New ways of reaching out to end users. Retailing

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Chapter Eight:
SWOT ANALYSIS OF WESTSIDE & PANTALOONS:
India is well known as a competitive manufacturer of apparel. Many foreign companies have been sourcing large quantities of garments regularly from India for a number of years. But less well known is the fact that India has huge potential as a market for foreign clothing, given its large population and growing household incomes. A few significant foreign players-such as Levi Strauss, Benetton and Lacoste-have been selling their branded apparel in India for a number of years. But most foreign companies have yet to enter the Indian market.
Under government liberalisation policies, there has been a sharp increase in the availability and variety of Indian and foreign branded consumer goods on the market. Department stores have been expanding, franchising has grown in popularity, and malls have proliferated. But in 1997 the government banned foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Indian retailing sector, which means that direct foreign involvement in retailing remains restricted to franchising.
Foreign companies looking to tap the potential of the Indian market also need to understand that the Indian retailing system is very different from that which prevails in their home countries. These factors need to be taken into account when devising retailing strategies.
Undersuch dyanamic environment , one should look for the SWOT analysis of the organizations in the retailing scenario. Taking two major giants in the retailing, Pantaloons Retail India Limited (PRIL) and Westside of Trent Ltd, the SWOT analysis is done.
SWOT analysis is done to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and gives the internal strengths and weaknesses and external threats and opportunities. It shows how well the organization can work in the given competitive scenario, and help identify their internal strengths to withstand the competition and understand the competitor's moves.
WESTSIDE TRENT