiveness, the 7S model:

The 3Ss across the top of the model are described as 'Hard Ss':

• Strategy: The direction and scope of the company over the long term. • Structure: The basic organization of the company, its departments, reporting lines, areas of expertise, and responsibility (and how they inter-relate). • Systems: Formal and informal procedures that govern everyday activity, covering everything from management information systems, through to the systems at the point of contact with the customer (retail systems, call centre systems, online systems, etc).

The 4Ss across the bottom of the model are less tangible, more cultural in nature, and were termed 'Soft Ss' by McKinsey:

• Skills: The capabilities and competencies that exist within the company. What it does best. • Shared values: The values and beliefs of the company. Ultimately they guide employees towards 'valued' behavior. • Staff: The company's people resources and how they are developed, trained, and motivated. • Style: The leadership approach of top management and the company's overall operating approach.

In combination they provide another effective framework for analyzing the organization and its activities. In a marketing-led company they can be used to explore the extent to which the company is working coherently towards a distinctive and motivating place in the mind of consumer.