Mumbai: The Indian retail sector will go through more changes in the next five years as compared to the last 50 years as the definitions of shops, shopping, and the experience of service are set to change dramatically, said D. Shivakumar, chairman and chief executive officer, Pepsico India Holdings Pvt. Ltd at a retail conference in Mumbai on Wednesday.

“I don’t think retail outlets will grow as 33% of Indians shop online once a week while 37% are shopping online once a month. Technology will impact the new retail outlets that will open," said Shivakumar addressing retailers on day 1 of the India Retail Forum 2016.

India has 9.6 million kirana retail outlets of which rural India has 6 million outlets. However, the top eight metros account for only 0.73 million outlets, he said.

Contrary to popular perception, 63% and 59% of urban and rural India are nuclear families and the paradigm of marketers has to change significantly as India has moved on but its marketers and retailers have lagged, Shivakumar said.

Al Rajwani, managing director and chief executive officer, P&G India Sub Continent, speaking at the same conference, said, “Consumer economy has transformed into networked personal economies as consumers are partners, influencers, data brokers, investors, suppliers, inventors and backers."

The Indian growth story is being propelled by consumption, said Kishore Biyani, chief executive of officer, Future Group. “The consumption economy is growing at $100 billion every year and we need several entrepreneurs across categories to cater to this growing pie," he added.

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