The Indian retail sector is a booming industry with many foreign investors trying to make profits while they still can. The present government of India is also doing a fabulous job in attracting foreign investors to the nation. India being one of the leading emerging markets, investors are not only convinced but are making all the moves to capitalise the opportunity while they still can.
Some important factors influencing the investors to take the plunge is the spending interest of the consumers, digitisation and digitalisation, and urbanisation. The retail sector in India is also expected to reach almost 2 trillion by the end of 2022. The Indian foreign direct investment policies have also been changing time to time and all e-commerce stores have accustomed to the change.
If you take a closer look you will realise that bigger brands have set foot in the Indian market also making themselves available in not so big towns and cities. This not only makes brands available to the people there it also checks out an important factor which is the buying power of people. The bigger brands have also brought in customer-centric approach which has definitely left some domestic brands out high and dry.
Although there are some restrictions for the foreign products compared to the domestic branded ones, there is a conspicuous increase in foreign brands in India. The whole idea of the same is to keep the brick and mortar system otherwise it would be devoured by the e-commerce retails which are highly popular abroad.
Foreign Direct investment especially in the retail industry means one thing – consumerism. The reason why many foreign brands have thrived in India over the years is because they understand the Indian consumers like no other. This is also changing the lifestyle of Indian consumers, also making us one of the countries at par with developed countries in terms of consumerism.
The Indian government introduced a reform policy in 2019 which addresses major issues in the e-commerce sector namely the data, marketplaces, infrastructure, promotion of exports through e-commerce, etc. The new data policy aims at increasing privacy policy of Indian users. Any foreign companies who store data on cloud with servers somewhere outside India are liable to not disclosing the privacy information to anyone. This is a very important step and of course headed in the right direction.
The other big change in the Indian economy that welcomes FDI is the GST. Introduction of GST has had a positive impact in the Indian Market. Foreign investors are quite attracted to this as this is beneficial for them as well. Indian retail used to be quite unorganised but FDI has changed the way Indian retail operates now. All processes have been streamlined and much more advanced. Our retail industry is now ready to compete with the western giants. Needless to mention, FDI in Indian retail is a welcoming concept. Indian retail has a promising future with foreign investments and customers get change their lifestyle for good.
