Big global retail brands enjoy low presence in India

Though there has been a rise in shoppers in India, the presence of the world’s

top 100 retailers in Indian cities is sparse compared with other Asia-Pacific countries, says a report by Jones Lang LaSalle, a real estate consultancy. High rents and restrictive investment policies that hinder profitable growth in India are among the reasons for global retailers’ comparative disinterest in the country, said the report ‘A Magnet for Retail’.

The report ranked 30 cities in the Asia-Pacific based on the presence of the world’s top 100 luxury and mid-tier brands. Indian cities Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore ranked 24, 25 and 27, respectively. Cities in Greater China, which include Mainland China and the special administrative regions of Macau and Hong Kong, were the most attractive for global retailers with Hong Kong being the most-densely populated in terms of presence of top retailers, as wealthy Chinese shoppers flock to the city and fuel a high level of spending.

Asia-Pacific markets, which account for 54 percent of the world’s population, have become increasingly important for large global retailers as sales in home markets have slowed down. The rankings showed Shanghai in the second place followed by Singapore and Beijing. Escalating rentals make it unusually longer for international labels to break-even in India despite consumer appetite for shopping, making them skip Indian cities.

However, over the past few years, several European retailers have invested in India with foreign labels such as Inditex’s Zara and Swedish label H&M opening shop. American apparel retailer Gap is in talks to open stores in India through a joint venture.