The connectivity business, which includes Reliance Jio Infocomm subscriptions and recharges, was the largest at 33.5% (Rs 43,739 crore) of total retail sales and grocery was third at 17.9% (Rs 23,371 crore), the company said. Reliance Retail said it added 76 large format Reliance Digital stores and 2,219 smaller Jio Stores in FY19. The company sold more than 570,000 television units, up 40% from FY18, it said.An email sent to Reliance Retail remained unanswered.Analysts said Reliance Retail now has the scale in consumer electronics and mobile phones to be the only brickand-mortar retailer that can take the fight to ecommerce companies Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon. Reliance itself is planning an entry into ecommerce that will leverage its brick-and-mortar presence stores and its digital capabilities through Reliance Jio.“For Reliance, Jio and Reliance Digital are seen as two jointly strategic businesses,” said Devangshu Dutta, CEO at consultancy firm Third Eyesight. “Some polarisation of the market can further happen in favour of them.”In the consumer electronics and smartphone retailing space, Reliance Retail is now almost 10 times bigger than its nearest brick-and-mortar rival, the Tata Group’s Croma.

Source: Economic Times April 20, 2019 01:42 UTC