mumbai the retail sector will get an impetus from the spur in economic activity in rural areas on the back of rise in rabi crop planting according to a report besides low level of inflation and the governments reform initiatives are likely to provide boost to the sector in 2017 said the report by dun bradstreet in the past few years there has been a shift in consumption pattern with people even from small towns moving beyond necessities and consuming luxury products that were once sold only in metro cities it noted as a result retailers are now focusing on expanding to more tier ii and iii cities in india further given the increased competition and high operational costs such as for land and labour in metros and tier i cities the tier ii and tier iii cities could be a better choice for many organised retailers it said the report said the implementation of gst is expected to make movement of goods less cumbersome for retailers including lower cost of logistics and distribution due to reduced paperwork further the implementation of gst tax on services will be available for set off against tax on goods the retail sector was adversely impacted post demonetisation given the shortterm fall in consumption demand consequent to the lack of liquidity small traders were more affected than the organised retailers due to their significant cash dependence it said the unorganised segment is expected to witness increased usage of creditdebit cards and ewallets in the coming months owing to the demonetisation move the eretailing segment which witnessed significant growth in the past few years is expected to maintain its growth momentum in 2017 the report noted while the eretailing segment is competing with the traditional brickandmortar stores to increase its market share it is also faced with certain challenges such as rising logistics supply chain costs which needs to be addressed regulatory reforms are also expected to fuel growth of the retail sector in 2016 the government allowed fdi up to 51 per cent in multibrand retail while it removed cap on single brand retail the centre introduced model shops and establishments bill 2016 and one of the provisions of this bill allows retailers to operate 24hour which is expected to provide a boost to the retail market especially in the metros dsk rsy bas pti published on jan 31 2017 at 0757 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights analysis download etretail app get realtime updates save your favourite articles scan to download app retail rural economy govt reforms