22 Mega trends in franchising

With democratisation of entrepreneurship, there has been emergence of businesses that did not exist till few years back. These businesses are premised on simple, affordable and convenient innovations that use fewer resources and are finding advantage over incumbent companies with business models that either promise lower functionality at a lower price point to the industry’s less demanding customers, or find a way to turn non-consumers into consumers.

3 Strategies that will change everything we know about consumption so far:

• 1.Digitization – Removes the constraints on consumption brought by distribution at 1/3^rd of the cost.
• 2.Innovation – Differentiating through services innovation in a product marketplace.
• 3.Localization – Businesses that combine their global offerings with local consumer insights will add relevance at the last mile.

1. Healthy and Happy Living:

The need for healthy living has bought forward many new business concepts in food and wellness categories particularly like cold pressed juices ; functional yoga ; subscription based healthy meals to name a few.

2. Grab & Go concepts

The time-pressed consumer is becoming a lucrative market for innovative business thinkers, from retail store makeovers to e-commerce offerings to out-of-the-box catering.

3. Micro Franchising

Asset light business models where technology is integrated with existing Assets is the order of the day where Business Models like Uber, OLA , Yo Rooms are about bringing more sweat to existing infrastructure.

4. Online Franchising: It is about using franchising for executing business at the last mile where concepts like Dark stores; service models like My Glamm are finding value.

5. Sports league: Today, not just global but local sports like Kabbadi, body building are being re-packaged into sport leagues that are being franchised to create sporting and entertainment IP’s.

6. Travel Retail: Brand Stores on highways, railway stations, metros, airports have higher returns `with more captive and well paying consumers.

7. Early Learning: Early learning is becoming more objective with focused business models related to sports training, Art, science, math’s etc.

8. Local specialties: Indians are going back to their roots particularly in food and personal care with Indigenous and local specialty products making a comeback with contemporary packaging and wider distribution.

9. Organic is trending: Rising health consciousness among the consumers in metro cities is amongst the key factors for the growth. Prior conventional foods, which involved use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is the reason for the birth of this niche segment. It has proven to be the game changer for the new age investor and a positively bizarre profitable idea.

10. On –Demand Resources: The new trend for businesses like salons or schools is to rapidly move away from direct employees towards a Business model, where stylists or specialized teachers are treated as independent contractors, rather than full-time employees bringing category specialization in a business while reducing costs and benefits payouts.

11: Co-Shared places: In co-working spaces, entrepreneurs share one big office and can benefit from a wide range of services depending on their membership, conference rooms, espresso machines or lounge. More dedicated co-working spaces are being created to match with specific demand.

12. Professional personalized services: Services like Matchmaking, Job search, Kids counseling are shifting from generalist to specialized as people need more objective and personalized advice

13. Bespoke Tailoring: Regarded as a Ladies immature industry, it is today being seen as a premium business model catering more to men customers.

14: DIY Concepts: Do it yourself business concepts are coming in business sectors like Laundrettes , Furniture etc which offer cheap and convenience alternatives to consumer.

15: Online to Offline: Products that have found initial spurt in ecommerce are now building offline presence to establish their Brand recognition and loyalty.

16. 24 X 7 Now official: A lot of late Night Business concepts will emerge in retail and convenience food, as round the clock timings are officially permitted by the Government.

17. Distribution /Servicing Hi tech products: Wearable tech watches or smart jewellery or even IOT products would need to create a distribution set up along with service/replacement centers through franchise mode.

18. Mobile Food trucks :The food truck business is about business, time management, marketing and your passion for food that can bring profitability as high as 30 % and can be moved if one location does not generate enough business.

19. Rent a Model : For most part, people don’t really care about buying products , as they only need to use them to get jobs done in their lives .This has given rise to Rent a model that is becoming increasingly popular in categories like toys, books, luxury clothes etc.

20. Cleantech & Waste management Model: Waste management and clean tech businesses that can range from waste collection to recycling through small plants are a great business model.

21. Logistics and Fulfillment: The rise of ecommerce has created another startup opportunity for building a logistics business to deliver goods from warehouse to the customer. The local franchise partner is the last yard of the fulfillment process.

22. Cleaning services: With product aspirations for luxury and time becoming more expensive, cleaning services related to home cleaning, office cleaning, carpets, sofas are all in big demand.