And this time, its Reliance Energy. They have a clever mechanism of making profits. They steal Re 1-2 from electricity bills, unimaginable!
I have credit card and bank account statements that depict discrepancies in my electricity bills payments. I pay the entire amount and still every month there is a positive net-previous balance of Re 1-2. Now for an individual, it is a petty amount. But in case they do that to all their 25 m consumers, they could easily be making a handsome profit of 50 m-all out of stealing the poor consumers' money who anyways is bogged by their sky-high prices.
Though this is a digression from the blog's theme, but its a matter I wanted to bring to everybody's attention . Its high time Reliance and the Ambani brothers start operating in professional manner. Being a TATA employee, one can understand my overt passion for ethics and CSR. But that doesn't discount Reliance's proven track record of cleverly stealing money from the consumer's pockets.Earlier it was with Reliance Mobile and now its Energy that I've noticed.
As we say...." With Reliance, experience (un)certainty!"
The aviation sector in India is growing at 35 per cent over a period of six years against the 9 per cent per annum growth witnessed globally. Latest entrant riding on the back of this growth is the retail sector.
Travel retail is the next wave of retail revolution in India. This is apart from the duty-free shops that have been present since long. Busy schedules, long waiting hours, increasing traffic, rising consumption levels, airport privatization and growing retail industry have led to several top retailers cashing on this market.
Nuance from Switzerland and UK's Alpha Retail have tied up with Shoppers' Stop and the Future group, for airport retailing in India. As airports have the advantage of 24-hour activity with very high people traffic, they are crucial locations for next generation retail and entertainment centers as well as business and hospitality zones.
Globally airports derive a large portion of their income from non-aeronautical revenue sources; Heathrow, San Francisco, Vancouver and Brisbane bring in as much as 50 per cent of their revenues from retail and other non-aeronautical resources. Airports in India today sell everything from pen to hair dryers , from flowers to PC.
According to Cushman & Wakefield, Airport Realty Report, approximately 78 million square feet of real estate space, across retail, commercial and hospitality, can be expected in the country by 2015 with the modernisation and upgradation of the 47 airport projects. These projects cover a total of approximately 40,000 acres of airport area, including 40 brownfield and 7 greenfield projects across tier I, II and III locations of India.
Wonder what retailers benefit ?
- Opportunity for marketers to connect with the SEC-A crowd as they comprise a bulk of travelers.
- Opportunity to experience the brand.
- High visibility Customer profile
- Time spent at airport: 71% of travelers spend one hour or more in the airport complex prior to departure, while 75% or more spend at least 30 minutes post arrival.
- Purchase category: The IMRB study also says that 42% of airline travelers frequently make purchases at stores or restaurants within the airport.
- Segment characteristics: 99% of airport travelers own mobile phones, 71% own credit cards, 42% own home audio systems, 41% own automobiles and 32% own diamond jewellery.
- Advertising response: 75% of travelers look at advertising displays at airports, and 73% of travelers can be reached at least once during a three-month airport advertising campaign.
- Advertising media: The study also reveals that the kind of advertising likely to catch attention are back-lit displays (up to 68%), TV (up to 56%), scrollers (up to 40%), trivisions (up to 26%) and kiosks (up to 24%).
- Airport revenue split: food & beverages (40%) and merchandised retail (57%) contribute the bulk of non-aeronautical revenues at Mumbai airport.
With expected traffic to increase to 40 million by 2012-13 at Mumbai airport and country’s total international passenger boarding to increase to 45 million by 2010, airport retail is here to say for sure.
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