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Retail Business Environment

Notes Sports Goods Retailing

The Indian sports goods industry, which is now more than 100 years old, has matured into a very
capable supplier of sports goods to almost every part of the world. The skilled labour force,
which had mastered the art of manufacturing the traditional item of sports goods, is now also
venturing into fabrication of more high tech equipment for new trendy sports in response to the
demands of the global market. Today, all sectors of sports goods including sports equipment,
sports apparel, sports footwear and sports accessories are flourishing sectors of production and
export in India. Buyers of Indian goods include top international brands like Adidas, Asics,
Dunlop, Decathlon, Fila, Gap, Kookabura, Maxfli, Mitre, Nike, Puma, Rawlings, Reebok, Spalding,
Canterbury of New Zealand, Rip-Curl etc. However, due to the skewed nature of interest in
only one major game in India, namely cricket, retailing in India for sports goods has so far
mainly concentrated on selling cricket related accessories rather than several types of sports.
However, off late there is an emerging interest in several types of games/sports. In view of this
development as well as the catching up of retail as a phenomenon in India, there is great scope
for development of sports goods retailing.
The availability of a strong manufacturing base for sports goods that meet international standards
and at the same time a nascent market for sports goods provides a great combination for
retailing to flourish in this sector.

Example: Sportswear manufacturer and retailer Sportiff India.

It has entered the sports goods retail segment by opening its first store “Sports Locker” in
Chennai. Sports enthusiasts can now pick up cricket, tennis, badminton and other sports’ gear
from this outlet spread over 3,000 sq.ft. “Sports Locker” stocks sporting equipments for games
like cricket, tennis, badminton among others. According to the company, Sportiff India plans to
open 15 such stores in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Mysore, Chandigarh, Pune and
Noida. As of now a large number of small sports goods store exist in cities. Top Indian and
multinational footwear stores like Action, Nike etc. dabble into sports goods through their
footwear stores. However, we are yet to see the development of a national level sports goods
chain.
Pharma Retailing

Imagine ordering prescribed medicines through the net, getting automatic refills on regular
prescribed drugs, a loyalty programme and door delivery. These are some of the immediate
possibilities in drug retailing in the country.

The drug store industry is a large and growing industry, especially after the mid 1990s. An
important factor in driving industry growth is the increased life expectancy of the population
brought about by the discovery and widespread usage of new life-saving drugs. Life expectancy
has increased among both males and females in India. Longer life expectancy is slowly increasing
the population of older people. In this emerging scenario, it is worthwhile to note that senior
citizens (60 years and older) typically use twice the number of prescribed medication as compared
to individuals who are half their age. The growth in prescribed medication also benefits from
the continuing flow of new drug therapies as well as increasing participation in health care
plans. New drug therapies result from greater investment and higher success rates in the research
and development programmes of major pharmaceutical firms. While demographic factors help
drive growth in sales volumes, the Indian drug store industry would be under pressure to
reduce costs. In response, drug stores have tried to do the same by installing improved
cost-reducing technologies, such as advanced point-of-sale and scanning equipment to provide

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