Introduction Retailing across the world is a major revenue driver for the world economy.

Touted to be the largest sector in many economies, it is the final step in the distribution process where producers meet the end consumers. With a revenue of over $15 trillion across the globe, the top 250 firms in retail contribute over 40% of this. Developed nations have a strong penchant for having high association to the organized retail, while the majority of retail trade in developing nations is in the unorganized sector. Asia heads this paradigm but with a slow acceptance to the organized sector that is slowly catching up. The largest 10 retailers in the world are Walmart, Carrefour, Tesco, Metro, Kroger, Schwartz, Walgreen and Home Depot in order. The top 10 retailers constitute 10% of the retail revenue across the globe. The top 2, Walmart and Carrefour gets over 55% of their revenue from overseas operations. The top 10 retailers have a larger footprint compared to the total of the organized retail across the world. To suit the changing trends, retailing is undergoing transformations and innovations. Many trade policies and reforms like FDI, competition etc. have made the industry thrive and strive for betterment. Across the world, retailers be it big or small have made it big time. Big players are trying to set foot in many of the developing nations knowing that the trends have caught up to them owing to the media habits that have been developed. The changes that have caused the retailers to take the world by storm has also posed to develop many challenges. The industry often employs 10-15% of the total work force in a country apart from those in informal trade. Retail also constitutes a significant part of the GDP in almost all the countries, where it can be as high as 8% in US and 14% in India. The growth of retail is attributed to factors like domestic market saturation and competitor growth. As the market becomes complacent for the domestic market, big retail brands move to countries in search of better regions. The competition trends also initiates the growth. Emerging Markets and Revival post Crisis Post the economic crisis, the economy started the phase of bounce back in 2010. Even with the economic conditions tough to thrive growth, retail, too followed suit, but had its share of problems mainly owing to the limited investor confidence, underemployment and downtrodden European market conditions. As the developed markets reached a state of saturation and with European economy going down the drains, emerging nations become the source of major revenue generation. As the consumers in emerging markets are price conscious, the retailers were unable to increase prices to increase the top line and bottom line. They are creating measures to bring down the cost to sustain the profits. They follow innovative steps to do so by close supervision of sales, employees and supply chain. The past year has seen the slowdown of markets of US, Brazil, China and India owing to the aftermath of the European crisis. Also the East Asian economies have been affected by the slowdown in Chinese markets. It is of great interest to infer that the axis of global markets is attributed to the escape velocities attained by the markets in US and China. Structural changes are the need of the hour at the area where the economies need to gear up for the changes that will in turn affect the whole world. Global Market Opportunity

The term Global Market Opportunity refers to the favourable combination of circumstances, locations and prospects for exporting, importing, investing, sourcing and partnering in a foreign market. This is summed up as the marketing of products and services, establishing units to manufacture cost effectively, lost cost raw material procurement etc. To assess the possibility that a market is having an opportunity to succeed, the firm must keep in mind the following: 1. Country Selection: Select the market where the company can service its products/services. The process is as follows: a. Identify basic demand (country climate, absolute bans) b. Identify available resources (labour, land, materials, financing) c. Assess national business environment (PESTEL) d. 2. Product Appropriateness: Assess the appropriateness that the product has in the market. The culture, lifestyle, purchasing power etc. has to be kept in consideration. The assessment of the firms products and services is with regards to: a. foreign customer characteristics and requirements b. government mandated regulations c. expectations of channel intermediaries d. characteristics of competitors offerings The product is chosen based on whether: a) it sells well in the domestic market b) it will cater well to the universal market c) address a need that is not served in the particular market d) address a new emergent need abroad 3. Market Analysis: To analyse the market potential of the product/service. The firm needs to identify: a. Demographics b. Competitors market shares c. Import export volumes d. Distribution network e. Marketing approaches f. Retail sales levels g. Income elasticity h. Market size i. Market growth rate j. Market intensity k. Market consumption capacity l. Commercial infrastructure m. Economic freedom n. Market receptivity o. Country risk 4. Site and Market selection: Select the partners of the business and servicing areas. The major aspects to be taken into account are: a. Field trips

b. Competitor analysis Types of partnership can be majorly licensing, franchising, collaborative venture, global sourcing, contract manufacturing and supplier partnerships 5. Estimate Company Sales Potential: This is majorly to forecast a 3-5 year performance of a company in the target market. The factors that determine sales potential are: a. Partner Capabilities b. Access to distribution channels c. Intensity of competitive environment d. Pricing e. Human and financial resources f. Brand reputation

Key Industry Trends The major factors retailers are ensuring are that the industry is getting increasingly concentrated. 1. Firm Concentration: The larger firms are buying out small stores and the retail chains are replacing the independent shops. This has led to a few companies to control the lions share of the market in many countries. Countries like Sweden, Finland and many parts of Europe faces this paradigm. The lifestyle changes owing to increased media acquaintance has made the approval of the big stores more feasible among the general public. 2. Global Expansion: Most big players like Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco are in the process of growing outside the home country. US retail giant Walmart has operations in 28 countries, its French counterpart has operations in 33 countries while Tesco runs its business in 13 nations. Including India, the major part of the south-east Asia has local stores playing a major role to aid the consumption of the local population. These countries are slowly in the path of deregulation paving way for the foreign big players to set foot. 3. E-Tailing: This is an extensively growing sector in the retail markets. While exclusive online sellers like Amazon lead the game, the brick and mortar stores have transcended the boundaries and sought to go online as well. Around 5% of the total retail sales in the world is done online.

Market Attractiveness The market attractiveness is a factor that is strategically analysed based on certain parameters like country risk, population size, wealth and modern grocery distribution sales per capita. According to the AT Kearney Global Retail Development Index, the emerging economies are possessing zealous potential to grow while the developed economies are facing a path of anaemic growth. Among the top30 developing economies, Brazil ranks 1st position owing to its continuous expansion, organic growth, infrastructure development and high customer and investor confidence. With the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, the surge to the path of development that government has been giving to the nation is pretty immense.

The other 3 in the BRIC are slowing down in terms of the angle of development they are aiming. Russian economy is in doldrums, India is setting up policies not conducive to foreign investors and China, once the most sought after nation needs to get going in the direction of a consumer pull environment. The big names in the retail industry like Walmart, Abercrombie & Fitch, Starbucks, and Hollister have entered many markets in 2012-13. The evolving trend shows that the developmental path is paving way from the BRIC to MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey). Every market has its own challenges that requires certain strategies put in the right measure to attain success.

References Wikipedia AT Kearney Global Retail Development Index Deloitte Global Powers of Retailing 2013 PWC- 2013 Outlook for Retail and Consumer Products in Asia