Biyani said his group’s online revenues are nearing $150 million. He and others predict that India’s retail industry will have a unique combination of online and offline tie-ups.
Future Group is reported to have had negotiations about a stake sale with Amazon as well as Alibaba executives. Biyani refused to directly comment, simply saying he too is looking to “crack a deal like everybody else.” Amazon declined to comment and Alibaba didn’t respond to a request for comment.
India’s Reliance Industries Ltd. is also fine-tuning its own e-commerce thrust by creating a hybrid online-offline retail platform.
So far, retailers have only scratched the surface by roping in high-income customers in India’s large metropolitan cities. Rural areas and small cities offer fresh opportunity. The retail battle for Indian consumers will be on display again in early November during the festival of Diwali, India’s version of Christmas and Thanksgiving combined.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and chief executive officer of the Alibaba-backed e-commerce company Paytm Mall, says he ultimately sees wide-ranging impact from the billions pouring into the industry. He predicts that small mom-and-pop shops will soon be armed with retail technology as well as cloud and payments products.
Sharma is also the founder of One97 which runs the Paytm digital payments app. Berkshire Hathaway this week invested in One97, becoming the latest global player to bet that digital payments will surge as India’s increasingly affluent consumers shop online.
“Indian retail will get digitized at an unprecedented scale," Sharma said. "Its every nook and cranny will get altered.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.