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Retail Business Environment

Notes FDI in Multi-Brand Retail

The government has also not defined the term Multi Brand. FDI in Multi Brand retail implies
that a retail store with a foreign investment can sell multiple brands under one roof.
In July 2010, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce
circulated a discussion paper on allowing FDI in multi-brand retail.
The paper doesn‘t suggest any upper limit on FDI in multi-brand retail. If implemented, it
would open the doors for global retail giants to enter and establish their footprints on the retail
landscape of India. Opening up FDI in multi-brand retail will mean that global retailers including
Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco can open stores offering a range of household items and grocery
directly to consumers in the same way as the ubiquitous ‘kirana’ store.

4.4 Retail Development and Competition

The retail industry business has been around for centuries in the United States. It all started with
a community general shop where people of the community would shop for items of necessity.
Single general stores by local residents were the most common because specialty stores were
not really necessary due to limited population within the city and disconnectivity of people. As
societies advanced with population increase leading to expanded cities, and new advanced
technologies gave rise to interconnectivity as well easy communication between distanced
cities or societies, opportunity for specialty stores was formed. But before the specialty stores
formed into a business the function of the general store was most essential because they provided
the varied needs of the local community.

Also the reason for the striving success of these general stores then was “necessity”. People
around had no other options but to go for the general store. In the current scenario, the US retail
industry is thriving and booming. With the exponential growth of the retail business across the
whole of the United States, it is more likely to predict that this industry will very soon come in
to the category of the infrastructure industry.
Adaptation is the most essential aspect of a Retailer’s business as trends of society as well as the
taste for new product variety change and people demand more. If a business is unable to meet
the demands of the market then they will very likely to be eliminated from the business they
practice. Managing customer relations and attending their needs is a very important issue in
business-to-business markets. Customer is the prime focus in retail business and only they
matter because they are the ones who buy the retailer products. If my sole business function is
to sell complete products and I want a loyal and squandering customer, then I must keep them
happy and provide for them what they want, otherwise they would take their business
somewhere else.
Just as people’s preferences changed with time, just as business functions of a retailer adapted,
just like that the informal markets evolved over time to formal and more permanent markets.
As a result of this transformation and evolution of the market, travelers began travelling around
to sell their goods and so they were known as “peddlers.” Retailing is a term for collective
selling from any of the retail sectors of business, either from regular market, a permanent
market, or even peddling of goods.
Today, retail is one of the biggest employers in the world and a large portion of the world
economy. The retail industry is a sector of the economy that is comprised of individuals and
companies selling finished products to end user consumers. Retail chains in the U.S. are publicly
traded on the stock exchange and privately owned. An estimated two-thirds of the U.S. gross
domestic product (GDP) comes from retail consumption. Retail industry is a good indicator of
the well-being of the U.S. economy. According to the latest annual report from the U.S. Census

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