THE RETURN OF BRICK AND MORTAR RETAIL
Fortune India|August 2023
Retail chain giants are back with a bang and continue to add muscle to India's $110 billion organised retail story with more stores and footfalls.
SANJAY RAWAT
THE RETURN OF BRICK AND MORTAR RETAIL

THE 2.6 LAKH CRORE Reliance Retail, spread over 65 million sq.ft. with multiple formats, is inarguably India’s largest retailer. However, its best-performing stores are neither in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai or Bengaluru. Strange as it may sound, they are in Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh (both are Reliance Trends stores). The two stores generate upwards of ₹4 crore in revenue per month. The 8,000-10,000 sq.ft. stores, the only fashion destinations within 100 km radius, attract thousands of consumers from villages and towns in and around. In fact, the closest city to Pasighat is Guwahati, an 8-9 hour bus ride away!

These stores have busted the belief that organised retail is best suited for the top 20 cities. While Reliance is the front runner with a footprint in over 7,000 towns and cities, the likes of Trent Retail, Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Aditya Birla Fashion Retail, Arvind Fashion, Raymond, Spencer’s Retail and V-Mart are also spreading their wings deep and wide. The current playbook of the $110 billion organised retail industry — expected to touch $230 billion by 2030 according to Deloitte India’s Future of Retail report — has one defining principle — to be wherever the consumer is.

Rewind to Covid-hit 2020, every retailer was hurriedly preparing its online strategy to stay afloat, and many believed it to be the end of the road for brick and mortar. It was also the time when the country’s first organised retail chain, Future Group (with formats such as Big Bazaar, FBB and Central), went bankrupt. Three years hence, ecommerce has played a huge role in increasing consumption (with a consumer base of 220 million), but brick and mortar is back with a bang, too.

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Denne historien er fra August 2023-utgaven av Fortune India.

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