You will have a minimum of 2-3 grocery shops in every lane of India. Be it a small one or a large one. It is not only about grocery shops but the most popular business in India retail business.
There are individual shops for everything in this country, and you can find them everywhere.
The reason is that a retail business provides the opportunity to earn on its own and be its boss, and at the same time, the investment required can be really low.
In this article, we will discuss all types of retail businesses you can run in the lanes of India.
We will cover low-investment retail businesses, medium-investment retail businesses, and high-investment retail businesses.
You will also learn about the revenue and profit margins of these businesses. You can choose the one that suits you the best or your pocket the best.
Top 10 Retail Business Ideas in India
Check out the list of Best Retail Business Ideas in India here –
| Rank | Retail Business Ideas |
| 1 | Grocery Store |
| 2 | Fruit Shop |
| 3 | Tailor Shop |
| 4 | Stationery Store |
| 5 | Tea Stall |
| 6 | Flower Boutique |
| 7 | Seed Selling Store |
| 8 | Perfume Shop |
| 9 | Medicine Shop |
| 10 | Gift Shop |
Grocery Store – Best Retail Business Ideas
This is the country’s most sought-after business for many households. We all need groceries for daily needs. Thus, the demand for the products of this store is never-ending.
To start a grocery store, you must invest around Rs.50,000 to Rs.100,000. It depends on the size of the store and your stock.
The average profit margin in grocery stores in India is around 60% – 70%. The profit margins vary from one product to another.
However, this is an aggregate profit margin for an average Kirana store in India.
Fruit Shop – Top Retail Business Ideas
The best part of doing low-investment retail business is that you do not need specialized knowledge.
Like if you open a shop where you will be selling fruits, you do not need to possess in-depth knowledge about fruits.
In India, fruits are used not only for consumption purposes but on any occasion, and they are sent as gifts, mainly used in all kinds of festivals.
It is given to the god/deities for their blessings. So, the demand for fruits is in the market around the year. If you are interested in selling fruits, you need first to shortlist which fruits you will sell.
Then you can find the cheapest market from where you can buy at a wholesale rate (cheap rate).
The initial investment for starting a fruit-selling shop would be around Rs.35,000 to Rs.45,000, depending on the amount of stock you keep.
The profit margins on fruits are around 40% on an average basis.
Tailor Shop – Top 10 Retail Business Ideas
People still love to wear tailor-made clothes in India. You can find tailors in every area. To date, women prefer their dresses to be tailor-made.
So, if you know the art of stitching and designing, you can start tailoring. Here the investment you would require can be around Rs.30,000, within which you need to buy the sewing machines, clothes, and other materials.
The investment can go up if you keep staff working, but you can add when there are bulk orders. The profit margin you can expect at the beginning is around 40%.
Stationery Store – Best Retail Store Business in India
Stationaries are required daily in offices, homes, and everywhere. The demand for books is also inevitable.
So, if you want to start a bookstore or stationery shop, you can do it with a nominal investment.
The average investment to start a bookstore can go up to Rs.1 lakh, while stationaries, if you are dealing in one, would cost you around Rs.70,000 to Rs.80,000.
However, the investment depends mainly on the number of books you are keeping or the items in stationaries.
The profit margin you can expect in this business is around 25% to 30%. You can start this store in the basement of your house as well if you have free space.
This can reduce your cost of renting any shop or buying.
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Tea Stall – Top Retail Store Business in India
If you are wondering why a tea stall is on this list, look around. There are so many start-ups selling teas. Some people are highly qualified and start their tea-stall chains across the country.
So, if you think it is something less, it’s certainly not in the present scenario. You can open a tea joint with Rs.10,000.
Can you imagine that? However, the profit margin is quite good, around 30% and above.
The most important thing to keep in mind while opening a tea joint, you need to be experimental with the ‘chai’ of India.
You can serve regular tea, coffee, and cappuccinos, but if you serve something new or rare, you can attract more customers.
Flower Boutique – Top 10 Retail Store Business in India
If you know a bit about flowers, you can also try a flower-shop business. In India, it has been found that this business has a high-profit margin.
You can earn up to 90% of the profit margin from this business. At the same time, the investment is quite low, from Rs.40,000 to Rs.50,000.
Within this amount, you can start a decent flower shop. The profit margin shoots up for this business is the scarcity of flowers and vendors selling them in the retail shops.
However, depending on the season, as flowers have seasonal demand, like, during the festive and wedding season, the demand shoots up to the sky, the prices also shoot up, and so is your profit.
In the off-season, you can earn a profit margin of 60% or a little less.
Seed Selling Store – Best Retail Business in India
For growing any tree, seeds are required. Selling seeds can be a business venture in areas where agriculture is the predominant activity.
This business also has seasonal demand. The investment you would require to start this business is very little.
You can start this business with just Rs.10,000 only; however, it can go up depending on the shop you are opening and the seeds you keep.
The profit margin is decent enough, and you can earn around 40% to 50% in this business.
Perfume Shop – Top Retail Business in India
With an investment of Rs.50,000 to Rs.1 lakh, you can start a perfume-selling business which can give you a profit of around 40%.
The profit margin is quite decent compared to the investment requirement. Perfumes have demand across the year, and there is no seasonal demand.
Medicine Shop – Top 10 Retail Business in India
Medicines have demand round the clock. There is no season for buying medicines. Moreover, people nowadays are way too dependent on medicines than before.
So, opening a medicine shop can be a good option for your business venture. However, you either need the required certificate or degree to open and sell the medicines or hire someone who has the same.
While the above business ideas involved low investment, for a medical shop, you would require a medium investment of around, say, Rs.4 lakhs to Rs.5 lakhs on average.
The price includes the cost of a license which is quite hefty but a one-time charge. Then the cost of stock can change according to your budget and requirement.
You can stock up less initially, keeping the regular and most used medicines and then adding up the others as per demand.
The profit you can earn from a medicine shop can be around Rs.60,000 to Rs.75,000 monthly. So, on average, your investment of Rs.5 Lakhs (say) will be adjusted within 8 to 9 months.
A Medicine shop is quite a lucrative business venture if you can run it properly.
Gift Shop – Best Retail Business Ideas in India
Gifts do not have seasonal demands. People send gifts to each other on different occasions, be it a wedding, birthdays, house-warming parties and every other festival, occasion and everything.
You can open a gift shop with an investment of Rs.5 lakhs (average); however, it can go up per your stock.
However, the profit margin in this business is around 25%, which is a bit lower than other business opportunities.
While the profit margin is low, due to demand for gifts all over the year, the amount of profit is more, which matters in a business – turnover.
You can also start two businesses by adding cakes to the gift shop. As people order cakes for parties, birthdays, gifts, and even at weddings and other functions, you can attract more customers if you open both together.
ICE Cream Parlor
From 8 to the 80s, ice cream is for everyone, and everyone loves it. At the same time, it has high demand, but there are few popular ice cream parlors.
A few popular ones are there, but you need help finding them. So, opening an ice cream parlor can be a good option, provided you can invest around Rs.6 lakhs to Rs.9 lakhs.
Yes, it is a medium to the high-investment business opportunity. However, with the high investment comes higher profit as well.
You can earn around 40% and above from the ice cream parlor.
Sweet and Snack Stores
Like medicines, another item in demand in India across the year, every day, every minute is sweets. Any festival, occasion, or meal in India is incomplete without a sweet dish.
So, for the love of food, you can open a sweet and snack corner. Generally, these joints remain in high demand as people get food in a few seconds which are delicious and cheap.
You can open a sweet and snack corner within an investment range of Rs.5 lakhs to Rs.10 lakhs. Coming to the profit margin, sweet shops retain around 60% profit and more than that.
So, this business opportunity has demand on its side and a higher profit margin.
Saree Boutique
Women across the country wear sarees. While many wear them daily, others wear them on occasion. However, sarees have in the year demand.
Recently it has been observed that the love for sarees is again growing even among young girls and women, but they are looking for sarees that are comfortable and trendy at the same time.
So, you can encash this growing demand by opening your boutique for sarees. You can start this business with an investment of Rs.4 Lakhs to Rs.6 Lakhs.
You can expect a profit margin of around 40% to 50%.
Cosmetics Store
Cosmetics are also demandable products across the year. The best part of getting into the cosmetic business is that you can earn a whopping profit margin of around 60% with an investment of Rs.1 lakh.
However, the investment can increase if you want to keep more products or you are renting a space for opening the store.
Restaurant
Though opening a restaurant or café is quite an investment of money and time, and if you can set it up once and become popular, there is no looking back.
You can open a café with an investment of Rs.5 lakhs to Rs.10 lakhs, while a restaurant will cost you a little more than this.
The profit margin remains around 15% to 20%, but if the turnover is high, you can make great money from the same.
These days theme-based cafes are in trend, then open-top restaurants are always in high demand, but there are very few. You can explore these options.
Best Retail Business Ideas – Conclusion
Starting any business can be hectic, with much planning, plotting, and budgeting, but if you can implement the plans successfully, you can run a successful business.
Investing is one of the most important factors for starting any business, and you need to analyze how much you can invest.
Retail business in India is the most popular business. These require low to medium investment while the profits are quite high and decent.
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