Reliance Retail aims to be world's largest apparel retailer by volume in two years
01 March 2023, Mumbai
Reliance Retail expects to become the largest garment seller by volume worldwide within the next two years.
With over 4,000 fashion and apparel stores, including popular brands such as Trends, Centro, Azorte, and Fashion Factory, the company sold 430 million pieces of garments in 2022, making it the market leader in the segment. The growth of Reliance Retail has been majorly driven by the fashion and lifestyle segment, which expanded by 43 per cent in the past five years.
Reliance believes that India's growth story is still intact, and customer sentiment reflects a feel-good factor in the market. The company aims to manage customer sentiment to ensure that the market grows.
The company aims to be the market leader in garment sales worldwide. Fashion contributes the highest to overall profitability, with the widest margins at 24 per cent.
As income grows in India, the likelihood of growth in the premium segment is expected to be slightly faster now. The company recently opened the first standalone store of American brand Gap in India and aims to drive the partnership with India-centric merchandise as well as innovative technology like grab-and-go concepts. Fashion is the fastest-growing category in India's tier-2 and tier-3 cities, with over 93 per cent growth in fiscal 2022.
Experts believe that India's consumption structure has been skewed in the past, with a narrow base of richer consumers accounting for a large chunk of the overall market. However, as the economy broadens across many more cities, and the impact reaches further down the income ladder, the opportunity for value-formats and value-brands is expanding.
Reliance is entering this area with a youth-centric brand.
