17th August 2021, Mumbai:

A report by consultancy firm Bain & Co estimates, the Indian e-commerce industry will grow 25 per cent to $38 billion in FY21 despite two washout months during the first wave of the pandemic. The report was published in association with Walmart-owned Flipkart. As per the report, by the end of FY22, the industry’s sales will amount to $47.5 billion.

It has on boarded around 35 million new customers since the onset of the pandemic. Its user base has jumped to 140 million, and is expected to surpass the 150-million-mark in the ongoing financial year. This year, the revival in online shopping has been gradual. Growth in non-metro markets has been higher than in metros, says Shyam Unnikrishnan, Partner, Bain & Co.

The online shopper base has expanded with the inclusion of small towns, women and older shoppers. Growth across categories has been disparate throughout the pandemic, adds Arpan Sheth, Senior Partner, Bain & Co. The outbreak also caused a one-time spurt in demand for mobile phones and other electronics categories. However, they did not see as substantial a jump during the second wave in April–May 2021, he added.

According to him, essential categories such as grocery, household items, and personal care saw continued acceleration. Aided by the pandemic, e-tail reach, including grocery, has gone up to around 4.6 per cent in FY21 compared to 3.5 per cent a year ago.

The difference in average selling prices in metros and non-metros continues to narrow, while rural markets are driving the growth revival. Consumers who moved online to order groceries and other essentials are staying back with companies like BigBasket, Grofers, Amazon India and Flipkart, scaling up their infrastructure to meet the steady growth in demand for essentials. According to the report, online grocery grew by 80 per cent in FY21. Practically all ecommerce and grocery platforms are rolling out express delivery options to deliver essentials in an hour or less.

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7th August 2021, Mumbai: 

The Supreme Court of India has stalled the $3.4-billion Reliance-Future deal. The decision is likely to reshape India's pandemic-hit shopping sector and decide if Amazon can blunt Reliance's dominance of the country's nearly trillion-dollar retail market.

Amazon and Future have been locked in legal battles over the Reliance-Future Retail deal, with the US firm accusing the Indian group of violating pre-existing contracts when it sold its assets to Reliance. Future has denied any wrongdoing.

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court said that a decision by a Singapore arbitrator in October—that put the Reliance-Future deal on hold after finding merit in Amazon's objections—was valid and applicable in India. Amazon had argued that the order is binding, while Future had argued it was not. Both sides agreed to use the Singapore arbitrator in case of disputes when they entered into a $200-million deal in 2019.

Around 1,300 of Future's more than 1,700 retail outlets in 400 cities sell groceries. That makes Future a prized asset for both Reliance and Amazon.

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16th August 2021, Mumbai:

Future Retail posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 1,147.28 crore in Q1 FY2021-22 as the company was impacted by the second COVID-19 wave. The company had posted a net loss of Rs 552.91 crore for April-June period a year ago. Future Retail’s total income during the quarter declined to Rs 1,407.11 crore as against Rs 1,447.62 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year. Its total expenses increased to Rs 2,554.39 crore as against Rs 2,000.53 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The Kishore Biyani-led Future Group firm entered into debt restructuring of the existing financial debt of the company under an RBI announced resolution framework for COVID-19 related stress. FRL has filed two applications before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), challenging the October 25, 2020 order of the Emergency Arbitrator (EA) restraining the Future Group from going ahead with its Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Industries, which owns Reliance Retail.

In August last year, the board of the company had approved the amalgamation of FRL along with other group companies with Future Enterprises to facilitate the Rs 24,713 crore deal to sell the retail and wholesale business to Reliance Retail.

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10th August 2021, Mumbai:

Known as a complete family wear brand, Cantabil in the last 21 years has emerged strong in Indian fashion industry. The brand set up in 1989 by Vijay Bansal, Chairman and Managing Director, for designing, manufacturing, branding and retailing a complete range of formal-wear, party-wear, casual and ultracasual clothing for men, women, and kids in the middle to high-income group.

At its state-of-the-art manufacturing unit in Bahadurgarh, Haryana the brand makes around one lakh garments every month. Led by Deepak Bansal, Wholetime Director, the Delhi-based company Cantabil is listed with both National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Except for the last two COVID years, the company has been growing at an annual rate of 30 per cent CAGR and expects to continue growing at the same rate for the next five years.

What are your upcoming collections?

During the pandemic most corporate companies adopted the work from home culture which increased demand for comfortable clothes. Consumers demanded clothes that could be worn at home as well as during official meetings and social media appearances. However, as the pandemic comes under control, they are likely to move away from their current buying behavior. Hence, through our upcoming collection we plan to offer an intermediate solution to changing demands. The collection will introduce several innovations in fabric, styling as well as fits to satisfy the needs of customers.

Elaborate on your retail network

Cantabil’s first flagship store opened in New Delhi in 2000. Since then, the brand has expanded its network to 325 exclusive retail outlets across 18 states, with a team of around 2,500 fashion industry experts. Between 2000 and 2006, the brand opened 40 stores in Delhi including high-street and mall stores besides venturing into nearby states like Rajasthan in 2006.

In the last 21 years, Cantabil has revamped its business strategy to achieve sustainable growth. It has launched various digital marketing initiatives to enhance customer engagement through social media platforms. Currently, the brand is focusing on new e-commerce ventures with Myntra, Ajio, Flipkart, Amazon, Tata cliq and PayTM.

Growing interest in mid-premium fashion apparels amongst consumers in the small towns has opened up Tier II and II markets for our brand. We are opening around five to six stores in these cities every month and aim to reach a store count of 400 in 2021 and around 700 to 750 in the next five years. We also aim to increase our revenues to Rs 1,000 crore in the next few years.

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7th August 2021

The FY22 Q1 revenues of Shoppers Stop have grown to Rs 201.0 crore against revenue of Rs 53.9 crore in the corresponding quarter of prior fiscal. The stores operated merely for 28 per cent of days in Q1, which impacted the sales and profits, according to the company.

The company’s EBITDA for Q1 FY22 marginally declined to Rs 1.3 crore from Rs 1.6 crore. However, loss for the period reduced to Rs 104.9 crore from the earlier loss: of Rs 120.2 crore.

During the quarter, Shoppers Stop launched itsr new brand viz “Bandeya” in mens Indianwear category. Its private brand ‘insense’ recorded the highest sales in women western wear category. The Indian fashion retailer aims to open over 20 stores across large and small formats in FY22 besides modernizing 10-15 stores.

For operational days of June’21, the retailer observed west recorded 70 per cent recovery, north and east at 50 per cent while recovery of south was lower due to higher COVID cases.

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Politics is a set of activities associated with the governance of a country or an area. It involves making decisions that apply to group of members. I would have realized that technology is an accessible field at a younger age. I really got interested in technology when I took a role on President Obama’s Technology, Innovation, and Government Reform transition team in 2008 to make recommendations.