Organized Retail: India vs. China

Indian and Chinese markets are comparable in many aspects.

• Both countries are not homogeneous. They are composed of many markets within a single country with significantly varying cultures and customer preference across regions.

• There is a significant rural population in both countries with much lower purchasing power as compared to their urban counterparts

• Both countries are very large geographically thereby adding the distribution and logistics dimension to trade.

• Lastly, consumers in both countries are highly value conscious.

• Between 1996 and 2003, the organized retail market in China more than doubled. We estimate the Indian retail market today at the same inflection point as China in the mid- 1990s. Considering similar per capita GDP and economic growth, the Indian organized retail market has exponential growth potential over the next decade.