Jeff Bezos versus Mukesh Ambani isn’t the only fight in India’s trillion-dollar retail space
Synopsis
The ongoing digital transformation of the corner kirana stores, tens of millions of shops catering to 1.3 billion consumers, will matter for everyone from Unilever NV and Procter & Gamble Co. to State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender. It will also be important to Amazon.com Inc. boss Jeff Bezos and Reliance Industries Ltd. Chairman Mukesh Ambani.
The two billionaires are circling each other over an Indian retailer in crisis.
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A bruising battle for supremacy between two of the world’s richest men is hogging the limelight, but the silent changes in India’s retail landscape deserve equal attention.
Synopsis
The ongoing digital transformation of the corner kirana stores, tens of millions of shops catering to 1.3 billion consumers, will matter for everyone from Unilever NV and Procter & Gamble Co. to State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender. It will also be important to Amazon.com Inc. boss Jeff Bezos and Reliance Industries Ltd. Chairman Mukesh Ambani.
The two billionaires are circling each other over an Indian retailer in crisis.
A bruising battle for supremacy between two of the world’s richest men is hogging the limelight, but the silent changes in India’s retail landscape deserve equal attention.
Synopsis
India had a record 12,192 distributors in January this year, a 42% increase from 8,575 a year ago, according to Bizom, a sales automation firm that transacts with 7.5 million retail stores. The increase was driven entirely by the rural market while the dealer count in the cities shrank.
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The market for daily groceries and household products grew 6.6% in the December quarter, the highest in the past 16 months, according to research firm Kantar Worldpanel.
FMCG companies added about 10 distributors on average every day since January last year in an effort to reach consumers directly through their own dealers instead of using wholesalers.
Beyond the Bezos vs Ambani battle for India’s retail market
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Andy Mukherjee
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A bruising battle for supremacy between two of the world’s richest men is hogging the limelight, but the silent changes in India’s retail landscape deserve equal attention. The ongoing digital transformation of kirana stores, tens of millions of shops catering to 1.3 billion consumers, will matter for everyone from Unilever and Procter & Gamble to State Bank of India. It will also be important to Amazon boss Jeff Bezos and Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani.
The two billionaires are circling each other over an Indian retailer in crisis. The founder of Future Group took Bezos’s money, but sold his debt-laden business to Ambani when the pandemic pressure became too much. Amazon is in India’s courts to scuttle the $3.4 billion sale, which could end up making Reliance’s dominance over the consumer economy unshakeable.
The platform was conceptualised based on a research done during the pandemic that small businesses need to digitise their offerings to meet stiff competition from big brands and shopping apps and portals.