As put rightly by Philip Kotler “.. in India you sell one cigarette at a time, not a package. So there is a lot of localisation. The biggest mistake companies make often, is to assume that the way they sell a product in their own country is the way to put it into another country.”

Retailers have many advantages, not least of which is hey can be less costly overall for suppliers and customers.
• They are better informed by buyers and or sellers.
• They are skilled socially to bargain and forge links between buyers and sellers.
• They bring the “personal touch” to parties who may not communicate with each other.
• They bring economies of scale y accumulating small suppliers and selling to many other parties.
• They stabilise market conditions
Retailing was reactive to customers’ needs, product lines were expanded, cash handling was simple. There was little in-store information and there was little in the say of entertainment. It was product driven.

The second stage- “A NICETY” from 1960’s to 80’s, was retailer driven. Retailer became proactive to customer needs, national chains developed, sales became permanent mass advertising took over from local, marketing became multi channel, and retailers talked about “fulfilment of desire”. It was driven my market and finance.

The third stage- “AN EVENT”, from 90’s until now was consumer driven. Retailers began to anticipate consumers’ needs, multi-channel marketing made its debut, relationship promotions were the vogue with an emphasis on CRM, edutainment and “infotainment” were introduced to tickle the consumer’s jaded palate, and above all brands are selling lifestyle.

The fourth stage- “CONSUMER CREATED”. Brands and products will be created by consumers. The ultimate attempt to get colder to consumer will result in brands being made by consumers. Consumers are now creatomers-to create content, designs and even
Non-store based retailers enjoy many benefits. First there is freedom from a physical retail presence. Second, the high fixed cost of running a retail outlet is eliminated. Third, the width of customer coverage is wider in comparison of a fixed location store. Fourth, the warehousing cost is eliminated. Non-store based retailing provides a cheap and centralised location. On the other hand, the disadvantages include fear of credit card abuse and luxury items’ sale is a problem.

Examples of non-store retailing include:

• E-tailors: these retailer provide online buying facility via internet. These provide a picture and description of the product. Due to the convenience and wide variety these stores are becoming very popular. Foreign direct investment in multibrand retail may have relegated to the cold storage, but competition is still burgeoning for the neighbourhood store- from a plethora of e-retail websites ranging from eBay to those run by popular brands. E-tail or is clearly coming of age in India. In India aviation tickets is the biggest e-trailing market.

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