The Power of Retail

Superficiality rules in the world of fashion, I hear. It’s no use being real since everything is fake, to the extent that being fake has a premium attatched to it now. Just like a lot of clothes that are sent down the runway as an excuse to creativity, real world utility has no place in the world of fashion. On the flip side, it is due to fashion that medical technologies have come about to help those who are not born as beautiful as they should have been. Connecticut hair restoration is one such example of a service that has been fueled by the growth of the fashion and beauty industries. Medical grooming and restoration is huge business all across the world and the rush is not letting up anytime soon.

Gap clothes will grace next month’s Vogue cover for the first time. The move is being made to show its commitment and partnership with some of the industry’s rising fashion designers. According to industry analysts, the move is a good one, and the company’s new collection for women is highly anticipated. Gap has been under tremendous pressure to perform after a series of lack lustre seasons. The brand that became popular with its ubiquitous classic look of khakis suddenly found itself left far behind the fashionable crowd.

The world of fashion and the world of prom dresses are not necessarily aligned at all times. For most girls, a prom dress is not just a regular dress.  A prom dress actually signifies a lot more than that and therefore the dress needs to represent something deeper and something that connects to the wearer, with the result that a lot of times it might even be a completely wrong dress for the wearer. But that is quite incidental, since prom dresses represent dreams rather than reality. Some of these 2007 prom dresses are not too bad though, much better than a lot of the horrors I’ve seen.

Reliance Retail opened its first set of stores in Ahmedabad and announced that it would be opening around 180 Reliance Fresh stores in Gujarat over the next six months. The new stores will be in 16 cities such as Vadodara, Surat, Jamnagar, bhavnager and Rajkot. The company opened a total of nine Reliance Fresh stores in Ahmedabad.

Dubai’s Landmark Group announced that it would be investing over Dh 500 million in the next five years towards setting up and expanding its Emax stores in India and the GCC countries. Emax is Landmark’s consumer electronics brand. There are 8 of these outlets in the GCC countries at present and Landmark plans to launch its stores in India by next year.

As a researcher I spend a lot of time on the Internet looking for details of companies, usually half a world away. That really is the beauty of the Internet, it doesn’t matter where you are located in the world anymore. All that matters is to be connected and have the right tools to find the information you are looking for. Currently, I am looking for advertising and marketing companies that deal in the financial services sector in the UK and Singapore.

It’s really interesting work, but sometimes finding the right information can be hard, especially when it comes to any country other than the US. So, when I found masterseek, I was happy to know that this global search engine allows you to search by category as well as by country. It sure will make my job a lot quicker, and am looking forward to using it. There is no charge to access company profiles at masterseek, which has a vast database of more than 45 million companies in 75 countries. It’s also a great way for smaller and newer companies to be noticed once they get themselves listed on masterseek.

Do you wear organic clothes? One of the latest trends is for people to switch to wearing “green fashion“, that is fibers that are cultivated without the use of pesticides and chemicals. Agenda reports that some of the major retailers are using the popularity of these eco-conscious products and are bringing out complete lines of organic garments. Non-food organic items such as clothes and linen are the second fastest growing category in organic products. Sales of these products increased from $85 million in 2003 to $160 million in 2005, according to the Organic Trade Association located rather appropriately in Greenfield, Massachusetts. A lot of retailers are also experimenting with garments made out of soy, corn and bamboo.

“All the retailers are rushing to organic. You can’t afford not to. It appeals to the two biggest markets: youth and the baby boomers,” said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at NPD Group, a Port Washington, New York, research firm. “It’s cool to care today. Five years ago, it was self-indulgence. Now it’s self-indulgence with concern.”

Current federal organic regulations do not cover how fibers are processed once they leave the farm. New voluntary global standards call for goods to have 95 percent organic fiber and restrict other details, such as the type of dyes and finishes allowed, the types of materials used to make buttons and zippers, and the labeling of the finished goods.

Easter weekend did not see high sales figures for high street retailers in the UK this year. Footfall reports that the number of shoppers decreased this year as compared to last year. One reason could be due the warmer weather, as people chose to spend it outdoors instead of shopping. The retailers who do see increases in sales at this time of the year are the DIY, home improvement and gardening departments. Sales did improve on Monday, which was a bank holiday.

“Despite holding numerous high-profile events and mid-season sales in a last-ditch attempt to draw shoppers indoors, the anticipated warm weather proved more enticing to consumers. This resulted in a significant decline in footfall levels compared to last year, which continued throughout Friday and Saturday as consumers delayed planned shopping trips.”

The retail industry is going through a fascinating stage and it is great to be part of the changes, shifts and adaptations as it finds it feed and creates a niche for itself. While people living in urban areas, especially in larger cities, are already familiar with the concept of organized retail, the real potential lies in smaller cities and towns, where the majority of the country’s population lives.

Imagine the potential of creating a format for people who don’t really know anything about it at all. Companies who are interested, can create a completely new system just for rural customers, training their customers on how to use their stores. It’s an unusual way for things to go, but India is full of paradoxes and oddities, just as it’s full of unlimited potential and thirst for betterment.