Key Points
Businesses are increasingly looking beyond metros for growth as well as new opportunities as demand strengthens in small towns and rural areas, job market moves out of metropolises, and appetite for discretionary spending grows among non-metro consumers...
Indians are set to spend between $140-160 billion on online purchases by 2025 thanks to greater engagement in smaller towns, with tier 2 cities driving the largest volume of online orders, according to a recent report by logistics firm Ecom Express and the Indian School of Businesss (ISB) Institute of Data Sciences...
As much as 70% of Tanishq's 436 stores are outside large cities - 38% in places with 200,000-plus population and 32% in smaller towns - with the remaining 30% in metros and mini-metros, chief executive Ajoy Chawla told ET recently..
While the smaller towns and cities are seeing thriving demand for manpower with many companies ramping up their presence to meet rising consumer demand, job creation remains muted in the metros as companies tread cautiously amid macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds, according to staffing companies such as Teamlease Services, Xpheno and Foundit...
Businesses are growing beyond metros as the cost of replenishing infrastructure in metro cities outweighs greenfield investments in small towns where land and labour are cheaper and demand is stronger...
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