Global Journal of Commerce & Management Perspective
Open Access

Abstract

Change Initiatives in the Retail Sector of India: A Literature Study

Lakhimi Jogendranath Chutia and Dr. Papori Baruah

The Indian retail sector is at present the 5th largest in the world (Sikri and Wadhwa, 2012) comprising of organized and unorganized retail. In the era of globalization, for the last few years it has seen many domestic and international players entering into the highly untapped organized retail segment of the country. Post liberalization, there has been an exponential growth of organized retail. The burgeoning middle class and their purchasing power due to the increase in per capita income have led to the growth and expansion of this sector. Realizing the change in tastes and preference of consumers and a shift of customers towards high service experience, different retail formats like specialty retail stores, discount stores, hyper malls, super markets, etc. have mushroomed in every big and small town and city of India. As a result a strong competition has emerged among Indian companies and between Indian companies and MNCs. The retail players thus, started feeling the need to bring the desired change in their present state of working with respect to technology, infrastructure, employee management policies, business strategies, etc. to provide better customer services to the highly sophisticated customer base. This paper aims to explore the retail change initiatives in India through the study of secondary resources.