Madhura Karnik, Quartz India New Delhi, 9 July 2015 India is working up a voracious appetite for chocolates. A delectable combination of rising disposable incomes, changing lifestyles and a young population’s growing penchant for indulgence has transformed India into one of the world’s fastest growing chocolate markets. A July report from French investment bank Societe Generale predicts that in the next five years, global confectioners will see the highest growth in four markets: India, Mexico, China and Brazil. But it’s not just affluent Indians who are craving for chocolates, although they still comprise nearly 80% of country’s chocolate sales, according…
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Vishal Krishna & Abraham C. Mathews, BusinessWorld Bengaluru, 1 July 2015 This scene repeats every day. Every morning, trucks loaded with crates of unsold and damaged goods returned by e-commerce companies and other retailers are brought to a 2,00,000 sq. ft. warehouse of Reverse Logistics (RLC) at Tumkur Road in Karnataka. These goods are then cleaned up, refurbished and then sold on RLC’s stores and website greendust.com. How much of e-commerce sales end up in warehouses? Hitendra Chaturvedi, founder and chief executive officer of GreenDust, says that it could even be upwards of 24 per cent as compared to the…
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Richa Maheshwari & Sagar Malviya, The Economic Times Bengaluru/Mumbai, 26 June 2015 A nondescript three storey building at Whitefield — the hotbed of tech companies in Bengaluru — where a team of around 100 people including 35 engineers talk more about cloud technology and analytics than catwalks and advertising, is not a place one would identify with a fashion powerhouse like Madura Fashion & Lifestyle. Yet this is where the country's largest apparel retailer has its next big growth driver: Trendin.com, its online division. Within a year of its launch, sales of Trendin have equalled those of 30 branded stores,…
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Writankar Mukherjee & Sagar Malviya, The Economic Times Kolkata/Mumbai, 19 Jun 2015 The Tata Group will launch the country's first hybrid online retailing venture, a combination of a portal that will list brands and handle payment transactions and brick-and-mortar stores that will set prices, deliver products and provide customer support. Group firm Tata Industrial Services, which changed its name to Tata Unistore Ltd, will spearhead the venture that's likely to be piloted before the Diwali shopping season. The venture's brand name is yet to be finalised. The salt-to-software conglomerate is in advanced talks with top brands across categories to complete…
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Shambhavi Anand, The Economic Times New Delhi, 18 June 2015 The country's food regulator plans to soon put the onus on retailers to check for product approvals and could hold them responsible if they are found selling items that have not been approved by it. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which has been at the centre of the recent crackdown on Nestle's Maggi noodles and several other brands, is working on an advisory that will make clear the responsibilities of retailers, its head told ET. This will be a drastic move that will make retailers responsible…
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