Online retail continues to surge despite store sales recovery

10 May 2022, Mumbai:

The latest financial data by several top companies shows online retail continues to surge in India despite store footfalls and sales recovering back to pre-COVID levels.

E-commerce sales by India’s largest retailer, Reliance Retail grew to 17 percent as compared to 10 percent a year ago, while sales of Tata-owned Trent surged to 7 percent as compared to 5 percent in FY21.

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Gaurav Jain, Head-Strategy, Reliance Retail says, consumers are shopping through both online and offline channels.

They are using omni-channel capabilities to benefit from the convergence of technology and physical stores.

E-commerce sales galloped during the pandemic due to the restrictions on brick-and-mortar stores and malls, and consumers preferred to shop from their homes.

However, the pace of growth slowed in 2021-22 due to the easing of restrictions and a dip in infection rates.

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Yet, sales by online channels continued to surge.

India’s largest consumer goods maker, Hindustan Unilever’s online sales including e-commerce channels and internal ordering app Shikhar in the March quarter increased by over 20 percent of its overall sales.

Sanjiv Mehta, Managing Director notes, that the company’s D2C website already has 25 million annual visits. Along with the e-commerce platform, its online sales contribute 30 percent to Lakme's business.

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