Aditya Birla Group not to partner with anyone for retail venture

The Aditya Birla Group announced that it will be setting up retail stores on its own and not tying up with any partner. According to Group Chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla, the company would prefer not to partner with any international entity for its retail venture. The company recently acquired successful food and grocery chain store, Trinethra to get a head start on its competitors. The company expects to announce its detailed plans in the next two months.

How much time do you take to select a cell phone plan?

Selecting a phone is something that most consumers enjoy, taking their time going over features of a number of phones, but when it comes to selecting a cell phone plan, the majority of consumers don't even spend half the time to make sure they get the right plan for their needs. With consumers changing cell phones with greater frequency now, the emphasis is still on the phone rather than the cell phone plan when it comes to saving money. Wouldn't you rather get a really good deal on a cell phone plan so you could spend more on a cell phone? Makes sense, doesn't it?

Part of the problem is that most consumers don't know where to go to get unbiased information on cell phone plans. Wirefly is the leader in online cell phones sales as well as cell phone plans and has a lot of resources on its site, so that consumers can make an easier and better informed choice when selecting a cell phone plan. The feature that I really liked at Wirefly was the Wirefly Wizard that helps consumers make decisions on plans when they aren't really sure of what to select and can save you up to 40% on your monthly bill.

The wireless industry has been undergoing a lot of change lately and consumers are usually not up to date with new regulations. Consumers are now permitted to keep their old number even when they switch plans and service providers. The Wireless Basics section is for people who are not completely familiar with cell phone and cell phone plan features. It really makes sense to understand what you are signing up for before you actually do so, to save money and hassle over the long term. Wirefly simplifies all the mumbo jumbo so that consumers can get to the real deals.

Update on HyperCity excursion

This is an update to my post on my trip to HyperCity last week. On the 31st of January, we had purchased a computer chair, which was not available in the store and would be delivered on the 1st of February. It was delivered in the afternoon on the 1st of Feb, but the people who brought it, were only delivering it and would not assemble it. That was someone else's job and an assembler would come by later that day, I was told. Well, putting together a computer chair is not that big of a deal, so we did it ourselves (actually rl did it for me..ty!!). It's a good thing we didn't wait for the assembler to do it for us, since he only showed up at 9:30 that night. He was a bit surprised when I told him we had done it ourselves (obviously doesn't happen too often). Then on the 3rd of Feb, another person from HyperCity came by to assemble the chair....hmm, their lines are getting crossed somewhere, it seems. It was a bit of a let down on their customer service, since I have been really happy with it so far. Hopefully, they're just teething troubles and will go away soon.

Tesco in talks with Tatas and Landmark Group

UK based retail firm Tesco is reportedly interested in tying up with an Indian company to start operations in the country. Tesco’s global chief, Sir Terry Leahy will be coming to India later this month, and according to market buzz, he will be meeting with Tatas and the Landmark Group. Tesco’s rival companies are either in the country or will soon be in the market; Wal-Mart has recently tied up with Bharti Enterprises and Carrefour is on the verge of tying up according to media reports.

Retailers keen on private labels in beauty products

Retailers such as Pantaloon, Reliance and Bharti-Wal-Mart will soon be launching their own private labels for beauty products. The companies are in talks with VLCC, a fitness, health and beauty products company to manufacture private label beauty products. Pantaloon Retail are already in the health and beauty business, with a service format of beauty salons, called Star and Sitara and have also started retailing beauty products through its new outlet called Tumeric. The company is wating VLCC to take care of manufacturing its private labels for them.

Taking a small business to the next level

Starting a small business on your own is becoming so much simpler due to advances in technology and communication. If you have a store or do business online, then adding a shopping cart facility to your site is one of the best investments to make in your business. Consumers are shopping more at online stores, some of which are even beating traditional brick and mortar stores. Shopping cart software is not easily found, since it has to be technologically up to date in function, security and ease of use for both the merchant and the customer.

An application service provider such as Ashop Commerce which provides turn-key ecommerce software solutions, including building a store online. The company is one of the easiest web based administration systems to use and has several award winning functions, such as accepting credit cards, customizing design and much more. There is a demo where you can try out the system first before signing up.

Zara opens store in Beijing

Spanish retailer, Zara opens in Beijing at The Place shopping mall in the central business district. The store is spread over 1,500 sq ft, over two floors. According to Jesus Echevarria, General Manager of Inditex, Zara's holding company, "We plan to consolidate the bases of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, and further develop the surrounding urban areas." Chinadaily.com reports that the company's first outlets in China are in Shanghai, where it opened its first store in February 2006 and a second one in August 2006. There are also five Zara stores in Hong Kong.

Reliance to focus on niche retail formats

Reliance Retail is looking to create niche retail formats along with its existing formats. Raghu Pillai, President and CEO (Operations and Strategy) said that the company would be opening about 250 Reliance Fresh outlets in the next two months in Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and certain cities in Gujarat. Reliance Retail will also be opening standalone niche stores for consumer durables, apparels and other segments. It's hypermarket stores will also be opened during the same periods.

The company will also be staring a home delivery service at its Fresh outlets for customer within a range of up to 3 kms. Reliance Retail now has 3 Ranger Farm outlets, its B2B format store, in Hyderabad and Jaipur. The company is also creating its own private label and is currently conducting testing on products.

Rural malls are taking off

The concept of rural malls is picking up and retailers are all rushing to set up stores in rural areas. Consumers in rural areas spend an estimated Rs 8 lakh* crore each year. In some areas, there is no electricity or drinking water, but villagers are tracking commodity indexes via the ATM. Companies such as DCM Shriram Group are setting up 50 rural retail outlets called Hariyali Kissan Bazaars seeing this vibrant demand.

ITC has set up 12 Choupal Sagars in three states and Reliance is also making plans to enter the sector. Hariyali Kissan Bazaar’s have 400 walk-ins a day, with a 70-80% repeat visitors and generate Rs 14 crore annually. While most products are farm related, soon stores will add construction items, automotive and telecom products due to demand from local customers.

*1 lakh = 100,000
1 crore= 100 lakhs

Future Group plans Hometown stores

Kishore Biyani certainly has his finger on the pulse of consumer's shopping plans. Home is the big focus area with consumers these days and in that vein, the Future Group will soon be entering the home solutions market. Kishore Biyani, CEO of Future Group, made the announcement in Bangalore and said that the company will be investing Rs 200 crore in the next six months for the venture. The company will be opening 9 Hometown stores over the next 6 months, covering a total of 1 million sq ft. Hometown stores have been designed to fulfill all requirements for the home, including furniture, soft furnishings and also services such as plumbing, masonary and painting. The company has bee holding talks with real estate development companies such as the Ansals, Unitech and Salarpuria to form partnerships, offering services such as setting up kitchens or bathrooms in the homes that the developers build.

Managing leads

How does your business generate leads? Is the system you use an established practice of generation or one with a lot of fluctuation and unpredictability? One of our vendors, told us about the program they use, the AIMpromote lead management system, which is a feature rich system where lead management and website analytics are combined to offer a solution that is customized to your business. Some of the advantages are the variety of plans available, pricing based on actual use and a host of features. The AIMpromote system is priced at a much lower level than other similar products in the market.

Bombay Dyeing-Danone thaw?

More on the ever evolving retail news. The Wadias of Bombay Dyeing relationship with Groupe Danone, its partner in Britannia, is heading for a thaw, thanks to a likely tie up with Carrefour for operations in India. Groupe Danone and Carrefour are the two largest retailers in France. The Economic Times states that:

If the Wadia-Carrefour talks fructify, it is possible that the Danone-Wadia ties would be re-worked in a mutually convenient manner. This means, the two may settle issues within Britannia while agreeing to suitable give-aways in the Wadia-BSN joint venture, which is the umbrella vehicle guiding their business ties in India.

Subscription gifts

I simply love to get magazines delivered home. I currently have subscriptions for Elle, Elle Decor, BusinessWeek, Business Today, Readers Digest and The Economist. I love gifting magazine subscriptions and love getting them too, my Elle subscription was a gift, and each month when I get my magazine, it's like getting a new gift each time. I've always thought that magazine subscriptions are a really good idea as gifts. This year, I am planning to add Marie Claire to the list of magazines, since it has a more down to earth portrayal of fashion than other fashion magazines. Magazines Direct has great offers on over 1,300 magazines which you can subscribe to and not even pay sales tax.

Carrefour deal with Wadias likely within 2 weeks

It looks like Carrefour will finally be coming to India. Kamal Nath, the Trade and Commerce Minister said that the French retailer will be signing a deal to enter the Indian retail market in the next two weeks. India's retail market has been in high demand with its enormous potential due to the large population and the young stage of the retail market at present. According to the minister, the company was in talks with the Wadias who are one of the premier business families of the country and own businesses in several fields.

Right time to buy diamonds

This time of the year, is the perfect time to focus on diamonds, yes diamonds. Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I thought it would be perfect to check out some nice diamond jewelry for the occasion. I had used the Coupon Chief coupon website for coupons for Staples and some book stores, but it was a nice surprise to see a $25 off any order of over $199 Diamond.com coupon there too. The way I see it, is that why not get some special deals for things that you are going to buy anyway. Coupon Chief is one of those sites that always have great deals on at all times.

Retail sector to cross $22 billion by 2010

According to industry association, Assocham, India's organized retail sector is likely to cross $22 billion by the year 2010, from its present $4 billion. The industry expansion is also going to require over 220 million sq ft of space as against the current amount of 40 million sq ft. The country's total retail market is estimated to be $16 billion, of which the organized retail market is only 25%.

It is expected that gradually the organized sector in small towns beyond metros would grow at a staggering level of 50-60% against less than 35% in the large cities. This is purely on account of land that is in abundance beyond metros with reasonable land prices and without cumbersome procedure for acquisitions.
Assocham president Venugopal Dhoot said, "India's vast middle-class and untapped retail industry are key attractions for global retail giants who want to enter new markets."

Earn cash while shopping

Have you ever visited Ebates before? I heard of the site only recently and was surprised to know that shopping via Ebates consumers could actually earn cash back. All that is required that you sign up for membership and then just shop online as you normally do. There is no charge for membership at all, just a email id is required as verification to join. Ebates has over 800 stores such as jcpenney, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Gap, Eddie Bauer and many more where you can shop and earn money. Once you find something you want to buy online, return to the Ebates site or download the Moe Money Maker software to take care of it. Consumers can earn between 4% and up to 25% cash back on purchases, besides getting great coupons and specials. How Ebates works is that they take some of the commission they earn from retail and advertising partners and share it with their members. The system is so good that even CNN said that using it was "A No-Brainer". So forget shopping anywhere else and earn some cash back at Ebates.

Travelocity and Expedia coming to India

Well, this is really good news for travel fans. Expedia.com and Travelocity are both heading to India. Travelocity will be coming to India via Zuji, its Singapore based online company which will be opening a Travelocity India site and Expedia.com has not announced who it will be tying up with for operations in India. According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India, the online travel segment is one of the fastest growing of all e-commerce sectors, with transactions increasing from 207,000 a month in 2003-04 to 795,000 in 2005-06.

We traveled a lot last year, flying 6 times for personal reasons and 3 times for business purposes. The only tickets we purchased from traditional travel agents were for our international trips, 2 for personal and 3 for business trips. We also did all our other bookings for car rentals, hotels stays etc for both our US and Canada trips online. It just makes more sense to buy tickets online now. The process is simple, the bookings secure and the headache saved by not relying on an agent, priceless.

Personal and home loans to become expensive

Not so good news on the financial front. The Economic Times reports that personal and home loans and credit card withdrawls are likely to become expensive. The RBI asked banks to set aside more money to cover risks on advances in these sectors when it raised short term lending rates to keep a check on inflation. Borrowing money to buy shares is also likely to become expensive.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram too said that housing sector would be insulated from the hike in repo rate and risk weightages. "That will bring comfort to the house owners." In the review, RBI increased provisioning requirement for the four sectors to two per cent. It means that banks now have to keep two paise for every rupee given to these sectors.

Kingfisher looks to India

UK based home improvement store Kingfisher is planning to come to India, investing $250 million in the venture in the initial phase. While a formal announcement was yet to be made, a team from the UK was in India looking for a company to tie up with and also for locations. The company sells a wide range of goods for the home, such as appliances, tools, hardware, garden supplies and DIY (do it yourself) products. Kingfisher has stores in several countries and is the market leader for its sector in the UK, France, Poland, Italy, China and Taiwan.

"A booming retail industry has space for at least five-to-six home improvement retail brands to set up shop in India. Also, the absence of a largeorganizedd player in this segment is driving international brands to begin operations in the country," a retail analyst said.