SP Jain in the News

Two of India’s leading retail chains are currently preparing the ground for their full-fledged e-commerce forays, although in totally different ways.

While Future Group, which operates the popular Big Bazaar hypermarket chain, is busy listing its labels on Amazon, rival Reliance Retail is withdrawing its products from all e-commerce platforms, as parent Reliance Industries gears up to launch its own online marketplace.

Dr Silvia Vianello, Director – Innovation Center at SP Jain School of Global Management, shared her views in Quartz India, a leading news portal with a global reach, on the diverse strategies adopted by the two retail behemoths. The article titled ‘Is Amazon a friend or foe? India’s two largest retailers have divergent views’ was published on May 21, 2019.

“Even with big investments, it will be hard for a new player to gain a huge customer base like Amazon. It’s really global with more than 100 million (Amazon) Prime members worldwide. And Future Group will benefit from it,” Dr Silvia Vianello told Quartz India.

She expressed her doubts on whether Future Group’s strategy will work across price ranges. “If the Future Group wants to sell exclusive products, Amazon can be a good partner, but if they want to sell products with low margins, it will be difficult to be profitable,” added Dr Vianello.

She also spoke about crucial aspects like the delivery mechanism, and the data and customer relationships of Future Group and Reliance Retail.