Indian Retailing – Some new growth sectors

A few years ago, I read a report by a consultancy firm about sectors in India that are amenable to organized retailing.

I think there were some ‘Ready to Go’ sectors like Grocery and Men’s Apparel; Some ‘Shape and Adapt’ sectors like women’s apparel, books etc, and then some ‘Wait and Watch’ sectors. Pharmacies were in the wait and watch category.
But I think, if one were to look at the retail scene in India today, two (for me) surprising sectors that are showing great activity on the organized retailing front are: Pharmacies and …Flowers!

Pharmacies actually started getting organized a while ago – the RPG owned ‘Health and Glow’ were amongst the first – Primarily into personal care and beauty, most outlets had a small pharmacy section with the traditional white coated assistant.
Now, I see many of these organized pharmacy chains – in Bangalore, Trust, the Apollo Pharmacy (which has the benefit of having a large name attached to it), and Lifeken are a few names. These outlets offer the usual ‘organized retail’ advantage of a common ambience, a pleasant shopping experience, sometimes qualified (atleast apparently so) personnel dispensing drugs as well as advice. I also, much to my surprise, saw some interesting ‘marketing’ related activities – my corner Lifeken has nice printed bags and banners. I do think the big disadvantage they have is location – there just aren’t enough of these around – so, sustainability of the concept may be an issue. However, a larger worry to me is – what is their value proposition? The big one that I can see is 24*7 service – this is huge, it differentiates, and may even negate to a certain extent the location disadvantage, especially at night. However, what is it in their operations that is making the better ambience/ more qualified people/ 24*7 operations viable financially? (Is there a supply chain play here? I am assuming not – unlike fresh grocery, where disintermediation has given rise to huge savings in the supply chain, most medicines get manufactured by large organized pharma companies). Maybe its in the product mix – ie, keep a larger supply of the unorganized sector products – cotton wool/ bandages etc…not sure, though

Similarly, Flowers is an area that I am suddenly seeing some organized activity around – there are many of these outlets called – “Tilia” (for a meaning of the word, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilia) These are slowly replacing those corner flower shops that we saw at virtually every corner. Again, as value proposition, not sure what they offer – I suspect better service/ fresher flowers/ fancier designs…infact, when it comes to flowers, I personally would much rather take the “flower girls” a la Eliza Doolittle any day over the (to me) artificial chains – but I am sure, given the fact that this was a white space, atleast the prime movers here will do well.