Consumers in India are feeling the inflationary heat. Expenses are rising faster than income and wallets are being squeezed.

Retailers and manufacturers are caught between shrinking margins due to rising commodity costs and price sensitive consumers. In this scenario, retailers and manufacturers need to collaborate and find creative ways to spend promotional dollars that result in true market expansion and category growth.

Increasingly affluent consumers have become more discerning about where they spend their money and have expanded the types of goods they buy. In short, “one size” shopping no longer works for many consumers, and retailers are adapting to win a bigger share of wallet.

Given the recent economic slowdown in developed markets, the ‘value-conscious’ shopper is more visible across store aisles than every before.

The USDA is forecasting overall food prices to go up between two to three percent in 2011, due largely to the rising cost of commodities and lower supplies of basic ingredients – higher than the past few years, but certainly not the levels being encountered around the world.

A new survey by The Nielsen Company shows that of the 46 percent of Americans shopping this week, one-fifth will wait to shop in order to get last minute deals while nearly 40 percent say they haven’t had time to shop yet.

When retailers compete on price and rollbacks are market-wide, retail traffic trends rarely change. More importantly, Nielsen research shows that price rollbacks can actually reduce category dollars, making an effective pricing strategy a necessity.

As U.S. consumers prepare to hit the road for Labor Day weekend, nearly half (45 percent) of U.S. households are diligently seeking lower gas prices according to a recent Nielsen Company survey.

Lower prices for food and other household items are great for consumers, but for retailers, they don’t always achieve the desired rise in sales as the competition is quick to follow.

By 2015, Nielsen predicts mass supercenters and e-commerce to be the big winners. Industry change will grow faster and more intense in the next five years, requiring advanced, future-focused change management skills among CPG professionals.