Reliance Retail becomes the second fastest growing retailer in the world

Reliance Retail Ltd. was ranked second fastest growing retailer in the world by Deloitte in its 2021 ranking of global retail power houses.

According to the Deloitte report, Reliance Retail ranked 53rd among the Global Powers of Retailing in 2021, up from 56th rank in 2020.

In the global list of 250 retailers, Reliance Retail is the only Indian retailer. The company has made it position in the list of Global Powers of Retailing and World's Fastest Retailers for the fourth time in a row.

According to Deloitte, in FY20, the business had grown by 41.8% YoY, owing to a 13.1% rise in the number of stores in its consumer electronics, apparel and lifestyle, and grocery retail chains, which totalled 11,784 stores across 7,000 towns and cities in India.

In FY21, Reliance continued to grow its store count, adding 1,456 new stores, the highest offline expansions conducted by any retailer anywhere in the world amid COVID-19 constrained era.

Between January-March 2021, Reliance Retail registered a 50% increase in profit at Rs. 3113 crore (US$ 424.47 million), while revenue increased by 21% at Rs. 46,099 crore (US$ 6.29 billion), compared to the same time last year. This rapid increase was due to the rise of online shopping.

Reliance Retail is collaborating with WhatsApp to strengthen its digital commerce business on the JioMart portal, as well as to help small businesses on WhatsApp. In FY19, Reliance Retail acquired Shri Kannan Departmental Store's 29 stores, and in August 2020, it reported it would buy Future Group's retail, wholesale, and logistics units for US$ 3.4 billion. On completion of the transaction, the deal would lead the Reliance Retail double down its storage capacity.

In 2020, Reliance Retail acquired Vitalic Health and its online pharmacy platform Netmeds (in August 2020), and a 96% stake in online home decor company UrbanLadder (in November 2020).

For more than two decades, Walmart has topped the list of the world's Top 250 global retailers. The company's retail sales increased by 1.9% year over year in FY2019, fuelled primarily by increases in comparable stores sales in the US.

Amazon has surpassed Costco to become the world's second-largest retailer. The top ten retailers are concentrating on their core markets while withdrawing from certain foreign markets. In FY2019, there were no new entrants to the Top 10, which is already dominated by players from the United States. The only company to step up the rankings was Amazon, which has risen every year since its debut in tenth position in FY15.