Thursday, 5 July 2018

Mukesh Ambani takes on Amazon, Walmart in India e-commerce slugfest

Mukesh Ambani arrives for the 41st AGM of Reliance Industries Ltd at Birla Matoshree, in Mumbai on  05th, July,2017- KAMLESH PEDNEKAR

Reliance Industries Ltd. plans to take on the likes of Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. in India’s retail industry by creating a platform that combines online and conventional shopping.

Billionaire Chairman Mukesh Ambani outlined the plan Thursday at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Mumbai saying Reliance saw its “biggest growth opportunity in creating a hybrid, online-to-offline new commerce platform.” The effort will involve the group’s Reliance Retail Ltd. and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. businesses, he said. The latter will also introduce a fiber-based broadband service August 15.

Global retail powerhouses like Amazon and Walmart have been investing in India’s retail industry, where e-commerce sales may more than double to $72 billion by 2022 from $32.7 billion in 2018, research firm eMarketer estimates. The retail-to-refining conglomerate is looking to tap the online market after spending as much as 2.5 trillion rupees ($36.3 billion) in setting up mobile and fiber broadband infrastructure, Ambani said.

No comments:

Post a Comment