India’s largest retailer, Reliance Retail, is setting its sights on ecommerce.
Reliance Retail, announced that they are planning on adding an online store to the 1,500 physical stores, already spread over India. It looks like Reliance is planning on taking back local shoppers from larger international companies like Amazon and eBay. The Indian ecommerce market holds great potential, and is growing at an exponential rate. That being said, the Indian market is not without its restrictions.
In India, retailers are restricted to offering their services within cities and metro areas, and conveying into ecommerce solutions will allow Reliance to capture a larger market share. In addition to the restrictions on physical retailers, India’s ecommerce marketplace model is also quite restricting.
The Indian marketplace model does not allow for ecommerce companies to sell their products directly to the consumers. They can only use Ecommerce platforms to assist in sales, which in turn take a percentage or listing fee for the sale.
"If the marketplace model makes sense, we will do it. We are evaluating all possibilities. We will adopt multi-channels to retail, which has been made clear in presentation to analysts during the latest quarterly results," said a spokesperson for Reliance.
Reliance is planning on releasing their website within the next 6-8 months after they are sure on how to approach the Indian marketplace and its restrictions.
Photo courtesy of: Wikipedia
