Future Group founder Kishore Biyani today relaunched his digital retailing arm, FutureBazaar.com, which is aimed to generate a tenth of the group’s revenues in the next four to five years.
The relaunch followed a period in which the Rs 10,000-crore group decided to consolidate its loss-making formats and narrow the focus to ventures such as Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Central and Ezone, during the economic slowdown. Biyani said of the group’s revenue target of Rs 30,000 crore in the next five years, FutureBazaar.com will contribute around Rs 3,000 crore. “We expect a business of Rs 1,000 crore in the next 18-24 months from the business,’’ he said.
The group’s relaunched venture includes mobile commerce, teleshopping and online platforms. “Physical stores are getting expensive. Digital commerce is cheaper to physical commerce by 5 to 10 per cent; in electronics, it is 25 to 30 per cent. We can save a lot a lot on warehousing and inventory costs in this format and pass on the same to consumers,” Biyani said.
