By Brad Dorfman
CHICAGO (Reuters) - For global retailers that are looking to find new consumers away from their saturated home markets, the road to growth is increasingly being paved with BRICs.
But Brazil, Russia, India and China -- which make up the BRIC acronym for hot emerging markets -- have differing landscapes in terms of infrastructure, regulation, consumer tastes and how well foreign companies are welcome to the markets, according to a study by Euromonitor International.
That means expansion into at least some of those countries is more about creating long-term opportunities than immediate returns, Matthew Stych, director of retail research for Euromonitor, said in an interview ahead of the Reuters Consumer and Retail Summit.
"It's almost like they are putting down a place marker for future growth," Stych said.
In 2006, the BRIC countries accounted for 11 percent of global retail sales, up 2.4 percentage points from 2001. By the end of 2011, it is expected that the BRICs will account for almost 13 percent.
"Brazil, Russia, China and India rank among the most attractive emerging markets, thanks to the huge size of their potential customer bases," Euromonitor said in a report last month.
The report also noted that the markets have grown more important as retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Carrefour (CARR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Tesco Plc (TSCO.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) focus more on specific markets rather than putting down flags all over the world hoping that growth will come.
In the past, some multinational retailers have stumbled when they moved into new markets. Wal-Mart famously failed to connect with German shoppers and eventually left that market and Wal-Mart and Carrefour both pulled out of South Korea after they failed to open enough stores to become significant players, Euromonitor said. Continued...
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