Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance (RIL) group's retail juggernaut seems to be gaining scale uninterrupted, despite hiccups like political protests, going by the success of its the customer loyalty programme.Reliance Retail, within the four months of rolling out its first store in November 2007, has touched an outlet base of 500 stores in various formats, spanning three million square foot (sq ft) of occupied space in various cities.This expansion of the retail space has been achieved alongside the company's customer loyalty programme - Reliance One - which has also touched a membership base of three million customers.The average of one loyal customer per every square foot of retail space is probably the highest and fastest loyalty programme amongst all the retail companies in India, according to industry people who did not wish to be identified.Reliance Retail, a 100% subsidiary of the country's most valued firm Reliance Industries, is targeting to make its loyalty programme one of the top 10 loyalty card base in the worldwide retail sector by 2012.Reliance One, a pre-paid facility which allows customers to start using it right from the point of purchase, is valid across all the nine different formats of Reliance Retail stores.Building on the success of Reliance One, the company is also seeking to become "the distributor of choice" for all financial services companies with an all-India footprint at every product level, said an industry source.
