Understanding telecom retail in India-some pointers

At the outset, let me clarify that I do not consider myself an expert on telecom(or on anything else for that matter :P). This blog post is only based on certain observations/analyses and inferences during personal visits to telecom stores in Mumbai and Bangalore. For modern trade(malls etc), this may not apply due to space issues and also as they often do not carry the entire product range.

1. Commoditized SIMs/data cards: Thanks to the relatively low margins that retailers make on SIM activations, the poor SIM salespersons are given a stall outside the main store(!) with a packet of forms etc. So it is abundantly clear about their pecking order in the hierarchy of things!
2. Single brand versus multi brand stores:- All the operators be it Airtel, Idea, Vodafone, Reliance, Aircel all have exclusive outlets, which seem to focus on the consumer experience and awareness. That is why in the outlets I've seen, the focus is more on 1-1 selling and wider display of products/schemes, rather than the claustrophobic multi product strores I've seen(like The Mobile Store), that focus on max yield per square foot
3. Recharges not always sold in telecom outlets:-As that involves manual effort and all, many don't find it profitable to sell these recharges..indeed its mostly the kirana stores and other non exclusive outlets that sell these. 
4. Handset demos often not given:- Shops are aware that customers often check out the devices in the shops and then shop for it online. This problem is for books also, but there one cannot avoid showing the book itself unless its plastic shrinkwrapped(which may bring down sales though..). So often only the expensive/fancy phones are displayed but not the entry level handsets below Rs 10,000. And demos are given only for displayed products, few retailers will open the box and show you. 
5. Multi brand recharges/devices/data market:- Most retailers give a wide bouquet of all the popular operators, so there is no brand loyalty at the retailer level. So often the same retailer will have nameboards showing his name from all the main operators! 

Anyways, given that around 90%+ of Indian voice market is prepaid(and from early indications the data market seems going the same way), the front end is resembling a FMCG set-up. For fixed line, a DSA setup seems to work due to the unique economics of that business. 

What banks can learn from the retail industry

I Googled this title and related phrases and while I found quite a few good articles and research reports, not many covered all the points I wished to, and so this blog post. The stimulus of this blog post was an interview answer I gave recently, where I said that banks should learn from best practices in other sectors such as talent management in the ITES industry, supply chain management from FMCG and a lot from retail. The main learnings in my view are below

1. Retail banking-the low hanging fruit:- Retail banking has retail in its name-what more similarity can you want! Essentially, learnings like location, merchandising, targeted advertising
2. Focus from branches to Points of Sale:-FMCG industry always harps on its points of sale(POS) instead of stores, and banks are slowly moving to non branch models like business correspondents, full fledged ATMs, multiple touch points etc too.
3. From 'commodity focus' to 'experience focus':-The greatest of retailers be they Sam Walton or Kishore Biyani know that even though low price/wide selection is necessary, what is more important is to design the store with an inviting ambience for its target customer, and to have customer friendly policies in return/payment(something Nordstrom is famous for). 
4. Loyalty programs:-This is something missing in the retail segment(except for maybe high end customers) but which corporate bankers implicitly do in their relationship banking. Agreed that bank pricing cannot be made so transparent to allow loyalty programs, but the bank should strongly communicate that it values customers who maintain long banking relationships with them. Also, tieups with other industry is prevalent in the credit card segment, maybe banks can do this for tieups with preferred service providers like auditors, valuers, chartered engineers, insurers etc, provided the respective regulators/professional bodies do not see red
5. Talent Management/Non monetary motivators:-In retail, the salaries are not the best especially at the store level, resulting in attrition yet the management does their best to keep staff motivated. As the banking regulators clamp down on high pay, banks must increasingly learn how to keep their personnel motivated even without that promise of a $MM payday. 
6. Pricing to explictly recognize loss leaders/market penetration/activity based costing:-Retailers have done this kind of pricing for decades, but bank pricing models are nowhere near this level yet, with some arbitary model adjustments done for 'relationship' reasons. 
7. Selling outside brands as well as private labels:- Banks focus on their proprietary products aka 'private labels' but they are slowly realizing that they need to offer third party products as well to ensure better infrastructure utilization and better customer service. While the tussle for 'shelf space'/'sales force attention' will always be there, there is no reason both cannot coexist.

These are just a few points, am sure readers can think of more.