Top 5 trends in retail and franchise before we end this year

trends

The year 2020 was a never before year for businesses across spectrum of industry. Each day we witnessed a challenging story – of survival, hope and lost opportunities. There was learning from each story.  While few continuing trends of 2019 were halted, there was rise of new trends in 2020 in the retail and franchise space.  Common was working from home, zoom meets and social distancing in malls and stores.

Apart from that, businesses in retail domain remained cautious. Cost cut across the board, job loss and store shut downs became the new normal. Midst all the challenges, expandnext saw a mix of past trend and rise of new trends which could become mega trends and follow 2021.  Among few, we noted the top five below:

1:  Products (including luxury) are transforming from being exclusive to inclusive. Social values expressed through luxury products now include gender equality, size inclusion, design diversity – look around – products are silently going unisex, brands no longer what to type caste for a certain section in society

2:  We will see more Cloud Kitchen adoption – 70% cloud and 30% brick and motor. QSR space need to adopt and transform into different business model, and accordingly the franchise model likely to change

3:  Fast Retail – We believe brick and mortar retail will continue to become more flexible, shorter lease terms, more pop-up stores near to consumer (including the digital brands, ex – Lenskart, Zivame), we will see more collaborations – in terms of space sharing, partnerships

4:  Anti- experience –  This is not negative trend, but wanted to use this term as precaution for brands who genuinely wanted to make it big in retail / franchise / distribution. What exactly is Anti-experience – it is phenomenon where in any point of time there will be distractions to invest / spend in wrong partners/ advisors/ brokers. Brand should avoid such distractions where franchise brokerage firm in India pretend to help but instead leave them in the middle without right help/ handholding

5:  Alt retail – Alternative retail models such as rental, resale and service-driven formats are moving retail beyond its traditional focus of selling (new) products. Collectively, it called “alt. retail”.  We expect these models not only to expand their reach to more consumers, but also to mature in 2021 and 2022.  Subscription and rental models – we likely to see traction in auto sector, also in furniture market.

Each trends has the potential to disrupt the franchise market in many ways. Brands need to operate with fresh objectives, keeping the cost minimum way forward and optimise the culture within!
(photo credit: Evonne Yuwen Teoh)

top three solution to ease the franchise business from start

Challenges

Starting franchise business has a defined set of challenges in India, they are

1.  Finding the right partner

2. Finding the right location

3. Getting the right process in place

These are top three concerns while initiating the franchise business for your brand across industries. We will talk about the solution to get over the challenges for starting franchise business.

Top solution are

 

1. Getting the right partner for your business –  Often brands are lost in the initial process of getting the right buyer or the partner or franchisee owners for the franchise brand in different locations. The basic approach to deal with it is to make the right sound in the target market. Get the communication right in the market so as investors know exactly what the brand is looking for and offering. Communicate well on the franchise readiness. Build a solid communication pattern through different forms of contents such as blogs, emails, explainer videos, etc. to make investor know about your brand that it is ready and established as a franchise brand and you are for long run

2.  Select the right location – This is one major factor of success in the initial stages of getting into the market. Location fit strategy is the way to go. Solution – this could be achieved by two ways , either get the partner do the search for the location and then guide them in selection process or define ideal market policy so that the investors with similar market / location advantage can approach your brand to get the franchise license.

3.  Having the process in place – franchise owners should take this step very seriously and create all necessary support system in place. Once the process and operational support is in place it would be like plug and play for investors / franchisee owners to replicate the brand presence in any location/ market.