Different Types of Retail Stores in India | Different Retail Formats

What are Different Types of Retail Stores?

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A retail store is a space wherein the customers purchase or buys the products for their own use. It is for their self-consumption. Here the customer will not further sell the products after purchasing them from the retailer. 

Now let us discuss the different formats of brick and mortar retail stores wherein the customers can purchase the products for their own use or for their own consumption.

• Department Stores

The departmental store usually sells a wide range of merchandise that is arranged by category into different sections of the retail space. Some of the departmental store categories include Clothing, Jewelry, Electronics, Footwear, General Merchandise, and Beauty Products. 

Examples of department store retailers Reliance Trends, Landmark Max, TATA Westside, ABRL Pantaloons, K.Raheja's Shoppers Stop etc.

Usually, these stores are spread over 10000 sqft to 18000 sqft of area depending on the city and location of the Departmental store.

• Grocery Stores and Supermarkets

These are the retail outlets which are spread across 3000 sqft to 6000 sqft of area. Usually, these stores sell mainly grocery items and also include Fruits and Vegetables which are used in our day-to-day life. In some of the Supermarkets, along with grocery items, we can also find General Merchandise(Plastics, Utensils & Crockery) in the limited assortment.

Ex: More Supermarket, Reliance Fresh, Reliance Smart Point, EasyDay

• Warehouse Retailers

These are the large retail outlets where we sell goods in large quantities at a low price to the retailers or business organizations at lower than MRP prices. Here the Business volume is high, prices are comparatively low and also the margins are usually low.

Example of Warehouse Retailers are Walmart BestPrice, Reliance Market, Metro Cash and Carry

These stores are spread over an area of 80000 sqft to 1.5 lakhs sqft area and they don't concentrate much on the display of the merchandise and also the location of this type of format doesn't matter much as the customers coming here are spread across. Also, the manpower required to run this kind of store is huge, around 150 to 200 people work in this kind of format including the specific brand promoters

• Specialty Retailers

These kinds of stores specialize in a specific category of products and they provide a deep assortment in these categories. There are specialty stores for various kinds of categories such as Electronics, Clothing, Jewelry, Health & Beauty, Books and Music.

These stores cater to a specific group of customers. The classic examples for these kinds of stores are Reliance Digital, Tata Croma, Reliance Jewels, Tata Crossword(Book Store & Music store) 

In the service sector, we have Jawed Habib(salon), Naturals(spa), and in health care, we have Dr.Agarwal(eye care), Lenskart (eyewear), etc

• Category Killer

These are the big box retail stores that have a specific and carry deep product assortment within a given category, it dominates the competition in the specific category. The classic example for this kind of format is Decathlon which specializes in keeping merchandise related to sports goods and sports products. These stores are spread over 20000 sqft to 30000 sqft of area. Here the staff working has to have specific knowledge of the products to serve the customers. The staff usually are skilled and trained in this kind of format.

Other examples of this kind of format are IKEA (Furniture), Staples (Office supplies & Products), Hamleys (Kids Toy Store)

 

• Discount Retailer

Discount Retailer or Discount Stores sell a large variety of products which are often Private labeled or of Generic Brands. These products are sold below retail prices in large volumes with considerably less margin. 

Discount Retailers like Brand Factory and Vishal Megamart often source the previous season stocks and discontinued merchandise at the lower price and pass the savings to the customers so that they get benefited and create a win-win situation for both retailers and customer.

Usually, these stores are spread across an area of 18000 sqft to 25000 sqft, again base on the city and location. These stores usually run with less manpower as they have to gain profits with high sales volume and low-profit margin.

• Malls

Malls are the largest form of retail formats. Malls provide a good shopping experience by amalgamation(providing a mix) of all kinds of products and services at a single place. Here all the major retailers will be present including products, services, food, and entertainment under one roof. Examples of Malls are Ambience Mall in Delhi, LULU International Mall in Kochi, Phoenix Market City Mall in Pune, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. 

Malls include the anchor store which draws the major footfalls for the mall. Usually, Anchor stores are large Hypermarkets such as SPAR, Big Bazaar, HyperCity, Reliance SMART, Tata Star Bazaar, Spensers, and More Megamart. Apart from these, we have Food Courts and multiplex like Cinepolis, PVR, and INOX in these malls. This provides a complete experience to the customers visiting the mall.

• Internet E-tailer

These are the E-Commerce platforms that sell the products and services from the Internet Shopping website and they will directly ship the orders from customers at their home or workplace. Usually, these platforms sell the product lower than the retail price.

Examples of these kinds of formats are Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Snapdeal, etc. Nowadays all the major retailers are entering this kind of format to sell their products online. During Pandemic and Lockdown, Reliance Retail has taken this opportunity and they have started their online business to serve the customers in these tough times. 

Also, MORE Supermarket has started their online business through WHATSAPP, i.e. customers have to order through Whatsapp and pay through UPI to get the products delivered to home. 

• Mom and Pop Stores

These are usually family-owned business in the neighborhood which offer a limited assortment of products to the customers. These are the small and standalone stores owned and operated by the families. In India, these kinds of outlets are known as Kirana Shops. These stores cater to a small section of the society in the residential area. These are usually 500 sqft to 1000 sqft of area. Here the products are sold on MRP and also credit is given to the customers in some cases to build the relationship with customers.

• Hypermarkets

Hypermarkets are large self-service outlets that offer a variety of categories such as Food and Non-Food Category, Apparels, General Merchandise (Plastics Utensils Crockery), Fruits and Vegetables, Meat and Seafood, Furniture, Electronics, Bakery etc. Typically Hypermarket is the combination of Supermarket + Departmental Store

i.e. Hyper Market = Supermarket + Departmental Store

These stores are spread over 70000sqft to 100000 sqft area. Hypermarkets are located at isolated places as Standalone stores or they may be present in Malls as anchor stores. Examples of Hypermarkets are Future Group's Big Bazaar (present in Standalone & Malls), D-Mart usually has their own property, they always open the stores in their own property rather than taking it on rent or lease, Reliance Market, Tata Star Bazaar, More Megamart, and HyperCity are some of the examples of Hypermarkets. In foreign countries, Walmart and Carrefour are classic examples of Hypermarkets that have set world-class standards in Retailing.

• Convenience Stores

Convenience stores are small stores located near the residential area which is self-service stores. Usually, these stores are located at the easy to access location and they are open for long hours. They usually open early morning and will close late at night. In some of the locations, they will be open for 24 hours. The assortment and facilities are limited in these kinds of retail formats. 

Here the transactions will be small and prices are above average as the need to cover the overhead costs. Here the focus is on ease of shopping with a limited assortment.

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