Retail Transformation

I was reading this interesting article by Ashish bhasin about evolution of the Indian retail landscape. Author was trying to relate the transformation to the Maslow’s need hierarchy theory and explaining the evolution of the retail landscape. I too agree that need is the mother of invention and this has affected the changes in the Indian retail landscape. The article tries to explain how we have moved away from the dingy Kirana store to the swanky hyper markets which now started fulfilling the basic need of choosing (shopping). The 1^st level of need hierarchy theory i.e.: Physiological needs.

Modern retail started offering a safe and secure environment not only in terms of ambience but also in terms of the price, quality, choice and overall shopping experience. With this the retail slowly graduated to the 2^nd level of Maslow’s hierarchy i.e.: Safety.

Now comes the third need “Love and belonging” and the customer was ready to move into this stage. In order to keep the customer happy and glued to the brand, almost every retailer launched their version of customer loyalty program. Not only the brand s but also the entrepreneurs saw an opportunity here (like I mint). Though these programs seldom gave any substantial gains except for the high end ones but marketing/advertising in this phase highlighted the sense of belongingness to the special class of customers.

From this level, some of the customers quickly graduated to the next level of” Self Esteem” and the platinum card syndrome was born. Specialized high end luxury malls were created especially for these esteemed customers and this phase saw plethora of international luxury brands invading India. Customers were bucketed into Platinum, Gold and silver class and were lured with plethora of offers and incentives to buy more.

The final phase of self-actualization saw the emergence of environment friendly retailers/customers. This phase saw the evolution of jute bags. The journey has come a complete cycle and we are back into the world of jute bags, Organic foods and go green gadgets.