Retail trends from India

Each year since 2005 the Ebeltoft Group, an international retail advisory network, has published the English-language “Retail Innovations Screen”, which presents international trends in retailing as well as retailers who have spotted and implemented these trends. The eight trends presented in the 2010 report are grouped under handy key words: smart pricing, customer-oriented, anti-snob quality, socialtailing, liquid retail, I trust you, pro-client efficiency and glocalism. The report also contains an interesting example from India, which presents complex products in a new way: liquid retail. The fact that fun and interactivity are of great importance to customers is now a familiar truism. “Shopping” has become something that reflects the wishes of an adventure-oriented society and has consequently acquired a new significance. Shopping can be described as an aimless and entertaining activity which focuses less on the acquisition of essential products and more on the spontaneous and constant comparison of quality, materials and prices, combined with networking. This makes retailing “liquid” – it is obliged to do more than simply “sell”. With a concept that is totally new for this particular product range Graavaa, a brand of the Pearl Mineral Group, India, opened its first flagship store in New Delhi in 2009. Displayed here over the store’s 450 m² floorspace are more than 150 varieties of natural stone and marble. These exclusive products, which are bulky and unappealing in their unprocessed state, require considerable planning when it comes to the buying side: long waiting times for orders and the skilled workmanship required for customisation both make it impossible to exchange the product and prevent any trial run in the room it is destined for. This is where Graavaa comes in. As in a traditional furniture outlet, the shop fittings are designed to lead customers through different levels of the store where the products are displayed in a “natural” environment, in dining room or bathroom settings in this case. The real innovation here, though, is the focus: the selling side being secondary, the customer is expected to become familiar with the material, meaning the products. Everything is geared to this one end, not only the broad range available but the entire presentation, from the store façade to the POS concept: to make the customer aware of the final visual effect of a possible project. As a result, the product display in the store comprises a variety of…