About SIRS

South India has always been at the forefront of the retail revolution with several firsts-examples include the largest toy store, Kemp Fort; the largest film city, Ramoji Film City; and even the first mall of the country, Spencer’s Plaza in Chennai.  

Good retail is a judicious blend of information-led customer management and an attitude to serve. South India, by virtue of its high literacy levels, brand loyalty, and quality consciousness, offers huge potential for retailers. The backend information management and technology has an important role to play in the growth of the retail segment. Therefore, this is one retail function where the South, by virtue of its developed technology industry, can significantly contribute to the retail industry.

There are various key elements that differentiate South India from the rest of the country and present retailers with unique challenges and opportunities. Higher literacy rates, lower population growth rates, and higher levels of urbanisation offer tremendous untapped potential for retailers in South India. The diversity in language and ethnic and cultural practices, as well as higher price and brand sensitivity of customers, induce retailers to adopt distinctive retail strategies for different parts of the South.

Online innovations and enhancing consumer experiences at the store level are some of the interesting evolutions in the South Indian market.

South India has long been acknowledged as a pioneering base for organised retail in India. However, it is now time to move up the chain, with more advanced retailing practices that will integrate it with some of the world’s best practices in store operations, management and vendor sourcing. 

•  Indian Retail sect or is the fifth largest global retail destination.
•  Retail industry reached to Rs 66.39 lakh crore (US$ 950 billion) in 2018 at CAGR of 13 per cent and expected to reach Rs 76.87 lakh crore (US$ 1.1 trillion) by 2020.
• India retail market is dominated by the unorganized sector. In India organized retail trade accounts for merely 7% of the total retail trade. This highlights tremendous potential for retail sector growth in India
• Organised retail penetration is expected to increase to 18 per cent in 2021 from an estimated nine per cent in 2017
• Revenue of India’s offline retailers, also known as brick and mortar retailers, is expected to increase by Rs 10,000-12,000 crore (US$ 1.39-2.77 billion)^ in FY20.
• Retailing in India is in the process of getting more organized and professional. Medium-scale retail formats such as department stores and supermarket chains have already made an appearance and are slowly changing the face of retailing in the country. South India has taken lead in establishing organized retail chain specially in the food and grocery category. In South India, food and grocery is the largest retail category (Rs.1, 62,313 crore) which is more organized (1.2%) than all India (0.8%). Nilgiris, FabMall, Foodworld, Trinetra, Subiksha, Margin Free, Fresh@, Namdhari are among the leading south India based food and grocery retailers.

The 4th edition of the South India Retail Summit (SIRS) is the regional retail event in the South India region presented by Mapic India formerly (IRF), to empower the region with retail knowledge, explore bigger and better future opportunities, align with the national vision and provide a platform for all stakeholders in the South Indian Retail to learn, share and evolve.

In order to highlight achievements, challenges and future prospects in retail of the southern, the 4^th Edition of SIRS will be an important regional knowledge platform for discussions on key retail issues, retail solutions and exchanging best practices within the industry through a series of interactive panel discussions, keynotes, case studies, Fire-side chat and un-conferencing sessions.

The intent is to bring together the experts to have a continued dialogue on a steady platform to discuss the latest trends and offerings which would help empower the overall development of Retail sector in South and the Indian economy at large.

Are you looking to get up-to-speed on the latest developments, Real life case studies  and trends in Southern Retail industry? Do you want to gain knowledge from top industry thought leaders and Retail Heroes of South or rub elbows with other professionals? Would you like to capture the thoughts of visionaries, deliberating on the action points that is require to take your business to next level? Do you want to meet one –on –one with solution providers specific to your current projects needs?

If you answered yes, then a The South India Retail Summit is the place to be!

The summit will create an environment of learning, contributing, sharing experiences and networking for all the stakeholders of Southern Retail industry.