Top 20 cities which retailers eye for..

Megacities – Eight megacities – Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune – garner the lion’s share of attention as India’s consumption centers. These are the country’s largest population centers (all have population above 5million), and in most cases they are the largest markets in terms of household income and total consumption expenditure.

Boomtowns – In terms of total consumer markets, the boomtowns are the emerging cities that are quickly moving up the ranks as the largest markets following the megacities. This group of cities has younger populations and has posted the fasted growth in disposable income since 2000. Cities in this group include Surat, Kanpur, Jaipur, Lucknow, Nagpur, Bhopal and Coimbatore.

Niche cities – Niche cities are somewhat smaller in terms of population but still hit well above their weight in spending per household. Household expenditure in these cities is nearly the same as that found in megacities, and niche cities have the highest marketing propensity among the three city groups. Faridabad, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Jalandhar best represents the niche cities.

          These 20 cities together account for 10% of India’s population, but generates 31% of disposable income and 21% of total spending. More than half (55%) of total urban income is generated by these cities, with megacities accounting for 45% of urban expenditure. Boomtowns and niche cities today may be much smaller in terms of income and spending weights, but they are growing rapidly. The household income growth for these cities is estimated to at 11.2% between 2005-08.