Abstract
This academic paper explores the Indian retail industry. The focus point of the paper is on the supply chain challenges that the industry faces. Needless being said, India has been singled out as one of the fastest growing economies in emerging markets, so it is not a surprise that the country's retail industry was chosen for this paper. The findings demonstrate that the main challenges of the supply chain in the retail industry are: logistics infrastructure, inventory management, supplier financial instability, volatile fuel prices, global credit crisis and lack of trained work force. The Indian government has opened up the industry to try to bring in investors to address these challenges. Many giant retailers such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour have shown up and have opened stores around the country.
Supply chain management refers to getting products from vendors to customers while managing inventory levels, warehousing and transportation costs. In other words, supply chain management is the field of management that focuses on the transportation of products from the manufacturers, vendors to the distributors/end customers. It can be assumed that a breakdown in the supply chain is likely to negatively affect business operations and the economy as a whole. In the past years, supply chain management has been in the news, be it for its importance or for the challenges ahead.
This piece of writing is all about the supply chain management. To be precise in my discussion, the paper will focus on the Indian retail industry and will elaborate on the supply chain challenges that the industry faces. To support my argument, an overview of the Indian retail industry will be discussed, then the attention will move on to the cornerstone of the paper which is, supply chain challenges; recommendations will be the last section of the research paper.
