Nature and Functioning of Visual Merchandising in Organized Food Retailing

The Indian food retail sector is one of the biggest industries in the country with an annual turnover of around US $18 billion. It has been estimated that organized food retailing in India which is worth US $ 666 million today will increase to US $ 33,333 million by 2015. The inherent attractiveness of the segment is luring more and more investors from both India and abroad, as is clearly indicated by the opening of a number of retail stores by major corporate houses like those of Bharti, Reliance, Pantaloons (Food Bazaar), Subhiksha, ITC (Choupal fresh), etc. However, to build long-term customer loyalty, price, quality, variety, and right image are very much needed. To attain this, the aesthetic appeal of the store and the way the products are displayed at the store are very important. Thus, the visual merchandising (VM) is the need of the hour at the food retail stores. This paper has studied various components of VM at retail stores and has analyzed the impact of indoor signages on customer’s buying behaviour. A comparative analysis of VM has been done at Food Bazaar (Ambala), Subhiksha (Chandigarh) and ITC Choupal Fresh (Chandigarh). Problems faced in implementation of VM at retail stores have been highlighted and some implications have been mentioned.