Source :Economic Times


With the economy on revival path, Indian retail majors areonce again in experimentation mode. And this time its destination shopping. Anextremely successful format in the West, destination shopping stores are set upon the outskirts of the city and positioned as weekend shopping getaways.


For starters, Gitanjali Lifestyle - the retail arm of the Rs5,000-crore branded jewellery major Gitanjali Group-is planning to set up twosuch stores. While it has already acquired space in Rajarhat near Kolkata, itis evaluating a SEZ project near the Hyderabad airport for the second outlet.


Customers planning a trip to destination shopping spend anumber of hours entertaining themselves with a number of things, rather thanjust purchasing goods.


Cabelas, the worlds leading retailer of outdoorsmerchandise, has destination shopping outlets in the US. The concept ofdestination shopping is really big in the US, Europe and Australia. The potential is emerging in India as well, since the concept of second homeswhere people spend their weekend is catching up in cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad. The destination format can make good business if they areset up near such locations, said Gitanjali Lifestyle president Sadanand Pawar.

Indiaslargest retailer, Future Group, too is testing the waters for destinationstores in India. Its home-making format, Home Town, store in Rajarhat nearKolkata is positioned as a destination store. Says Future Group director(customer) Damodar Mall: The response has been quite good for the Home Town store in Rajarhat. We will set up such destination stores wherever we find suchopportunities. But the location and merchandise needs to be carefully selectedas all categories of consumers in India may not be ready to travel 50 kms forshopping.


Retailers Association of India CEO Kumar Rajagopalan toofeels the Indian model needs to be different as all families here may not havecars, nor is the public transport system that good. What we need fordestination shopping to click is to either create a category-killer where everyspeciality item is under one roof, or else something which provides exceptionalvalue, so that customers feel its worth going that distance.


Mr Rajagopalan added: Nevertheless, retailers have beenexperimenting with this format, like Punes Ishanya Mall. Even when MumbaisInorbit Mall was set up in Malad, shoppers drove in from as far as Andheri.Many retailers may be projecting their stores/malls as a destination shoppingzone.


Analysts too are betting on the future potential of thisformat in India. Retailers and mall developers who have land in the outskirtsare currently marketing them as destination shopping, said realty consultantLemongrass Advisors MD Abhijit Das.


Originallypublished in Economic Times dated : 30 Dec 2009