H&M in India has grown 87 percent last fiscal. Factors such as offering high-quality global fashion products, with affordable pricing and sustainability have worked well for the brand. The brand is further planning to add 30 more stores in its kitty in the next thirty months. Also, the brand is planning to launch its own e-commerce portal and mobile app this year. Also talking about the brands future India strategy and the expansion into tier III cities Janne Einola, CEO - Country Manager, H&M India spoke to Indianretailer.com.

Country’s only 100 percent European Kitchen brand Würfel Küche is leapfrogging with its retail growth. The brand has recently launched its first new modular kitchen and wardrobes outlet in Mumbai while planning two to three more such outlets in the city. Overall the brand is in the spree of launching eight more stores by the end of current fiscal while targeting to have total 100 stores across metros to tier III cities by the end of 2020. The brand is also going to venture to Doha, Uman, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh markets.

Hailing India’s unique signature in the world of denim culture, Amir Akhtar, CEO – Denim for Arvind Ltd., India’s leading textile to retail and brands conglomerate, thinks though international brands are way ahead in creativity when it comes to denim, the Indian market is in a position that influences global brands.

Ashish Chauhan, MD & CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange believes that in the current times technology is the only catalyst of change in retail while citing the example of how volumes of trading transactions at BSE have shot up exponentially over the years. Tech is rapidly changing the form of conducting the retail businesses across the world. It is thus enabling ecommerce to evolve rapidly with the pace of speed of change. According to him online, offline and phygital will be the future of retail with their balance will continue to shift over a period of time.

IKEA India, the local subsidiary of Swedish furniture retailer IKEA of Sweden AB, plans to invest Rs 4,000 crore to set up multi-format stores and experience centres in Maharashtra. With the investment the company is planning to launch two stores in Mumbai, few experience centres and a first fully owned distribution centre in Maharashtra over the next 2-3 years. It is also planning to launch its own eCommerce portal in 2019 to offer omni-channel service to the end consumer.

Following the long stint of bringing international brands in India, Arvind seems to be steadily expanding its presence in the consumer apparel space. The brand has recently launched its private label Arvind– Ready to Wear brand. The collection offers a wide array of work-wear, leisure, and ceremonial wear. Initially, the brand will be present in 150 stores across 127 cities across the country. Further, the company is adding another 50-60 stores this year. On e-commerce space, the brand will be available on Amazon and nnnow.com.

While focusing on bottom line growth, Pune based premium modular kitchen brand, Meine Kuche, is planning to increase its stores count by five to six times in the next three years along with focusing to have wider digital presence. The brand in specific and the modular kitchen industry as a whole are currently grappling with challenges such as scarcity of talented manpower and growing overhead costs. The brand is equally focusing on the B2B and B2C segments. In the next three year, it is aiming to achieve Rs. 100 crore of revenue.

Swedish furniture retailer IKEA is in the spree of expanding its footprints in the Indian market across metros and tier I markets. The company is also strongly focusing on localizing its offering to keep consumers happy in its stores. IKEA is focusing on customizing its solutions offering across its widest range of product portfolio of furniture while adding food articles into its offerings across all the stores. Talking about its localizing strategy Patrik Antoni, Deputy Country Manager, IKEA India, speaks to Indianretailer.com in Mumbai.

Post Bangalore, OnePlus is planning to launch five more exclusive experience centers in major metros in the country. It is also planning to have 10 authorized stores and 16 exclusive service centers in other leading cities. In the experience centers, people experience the device, meet the team, learn more about the brand and can also buy. The encouraging consumer response at Bangalore experience center has compelled the brand to venture into other cities to offer same consumer experience.

Country’s leading eyewear retailer Lenskart is eyeing to open 700 stores through franchising across tier I and II cities by 2020 along increasing its existing count of stores from 400 to 500 by the end of current fiscal. It is also aiming to soon reach Rs 1000 cr sales mark while attaining 15% YOY growth.

While leveraging on consumer data to offer unique consumer experience, Metro Shoes is intensely focusing on its online channel to achieve the target of offering all-inclusive omni-channel experience to its consumers by 2020. In line with leading fashion and footwear brands, its overall ecommerce contribution in numbers is approx 3 percent which the brand is further planning to enhance. The brand is also planning to open 125 stores across Metro, Mochi, Crocs and Walkway in the year 2018–19.

One of the things that strike during a conversation with Lavanya Nalli, Vice Chairperson, Nalli Group is how fair it is for retailers to make a big noise about every small thing they do. For them, it is thus important that while creating a big bandwagon of their every small USPs, they also have to evolve rapidly with their consumers, reinvent themselves with changing times and focus on their products to create demand among other important aspects.

Entrepreneurs in the retail space constantly follow the process of consolidation and nurture in the journey of achieving higher growth. After donning in expansion in 30 major cities in the country, Hari Menon, Co-founder and CEO, Big Basket is consolidating his business before going for next phase of expansion. Post receiving $300 mn investment from Alibaba, the e-retailer is only focusing on growth. Marketing, technology and analytics are the major factors that the company is focusing on.

The word technology has created a huge buzz across industries and society around us. Retailers seem to have been swayed away with the misconception that only technology will help them drive the future business. Instead they have to understand that technology is just an enabler and onus is to serve the basic right and need of the consumers while understanding them well. It is the time for the retailers to underline the basic fact that at end of the day consumer wants clear value for his money for the kind of product or service he avails.

Banglore based ONN Bikes, one of the few startups in rental bike space, has been growing exponentially. The company is rapidly venturing into new cities with creating its niche in the key metros to tier II and III markets. Along with strengthening its presence in B2B and B2C segments, the company is strategising to venture into another 10 key locations while increasing the total number of outlets from 45 to 75-80 by the end of 2018. Further it is looking at experimenting with electric vehicles amid eyeing a revenue target of Rs 30 crore by the end of current fiscal year 2018-19.

Liva, the viscose based fabric brand from Grasim Industries is significantly gaining its momentum in the country. The brand has tied-up with around 38 leading fashion retail brands while supplying around 18 mn tagged garments to them. Around 90 percent of the fabric is only used for making women fashion apparels and the rest 10 percent is used for men’s apparel and home textile. Hence in the next couple of years the brand is planning to launch men’s and home textile specific fabric brand.

Finally after the long stint of 50 years of serving the market with its innovative cookware range, Vinod Cookware is venturing into exclusive retail. The brand is poised to launch five stores yet experince zone across major metros to tier II cities while exponentially increasing the reach of the brand across the length and breadth of the country.With this foray, the brand is aimimg to postulate its image as a young and urban Indians brand.

In the quest of acquiring larger pie of retail sale at airports Future Group is eyeing to tap airport locations with launching Future Lifestyle Fashion stores across Goa, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar and Guwahati airports soon. The company is also planning to bid for Chennai and Chandigarh airports. Also with its ambitious Retail 3.0 strategy Future Group is planning to launch around 200 Brand Factory Stores blended with technology in the coming years while eyeing to bring in 1 cr online Indian customers to its different formats of offline stores.