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There's a store in Hiranandani, Powai called Su-riti, a shop for traditional hand-crafted stuff. It's located on the second floor. Whenever we are around that shop, we don't see too many prospects walking in.

Few days back, the shop set up a tent-like exhibition on the ground floor and over-looking the main street. And the prospects you thought would never walk into the shop on second-floor were all there checking the merchandise in that tent-like exhibition which was much smaller than the shop. 

Two points:

• Sophisiticated environments can deter prospects from walking in.
• Indians are a sniffing lot it seems. They like to touch this, check that, try that, move on, lift this, weigh that and leave! Or may be buy! Environments in which they are in need to help them do that. That's when they might just be lucky to make the prospects feel at home. And have a chance to convert that feeling into shopping.

Third point, courtesy Ninad's comment. Guess that's the point why I wrote this post in the first place; just forgot exploiting the metaphor 'sniff' I used in the title.

The shop needs to be present within sniffing distance. So the people walking by – who do not have any particular intention of buying – can just walk in without much hassle. Walking in could just be the required step in inspiring that intention to buy. Guess, the tent-exhibition did just that for this shop.

Shops in malls also suffer from this problem. They aren't often within sniffing distance. Even when they are, they are closed with glass walls/doors. Couple that with the fleeting intentions of Indian buyers, it really becomes tough for these shops (and therefore, the malls) to turn commercially viable.