Strategy for private labels in the organized Indian retail space

Abstract

Retail industry: Indian retail industry has grown to in size as well as scope in the last 5 years. Currently the industry is worth $312Bn up from $80Bn in 2000 and has made its presence felt in multitude of sectors such as apparel, luxury goods, food, personal products, auto and many more. This move has been equally supported by a wide increase in the number of channels like internet, catalogue, specialty, supermarket, hypermarket, multiline and more, which manufacturers and suppliers have used to reach out to consumers. The organized retail though forms a small (2-4%)of the retail industry and has long way to catch up. Stiff competition, pressure on margins, constant need for innovation and ever changing consumer demands has forced retailer to come up with better processes, advanced products and customer oriented services. Private Labels: Private labels are one such tool introduced in the face of above mentioned scenarios. They are the brands which are provided by the retailer and have seen a high rate of growth in Europe with an average of 25% volume share and US. Though there presence is being felt in the Indian market in an increasing fashion the volume share is lower at the present. The global private label market is accounted worth $ 1,411 billion in 2005, and is growing at 6% per annum. Currently private labels form 19% of the total market share in India with major players like Nilgiris, Subhiksha, Shopper s Stop, Music World and others. The advantages offered by a private label are reduced costs, better margins, autonomy, differentiating element in the product mix and ultimately resulting in the formation of a loyal customer base. This may appear like a win-win situation but the management expertise and supplier coordination required makes it a risky venture for small scale retailers who stand to lose much more then revenues. This potential risky investment is due to the numerous requirement a private label necessitates from retailer s side which are mainly complex forecasting tools, sustainable quality, advertising and most of all the number of decisions needed from a management which till now had allowed national brands to lead them. Perceptions: As a part of our study we tried to find out how consumers perceived private labels through focus group discussions, image surveys, and retailer interviews. On the basis of finding of the FGD we have divided the private labels into four broad categories which have to be taken into consideration by comparing with a competitive product from a national brand. These four categories are Reasonable Price-High Quality, High Price- Reasonable Quality, Reasonable Price-Reasonable Quality and High Price- High Quality. Of these, the latter two have proved successful and mostly followed by retailers. Private label presence in India is high in apparels and Food industry and we tried to find out the reasons for the same through a FGD. Consumers preferred buying private labeled apparel in instances of Low Value-High Frequency item, children clothing due to high turnover and specialized clothing and most agreed that their ideal wardrobe would consist of 70% private labels. Private label preference while purchasing food items mainly results due to convenience over a Sabzi Mandi and Kirana store, availability of discounts, availability, variety and the cleanliness quotient though all agreed that the rates are very much similar to other unorganized channel when it comes to perishable goods. Next we did an image survey to check for the congruence between the retailers aim and how consumers view a store and through this we were able to put stores into the pre-defined four categories. We surveyed Nilgiris and branded it as a High Price-High Quality store where the main asset were the loyal customers. Food world was placed in the Reasonable Quality-Reasonable Price segment with discounts and promotions schemes being the main asset. Westside image survey resulted in consumer s perception of it being a Reasonable Quality-Reasonable Price store. Marketing Strategies: After an initial analysis of the perception and the market of private labels we have studied the marketing strategies employed by retailers and for this we did in-depth analysis of Shoppers Stop and Nilgiris. We have analyzed the strategy based on four P s of marketing.