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Reliance Retail, the country's largest retailer, has increased the trading area for non-food and general merchandise by almost 50 per cent in its grocery stores in a bid to improve margins. The move is also likely to bolster the retailer's hyper-local aspirations through its e-commerce platform Jiomart, through which it is connecting its Smart and Smart Bazaar stores providing a wider variety to consumers, according to an industry insider. As part of that Reliance Retail is now going for space revision at its stores, allocating higher trading areas for non-food and general merchandise items, a segment which offers higher margins than other segments such as grocery and apparel. The extended retail space would not only allow Reliance Retail to offer a complete range of products for a segment but also fill in the gaps in its offerings, the source said. In the latest June quarter, Reliance Retail's EBITDA margin from operations was 8.2 per cent, which was up 30 basis points on a Y-o-Y
The Indian wedding industry size of approximately Rs 10 lakh crore (USD 130 billion) is second only to food and grocery, with an average Indian spending twice on marriage ceremony than education, a report said. India sees 80 lakh to 1 crore weddings annually compared to 70-80 lakh in China and 20-25 lakh in the US. "The Indian wedding industry is nearly double the size of the industry in the US (USD 70 billion), albeit smaller than China (USD 170 billion)," brokerage Jefferies said in a report. Weddings are the second largest consumption category in India. "Weddings, if they were a category, would rank as the second largest retail category only behind food and grocery (USD 681 billion)," it said. Weddings in India are elaborate and characterised by a range of ceremonies and spending. The industry spurs consumption in categories like jewellery and apparel and indirectly benefits autos and electronics. Despite political efforts to curb them, luxury weddings at exotic locations continu
E-commerce major Flipkart on Monday announced the launch of its fourth grocery fulfilment centre in West Bengal. The fulfilment centre in Malda, around 340 km from Kolkata, is spread over 1.13 lakh square feet with a dispatch capacity of over 1 lakh units per day. It will cater to more than 7,000 orders per day across Berhampore, Malda, Siliguri and the north Bengal belt, and parts of Jharkhand and Bihar, including Bhagalpur, Deoghar, Munger, Purnea, Rampurhat and Saharsa. The company claimed that the centre will generate more than 700 direct and indirect local job opportunities, while providing nationwide market entry for thousands of local sellers, MSMEs, and small-scale farmers in the region. West Bengal Agriculture Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay welcomed the decision of Flipkart to launch its fourth grocery fulfilment centre. "We are proud to welcome Flipkart's another grocery fulfilment centre in the state and foresee greater participation in the digital commerce space in t