Reliance Retail to scale up distribution of clothing under B2B venture

Reliance Retail has launched over 50 exclusive brands and plans to increase the number by 2-3 times, under its strategy to expand the fashion business beyond its own stores

Reliance Retail is scaling up distribution of clothing and fashion products to third-party stores, under its business-to-business (B2B) venture.

According to a report in The Economic Times (ET), the company has already launched over 50 such exclusive brands and it plans to increase the number by 2-3 times, under its strategy to expand the fashion business beyond its own stores. 

The company has launched brands that include Silkfeet and Jivers in footwear, Xlerate in footwear and athleisure, Feet Up in women’s footwear, Dhuni by Avaasa in Indian wear, Riva in womenswear, John Player Select in menswear, Kidlyboo in kidswear, and Altair in t-shirts.

 

Reliance Retail will distribute these brands across all markets, which will be sold through third-party stores that are part of its apparel distribution network.

An executive said that the company is also running a pilot under the Ajio Business banner, which will be scaled up by next summer. “Reliance will launch its own apparel and fashion brands across categories such as western wear, Indian wear, inner wear, lingerie, costume jewellery, footwear, fashion accessories in the value and mid-premium range to be sold through lakhs of third-party retailers. Organising the unorganised will be the next thrust area,” the executive said.

Another executive said that in the next five years, the company's B2B business in apparel will become a bigger revenue generator than Reliance Retail’s own apparel retail stores. “Around 80 per cent of the apparel retail market is unorganised in India, which is a bigger opportunity to cater than just grow through own stores," the executive said.

Reliance Retail has over 4,000 stores across multiple brands, and its Trends brand has over 2,600 stores. The company is distributing other popular apparel and fashion brands through Ajio Business, which include Campus, Khadim’s, Liberty, Biba, Globaldesi, Lotto, and Adidas, according to the ET report.

The executive said, “The company will expand the newer formats by 50 per cent annually for next few years, while Trends stores will be expanded by 10-15 per cent. The overall apparel market is growing at 11 per cent, and the organised retail is growing at 18-20 per cent.”