AJIO's Street Smart Growth Story

How The Omnichannel Strategy Of Reliance's Ajio Paved Way For Its Rapid Expansion In Just 7 Years!

- NANDINI BANERJEE

The year was 2016 and while browsing for a ready-made sari blouse, I stumbled on a website that not only stocked Indian ethnic styles at affordable prices, but also made the sari-clad models look ‘cool’. Hooked, I spent many happy hours going through the inventory, which had, to my surprise, a section on curve wear. Plus sizes were not easily available then and always had problems getting my fit – both offline and online. The website was AJIO and it changed my life.

The growth story of AJIO is synonymous with the journey of India’s digital commerce. In many ways both followed the same trajectory. Fashion became the gateway to ecommerce, as India was a brand-deficient country. There were many Indian-born scalable global brands that were leveraged to advance a company, and through a supportive ecosystem meet the ever-increasing demand. Finally, use technological innovations and become omnichannel.

Coming from the legacy of Reliance, the brand, from the onset, chose an omnichannel strategy for its rapid expansion, where the e-commerce site relies on Reliance Trends’ inventory. With the use of aisle kiosks and in-store couponing, AJIO improved RIL’s O2O (offline-to-online) capabilities and made direct shipments from Trends Footwear stores and Trends stores across the country.

As a result, AJIO was able to leapfrog its way up to position itself as a Myntra rival and had a multi-fold increase in revenue. It’s safe to say that the brand will quickly overtake the Flipkart-owned giant thanks to its parent firm Reliance Retail’s extensive network of physical stores and online-to-offline strategy. Recent statistics reveal that it is surpassing its closest competitors in terms of website visitors. Today, the brand operates both online and offline, with a presence in major cities across the country.