AJIO, the e-commerce arm of Reliance Retail, is exploring an entry into the luxury segment even though it is a niche market.

“While luxury is a niche market, you find its customers not only in large metros but in other cities, too,” Vineeth Nair, Business Head, AJIO.com, told BusinessLine . “We see a huge potential for it offline and, with more consumers embracing online shopping, we believe that there is an opportunity to explore that potential.”

This comes after fashion e-commerce portal Myntra, owned by Flipkart, announced last November that it will be selling luxury brands on its portal.

Reliance Retail currently sells several premium international brands such as Superdry, GAS, Steve Madden and Dune London in its offline stores. AJIO already offers more than 2,00,000 options from over 1,000 brands and over 50,000 exclusive styles. It recently launched its private label Outryt at the Lakme Fashion Week. According to Nair, the company’s online platform has given it an opportunity to understand the consumer profile and buying behaviour.

Kiosks are RJio stores

AJIO is also adding more kiosks at RJio stores across India, where it helps customers familiarise themselves with its online store and place purchase orders. It plans to scale up the kiosks in tier 2 cities soon, said Nair. AJIO operates 150 such kiosks at present.

“The consumer today is spoilt for choice — be it in terms of options available or the price at which they are accessible. We see a shift in how we understand consumer loyalty. Brands recognise the need to keep the consumer engaged and give a holistic retail experience rather than just transactional experience,” he said.

Deep discounting

Commenting on how consumers are getting used to deep discounting, he said: “Price surely is a critical factor but there are many more levers that retailers today need to leverage to attract and retain customers.”

Reliance has a clear direction, according to him, on looking at building a sustainable proposition from a consumer point of view and at the same time not burn margins to scale up.

That seems to have particularly helped it during the economic slowdown. While other players struggled last year, AJIO saw a 78 per cent year-on-year growth.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail has topped the list of ‘50 Fastest-growing retailers globally between FY13 and FY18’ in the Deloitte Global Powers of Retailing 2020 index. It had ranked sixth in 2019.

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