With retailing in a boom in urban India, it maybe is the right time to discuss about retailing alternative in villages of India. There is misconception that there are limited options when one comes to rural retail. Infact in terms of sheer variety the options that a rural consumer may have may not be bad in comparison to the urban consumer. Though the options in urban areas have increased a lot in the last few years. Coming back to the main issue, rural retail, here an attempt has been made to list out the various alternative retail options for a rural marketer and strategy there of. 
There are basically five different options for a manufacturer to reach the consumers in villages first is the omnipresent grocery shops which exist in the rural areas, and there are close to forty lakh such shops spread across the six and half lakh villages. These grocery shops are not homogenous; they vary in their sizes, structure and buying preferences. And though generalized as grocery shops, in bigger do have specialised shops. No company planning to succeed in rural markets can do without planning for these shops.
The second retailing option is the one which has been studied and researched more than any other aspect of rural retailing that is Haats and Melas. The number of these Haats and Melas across the country has been put to be more than seventy to eighty thousand across the country. And there have been studies, which suggest that the villagers prefer these Haats to make their purchases to the village retailers.
The third retail alternative is the shops in the nearest small town. The village consumer tends to visit the small town or the district headquarters on a regular basis. The visits linked to his sale of agricultural produce or could be to purchase farm inputs and he combines his FMCG and durables purchase with this. So even if a company has a good direct coverage plan in place, it shouldn’t ignore the wholesale markets, and in certain categories like durables restrict their presence to the small towns itself.
The next alterative is the prevalence of mobile retailers in the villages. This is an area where there is paucity of reliable data. They are small retailers who move from village to village on cycles or on foot selling their goods to households. In certain categories like cosmetics and bangles they have a strong presence. The last option for retailing is a combination of various new and old outlets which have been set up for different purposes put to use to distribute products. The examples of these include ration shops, post offices, petrol retail shops and the newer formats like echoupal and other kiosk based options.
To develop a complete retail strategy in villages, one should plan to address most of these alternatives; he should have plans to tackle the wholesalers in the small towns, and the retailers in the villages and should have plans to accommodate the major Haats and Melas which occur in the area.
There are basically five different options for a manufacturer to reach the consumers in villages first is the omnipresent grocery shops which exist in the rural areas, and there are close to forty lakh such shops spread across the six and half lakh villages. These grocery shops are not homogenous; they vary in their sizes, structure and buying preferences. And though generalized as grocery shops, in bigger do have specialised shops. No company planning to succeed in rural markets can do without planning for these shops.
The second retailing option is the one which has been studied and researched more than any other aspect of rural retailing that is Haats and Melas. The number of these Haats and Melas across the country has been put to be more than seventy to eighty thousand across the country. And there have been studies, which suggest that the villagers prefer these Haats to make their purchases to the village retailers.
The third retail alternative is the shops in the nearest small town. The village consumer tends to visit the small town or the district headquarters on a regular basis. The visits linked to his sale of agricultural produce or could be to purchase farm inputs and he combines his FMCG and durables purchase with this. So even if a company has a good direct coverage plan in place, it shouldn’t ignore the wholesale markets, and in certain categories like durables restrict their presence to the small towns itself.
The next alterative is the prevalence of mobile retailers in the villages. This is an area where there is paucity of reliable data. They are small retailers who move from village to village on cycles or on foot selling their goods to households. In certain categories like cosmetics and bangles they have a strong presence. The last option for retailing is a combination of various new and old outlets which have been set up for different purposes put to use to distribute products. The examples of these include ration shops, post offices, petrol retail shops and the newer formats like echoupal and other kiosk based options.
To develop a complete retail strategy in villages, one should plan to address most of these alternatives; he should have plans to tackle the wholesalers in the small towns, and the retailers in the villages and should have plans to accommodate the major Haats and Melas which occur in the area.
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