Industry body Retailers Association of India (RAI) held the first edition of the Hyderabad Retail Summit here. RAI works closely with the government and stakeholders to support employment growth in the retail sector. It presently has 5 lakh members across the country, and 10% of them are in Telangana.

According to its chief executive officer Rajagopalan, Hyderabad is rated the best in terms of ease of doing business as its cosmopolitan and attracts a lot of people from outside to do business here. He says that the consumption in the city is growing and that the per capita income is on the rise, which augurs well for the sector.RAI’s members in Telangana include quick-service restaurants, consumer durables, footwear, jewelry, and many more segments. While all sectors got impacted, food and medicare did well, and the Telangana government made sure that there were no major closures of businesses. Rajagopalan feels marriages and events will be major growth drivers in days to come.

Also, work from home has augured well for businesses as they have upped their bar and are focusing on efficient supply chains and speedy service. While the consumers are spending quality time on shopping, businesses are catering to both online and physical customers with a digital frontend, cashless and contactless transactions.

Another important observation was that almost all people indulged in cheer shopping instead of revenge shopping. Well, in revenge shopping, people mostly tend to buy luxury products, but in Hyderabad, it was seen that people spent on things that gave them holistic happiness.

Meanwhile, the government is working to bring an Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform in a few months. This will enable small retailers to be part of the e-commerce revolution. In fact, ONDC is expected to do what UPI did to the digital payment domain.