The phenomenal size of retailing business in India along with high growth potential has attracted leading Indian and multi-national corporations towards `retailing' for expanding their business portfolio. However, the current trend of aggressive expansion strategy by major organized retailers has created resistance from some socio-political forces, thus raising apprehensions about the future scope of this business. This article deals with comparison of the marketing systems of organized and unorganized retailing to assess the feasibility of `organized retailing' as a strategic choice out of new business opportunities.

The Indian retail business is expected to grow from $330 bn in 2007 to $427 bn in 2010 and to $637 bn by 2015. Organized retailing, presently with a market share of 4%, is expected to increase to 22% by 2010.¹ Organized retailing has witnessed a rapid growth since the post-liberalization era of the 1990s and many Indian corporate leaders have extended or diversified into the retail business through organic as well as inorganic routes. Foreign players like Wal-Mart and Tesco have also entered the Indian market.

The Indian retailing industry is, however, dominated by unorganized retailers. There are 12 million retail outlets in the country. Nearly 40 million people are employed in this sector, which accounts for 8% of the total work force. In India, retailing is the second largest employment sector, next only to agriculture. Anxiety about the threat to their existence has led to nation-wide protests against organized retailers by traditional retail traders supported by affiliated political parties, which, in turn, have created economic and socio-political tensions in the country. Some state governments like those of Uttar Pradesh have passed legislation to curb the growth of organized retailing. The Kerala government has imposed a 10% surcharge on organized retailing. Such reactions from the government have made retailers more cautious while formulating their expansion strategy. Selection of appropriate business strategies will primarily involve environment scanning and SWOT analysis.

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