Latest Retail Insight, News, Information & Articles from all top sources for the Internet.

CaratLane recently opened its 180th store recently at Ghodbunder Road Thane followed by its 181st store at R City mall, Mumbai Mumbai : Omni-channel Jewellery chain CaratLane opened its 182nd store at Avani Riverside Mall in Howrah, West Bengal. On the other hand, it recently opened its 180th store recently at Ghodbunder Road Thane followed by its 181st store at R City mall, Mumbai. Sharing the news of the store launch, Deepika Khare, national head business development, CaratLane stated on LinkedIn, “Our 182nd store at Avani Mall Howrah.”  CaratLane is a leading brand and business in the jewellery online industry catering to a different segment of customers with significant internal capabilities in design, manufacturing, technology and e-commerce. Founded in 2008 with the objective to make beautiful jewellery accessible, affordable and forever wearable, the brand offers a wide range of jewellery options including rings, earrings, bracelets and bangles and solitaire, etc.  Avani R

A boost to consumption and expediting National Retail Trade Policy is on the Budget 2023 wishlist of Samir Kumaar Modi, managing director of Modi Enterprises As per reports, the Indian retail industry contributes to around 10% of India’s GDP with a market size pegged at approximately $1.2 trillion. Factors like ongoing technological and digital updates, new mediums of digital payments and the development of logistical support have been steady growth drivers for the Indian retail sector. “To ensure the growth of the sector, the Union Budget for FY 23–24 should focus on generating demand and spurring consumption by offering benefits or concessions in the form of lower taxes for the retail industry and FMCG sectors to boost the overall consumer sentiment,” said Samir Kumaar Modi, managing director of Modi Enterprises , one of the country’s oldest D2C companies. “The government must also look at expediting the timelines for the amendments to the National Retail Trade Policy (NRTP) aime

The partnership will enable Reliance Consumer Products to access Maliban’s globally recognised product portfolio Mumbai:  Reliance Consumer Products Ltd. (RCPL), the FMCG arm and a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. (RRVL), announced a strategic partnership with Sri Lanka-headquartered Maliban Biscuit Manufactories (Private) Ltd. (Maliban). Maliban is a 70-year-old Sri Lankan biscuit manufacturer known for its range of products including biscuits, crackers, cookies, and wafers. The company exports its products to over 35 countries across five continents. “With this strategic partnership between RCPL and Maliban, we will not only be strengthening our FMCG portfolio through a great brand but will also be able to offer an excellent value proposition through quality products to our Indian consumers,” Isha Ambani, executive director, RRVL, said on the association. “Being the custodian of several widely known global brands in India, Reliance is well-positioned to f

Nutrabay will start its physical retail journey by opening stores across north India New Delhi:  Food and nutrition D2C brand Nutrabay has announced its entry into offline retail with stores in North India. The brand plans to be available in 300 supplement stores across the region which will be a combination of company owned and partner stores by FY 2023-24. The locations that the company will focus on first include Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. As a part of the brand’s expansion plan, it will partner with various supplementary stores and gyms, while introducing more products like protein powders, women’s health supplements, weight loss herbs, anions, wellness supplements and nutrition foods. “We are delighted to expand our brand offline as it is aligned with our goal of increasing the visibility, foot traffic, and enhancing customer convenience. We want to ensure the growth and steady supply of authentic nutritional products to our loyal co

Amit Srivastava, CEO, Smollan India on keeping up with Generation Z shoppers who are smart, determined, picky, spoilt for choice, and will soon have immense buying power By Amit Srivastava Millennials may have dominated the global population over the past few years, but we now have a new kid on the block — Generation Z. Born between the mid-1990s and the early-mid 2000s, Gen Z is quickly becoming the new focus demographic for brands across the world. Thanks to their growing buying power, these digital natives are changing the face of shopping across industries and sectors. According to a recent Bloomberg report , buyers in this generation have a combined spending power of $360 billion. How do you, as a brand, tap into this promising market and cater to what Gen Z shoppers expect? The trick is to understand how this new wave of shoppers is different, what the new generation wants, and how you can deliver it. What sets Gen Z shoppers apart? The first piece of the puzzle is decodi

Easier listing on Indian bourses is on the Budget 2023 wishlist of Dhiresh Bansal, the chief financial officer of Meesho which will help pave the way for the social commerce company’s IPO India has 100 unicorns—technology startups that have crossed a $1 billion valuation. Interestingly, owing to tax and regulatory complications in the country, almost 20% of these are headquartered overseas. Singapore and UAE are the top choices for startups to set up their bases according to Henley & Partners’ ranking. Startups get attracted to these destinations due to a friendlier business environment. This involves access to cheaper capital and talent in addition to acceptance of fintech, Web3 and digital or cryptocurrencies. For internet commerce company Meesho , steps to ease foreign incorporated startups to go public is the primary ask from the Budget 2023. “A large number of Indian startups, including unicorns, are currently incorporated overseas. With scores of startups potentially look

The new excise policy 2023-24 was cleared by Uttar Pradesh Cabinet on Saturday Lucknow: The prices of foreign liquor and beer in Uttar Pradesh will increase by 10 per cent with the implementation of the new excise policy from April 1, an official statement said on Sunday. The new excise policy 2023-24 was cleared by Uttar Pradesh Cabinet on Saturday. According to the statement, an increment of 10 per cent has been made on licence fees of foreign liquor, beer, cannabis retail shops and model shops. The government has also increased the fee for running the canteen facility at model shops to Rs 3 lakh from the present Rs 2 lakh in the new excise policy. With the new policy, the government has also increased the licence fee and security for bonded warehouse licenses (BWFL-2A, 2B, 2C) of foreign liquor, beer and wine. The registration and renewal fees of the master warehouse have been increased too. “The increase in licence fee and that of running canteen facility along with warehou

IndiaRetailing brings you a series on India’s key retail tech icons. Featuring Annie Mathew, CIO at Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable Pvt. Ltd this week New Delhi: Today’s CIO must know how to leverage technology to create value for the business. No longer are CIOs department heads of a support function, they are in the driver’s seat and need to be more than just subject-matter experts. According to International Data Group (IDG)’s “State of the CIO Study 2022,” 58 percent of workers outside of IT describe their company’s CIO as a “strategic advisor who proactively identifies business opportunities and makes recommendations.” In this special feature, India Retailing showcases the torchbearers of retail technology. This week, the spotlight is on…. Annie Mathew Annie Mathew is the CIO of Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd. Over a career spanning 25 years, she has experience in diverse domains through having workedin organizations like NOCIL – a Shell-Mafatlal company(India)

Lacoste to continue strengthening the omni-channel network. The brand aims to keep upgrading the boutiques to provide more premium experience to customers visiting the stores Looking back, if you had to pen down your top 3 learnings from 2022, what would they be? The year 2022 has been a milestone in the sense of decent recovery after a serious downturn due to the pandemic in 2020-21. Post lifting of lockdown, the comeback of customers to shopping, both online and offline, was initially considered by many as pent up demand/ revenge buying. However, if we look back, we would see that serious growth comes for 3-4 years after any such major downside. We can validate this with the growth seen after the downturn around 2001/2002, recession in 2007/2008 and a few other such events in the past few years. 2022 proved to be a live example where the history repeated itself. Most retailers, including us, saw decent growth in year 2022 and in my opinion, it was not driven by pent up demand or

In 2023, retail in India is expected to grow better than all other key markets globally with Omnichannel becoming the norm for the retailers. Concepts like these will enable millions of small retailers to participate in digital commerce By Sandeep Kumar The retail industry starts another year with new goals, objectives, mission, and hopes. Another year, where the threat of the pandemic is still looming large globally, the industry cannot afford to take the step of the pedal and is gearing up for another set of challenges associated with it. The year 2022, was a good turnaround for the industry as we witnessed every segment of retail recording a reasonable revival rate, both in terms of profits and footfalls. India’s retail trading sector attracted US$ 4.11 billion FDIs between April 2000-June 2022. According to data released by the Ministry of Statistics&Programme Implementation (MoSPI), India’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation stood at 6.77% YoY in October 202

To enhance the in-store experience, Being Human has introduced mobile POS that helps with faster checkout and makes the process seamless Looking back, if you had to pen down your top 3 learnings from 2022, what would they be? COVID has been an eye-opener for most of us in the industry. It has brought to the forefront the inefficiencies in our way[1]of-working and challenged some of the fundamental beliefs of retailers. For us, it has been a good challenge and a humble experience as we learnt many things in the entire phase. Some of the key learnings are: We live in a ‘Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity’ (VUCA), which makes it imperative for corporations to be ‘lean and agile’ in approach. Organizations have learned to work on a ‘asset light’ business model, flatter organizational structures, and leaner inventory etc. We have also learned to be more agile through increased partnership with best-in[1]class service providers (ie 3PL Partners, Technology Vendors, Marketi

Located at Centrio Mall this is Beverly Hills Polo Club’s 12 th store in the country New Delhi: Beverly Hills Polo Club under the parent company Apparel Group India Pvt. Ltd. has opened its 12th store in India. The store is located at Dehradun’s Centrio Mall. Recently, Centrio mall has been expanding its footprints by adding various brands. KFC and Hidesign entered the mall in January 2023 and December 2022respectively. The brand is already present in prominent cities in India including Delhi, Noida, Mumbai, Lucknow, Ludhiana and more. The fashion and lifestyle brand was launched in 1982in Southern California. The brand is inspired by both luxury and heritage of Beverly Hills. It also captures the excitement of the sport of polo along with the exclusivity of membership to a private club. Made for men, women and kids, the brand offers a wide range of products such as footwear, eyewear, watches, fragrances, handbags and wallets. Started 26 years ago, Apparel Group is a global fa

In 2018, Uniqlo sent Tomohiko Sei to India to spearhead its entry into the country that Retailing Co. ranks as the biggest future market for the Japanese brand. Prior to his India assignment, Sei was the chief operating officer for Fast Retailing in Singapore. Sei spoke to Rasul Bailay, group managing editor of IMAGES Group about Uniqlo’s journey so far – its rollercoaster ride due to Covid-19 and about India as a potential market for Asia’s largest fashion brand. Edited excerpts: Uniqlo had a rollercoaster ride in India with Covid and the subsequent recovery. How did things pan out in your three years journey here? So, at first, there were so many challenges in the first three years but the outcome for us has been positive. We were able to finally make a profit. Even though half year is still left to cover but we made it. Then, businesswise, yes the pandemic did damage business plans for many businesses. Not ongoing but on a paradigm, we were able to focus more on the existing bu

The actor will be featured on The NEW Shop’s digital and print platforms and IVR messaging to connect with consumers through the brand’s stores and in-app services New Delhi:  Convenience retail brand The NEW Shop appointed Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao as its brand ambassador, said the company in a release. In a series of campaigns to expand its footprints across the country, the actor will be featured on digital and print platforms such as social media, OTT, OOH, and IVR messaging to connect with prospective consumers at its stores and on in-app services. “We are growing rapidly across India through franchise partnerships, but we intend to create 10,000 successful independent stores by 2030. We believe that now is the right time to bring on board a brand ambassador and strengthen our brand-building initiatives,” Aastha Almast, co-founder at The NEW Shop said. Rajkummar Rao said, “I am thrilled to be partnering with The NEW Shop, a youthful and energetic brand exhibiting rapid gro

Future Retail is facing CIRP (Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process) as a “result of unfortunate business situation”, says Biyani New Delhi:  Kishore Biyani has stepped down from the suspended board of Future Retail and has resigned as chairman and director of the company, which is currently facing insolvency proceedings before the NCLT. In his emotional farewell, Biyani, who was associated with Future Retail Ltd (FRL) since 2007 when it was incorporated, said it was facing CIRP (Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process) as a “result of unfortunate business situation”. “While the company was always my passion and I have done everything in my power for its growth, I have to accept reality and move on,” said Biyani in his resignation letter to the resolution professional of the company. The letter, a copy of which was shared with the stock exchanges, said: “As I understand, I have completed all the required handholding within my capacity for you to take over the entire control of

The fashion industry produces about 53 million tonnes of fibre every year, 70 per cent of which ends up in garbage dumps or is incinerated, adversely affecting the environment By N Bobo Meitei Last December, when Delhi breathed comparatively less polluted air, the Yamuna, often referred to as the capital’s lifeline experienced the ecological assault of sewage and industrial effluents. A government report indicated that the pollutant load in the river had increased substantially over the last five years. Then, like any other year, in the soft mountains of pink candy foam rising from the grey surface of the river, devotees gathered to dip to mark Chhaath puja. Every year, the Delhi government shuts down supplies of sizeable water treatment plants because the level of ammonia generated by industrial waste becomes higher than what they can treat. Last year, for more than 33 days, the level of ammonia in water remained above treatable levels, impacting over a third of Delhi’s water suppl

GMG has opened 31 stores across Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia since entering the Southeast Asia market in 2020 Dubai: UAE-based family business with a rich 45-year legacy GMG has unveiled its aggressive growth plans in Southeast Asia with an aim to open 100 new stores by 2025. The company has opened 31 stores across Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia since entering the Southeast Asia market in 2020. It has established its Asian headquarters in Malaysia to oversee operations in the region and pursue further expansion and growth. In a defining move in December 2020  GMG  acquired Royal Sporting House (RSH), one of the largest multi-brand sports retailers in Southeast Asia, establishing its footprint in key international markets with a potential customer base of up to 700 million people. “We started a new chapter of expansion by establishing GMG on the global marketplace a couple of years ago. We have taken a step forward to establish our new Asian headquarters in Malaysia, enabli