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India, Russia and China are the best new markets for retailers, according to A.T. Kearney's Global Retail Development Index™ (GRDI). Several other countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam, also are noted as emerging retail markets.

Now in its sixth year, GRDI identifies exciting new markets where retailers can make new investments. The Index ranks the top 30 emerging countries for retail development using 25 macroeconomic and retail-specific variables.

Modern retail grew between 25 percent and 30 percent in India in the last year alone and by 13 percent in both China and Russia, according to GRDI. Retailers moved from talking about expansion plans to acting on them in top cities.

India’s window of opportunity continues to be open wide for retail investment and development. Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco established footholds in India, while Woolworth’s, Supervalu, Euroset and Starbucks all have plans for entering the country. These retailers join a handful of single-brand retailers that are already there including Lacoste, Chanel, Swatch and Omega.

In China, the action spreads from tier-one to tier-two cities, where a proliferation of modern retail has begun. Wal-Mart, for example, opened a store in the second-tier city of Yuxi. However, there are significant challenges in entering second- and third-tier cities versus first-tier cities. Retailers soon learn that there’s a world of difference between opening a store in Yuxi and opening one in Beijing.

Market saturation in China’s and Russia’s tier-one cities over the past few years means the window of opportunity is closing, while Vietnam and UAE still offer a few more years of opportunity in the main cities.

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