Retailers go to small towns for big growth

Reliance Digital has established its presence in more than 100 cities and plans to expand further

In the September quarter, Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail opened its hypermarket Big Bazaar at Hajipur in Bihar, Puri in Odisha, and Raigarh in Chhattisgarh, taking the presence of its flagship stores to 130 cities across 26 states. Big Bazaar has also signed up properties for new stores in the remaining three states — Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland. 

A clear sign organised retailers are not only reaching tier-II and tier-III towns but beyond is that Biyani has announced plans to have 10,000 small-format neighbourhood stores across the nation in the next five years, up from 700 now. In FY18 itself, he plans