Challenges in Retailing

Challenges in Retailing
    The industry is facing a severe shortage of talented professionals, especially at the
middle-management level.
    Most Indian retail players are under serious pressure to make their supply chains more efficient in order to deliver the levels of quality and service that consumers are demanding. Long intermediation chains would increase the costs by 15 per cent. Lack of adequate infrastructure with respect to roads, electricity, cold chains and ports has further led to the impediment of a pan-India network of suppliers. Due to these constraints, retail chains have to resort to multiple vendors for their requirements, thereby, raising costs and prices.
     The available talent pool does not back retail sector as the sector has only recently emerged from its nascent phase. Further, retailing is yet to become a preferred career option for most of India’s educated class that has chosen sectors like IT, BPO and financial services. Even though the Government is attempting to implement a uniform value-added tax across states, the system is currently plagued with differential tax rates for various states leading to increased costs and complexities in establishing an effective distribution
network.
     Stringent labor laws govern the number of hours worked and minimum wages to be paid leading to limited flexibility of operations and employment of part-time employees. Further, multiple clearances are required by the same company for opening new outlets adding to the costs incurred and time taken to expand presence in the country.
     The retail sector does not have ‘industry’ status yet making it difficult for retailers to raise finance from banks to fund their expansion plans. Government restrictions on the FDI are leading to an absence of foreign players resulting into limited exposure to best practices.

      Non-availability of Government land and zonal restrictions has made it difficult to find a good real estate in terms of location and size. Also lack of clear ownership titles and high stamp duty has resulted in disorganized nature of transactions.