Starting online and opening stores later is still a risky move for many brands, and most hesitate to try it. A few do, and the results are often much more rewarding than expected. East India Retail looks at some of these brands, and today we focus on Kisah. Kisah is a Kolkata-based men’s and kids’ …
Executive Summary: Durga Puja is West Bengal’s largest working-capital event. In roughly 45 days, retailers, artisans, and brands compress what British Council India’s benchmark study once valued at ₹32,377 crore (2.58% of GSDP) into a liquidity spike now estimated by CWBTA and BCC&I at ₹60,000–65,000 crore, with Kolkata contributing nearly 70% of transactions. This is …
Golden Quarter, Fragile Margins: The Commerce Behind Kolkata’s Grandest Stage Read More »
Kolkata’s fine jewellery landscape has a new and distinctly modern entrant. Inarra Atelier, the luxury lab-grown jewellery maison founded by husband-and-wife duo Ashna and Mayank Poddar, has unveiled its first flagship boutique at Salt Lake, Sector 1 — marking the brand’s transition from a digital-first journey to a full offline retail experience. The 1,500 sq …
In 1882, a music composer and distinguished Pakhwaj instrumentalist named Mohendra Dutt walked into a commercial premise on Harrison Road — today known as Mahatma Gandhi Road — in Kolkata, and quietly became the pioneer of umbrella manufacturing in India. That combination of artist and industrialist is an unlikely origin story. But it produced something …
While sustainability has become a global conversation, three brands rooted in Eastern India’s cultural and artisan heritage have been living that philosophy long before it became a trend. 145 East, Kadam Haat, and LataSita are each building something distinct — but share a common conviction that commerce can have a conscience. 145 East — Reviving …
Eastern India has long been discussed as a region of potential. What is happening in Jagiroad, Morigaon district, Assam is something more concrete — a Rs 27,000 crore investment that puts the Northeast firmly on the global semiconductor map. The Project in Numbers Tata Electronics’ Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test facility at Jagiroad is being …
India’s three largest conglomerates — Tata Group, Reliance Retail, and Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail — are quietly building a new consumer segment together: the mass market fashion buyer. The tool is affordable fashion. And the strategy, notably, has nothing to do with chasing the best addresses in town. The Numbers Tell the Story Zudio, …
How Zudio, Yousta, and OWND Are Rewriting the Rules of Retail Real Estate in West Bengal Read More »
There is a quiet but definitive shift underway in India’s retail geography. While conversations about emerging markets have long centred on Pune, Ahmedabad, or Lucknow, a city in the far east is rewriting that story. Guwahati, the commercial capital of Assam, is no longer simply a transit point connecting the mainland to the eight northeastern …
Guwahati: Northeast India’s Retail Gateway — Current State and Potential Read More »
You have never walked into a dark store. Nobody has. That’s precisely the point. A dark store is a compact warehouse — typically 2,500 to 4,000 square feet — built exclusively to fulfil online orders. No signboards, no walk-in customers. Just shelves, pickers, and delivery partners optimised for a single metric: getting an order to …
Dark Stores: The Quiet Real Estate Revolution Coming to Eastern India Read More »
Open the medicine cabinet in a typical Bengali household and you will almost certainly find it — the squat little green tube of Boroline, its octagonal black cap as recognisable as a family heirloom. Look at the study table of an older generation Bengali, and there is a good chance the ink bottle once sitting …
