Customer-Centric Retail Strategy - A New Milestone for Supermarket Retailers in India

Abstract

Retailing has today become the new buzzword and a way of life for people in India, with millions of retail outlets sprawling up throughout the length and breadth of the country in different retail formats. Of them, supermarket format has emerged as the most sought after retail format for both Indian as well as foreign players; intensifying the competition amongst supermarket retailers and saturating the markets. This has given rise to the need for ascertaining competitive advantage among the players. For the purpose of research, competitive advantage is defined as the significant edge over one’s rivals in the industry achieved from the use of effective retail strategy. Though competitor-centric retail strategy has always been at the heart of firms operating in the increasingly competitive retail environment, it is slowly getting over-simplified in the context of supermarket retailers. In view of the same, this research paper attempts to device a conceptual framework on customer-centric retail strategy for enabling supermarket retailers attain competitive advantage. In addition to this, other factors that have added to the need for attaining competitive advantage like accelerated growth in the Indian economy, changing buying behavior of the customer, increase in disposable income of middle class, entry of women into workforce, evolution of mall culture, entry of foreign players have also been considered in strategizing for attainment of competitive advantage. The performance indicators that could be generated by the customer-centric retail strategy have also been detailed.