June 9, 2021
In Euromonitor International’s India retail rankings for 2020, Walmart Inc, which owns e-commerce marketplace Flipkart in India, reserved its top position and Amazon took second place.
Reliance Group, which runs Reliance Retail with a presence across online and offline retailing in multiple categories ranked third, the same as a year ago. Avenue Supermart, which runs the DMart chain of supermarkets, improved its rankings moving up to the fifth spot from sixth in the previous year. Paytm parent One97 Communications Ltd moved up one spot from its earlier rank.
The Tata group saw its ranking drop from five in 2019 to number six, while the Aditya Birla Group at number seven in 2019 saw its rank dip to number eight in the same period as e-commerce took priority while those with substantial offline presence suffered on account of lockdowns.
Euromonitor’s annual rankings were based on the value of goods sold by Indian retailers across segments such as grocery, apparel, lifestyle, and pharmacy from January to December 2020. Total retail sales declined in 2020, the market research the organization said, without revealing numbers.
After a year of decline in 2020, retailing in India is set to report an “immediate strong rebound” to growth in current value terms in 2021, said analysts at Euromonitor. This, they said, will be driven by expansion led by large format stores and investments in e-commerce.
Analysts at Euromonitor said that in the future, store-based retailers, such as modern grocery retailers, are expected to look towards second-tier and third-tier cities for growth opportunities. As more brands invest in e-commerce and with the rising smartphone penetration rate in the country, mobile e-commerce is expected to see a particularly strong increase, the highest within retailing in the forecast period,” India’s lockdown last year led to a surge in online sales. Essential stores were operational, but it was mostly the small mom-pop stores that benefited as shoppers picked proximity and convenience to buy groceries. Large format modern trade stores were significantly impacted.India’s retail landscape is set to change as online commerce gains significant currency following the coronavirus outbreak. Some of the world’s largest retailers are now engaged in a fierce battle for a share of the consumer’s wallet. Recently, Tata Digital, a unit of Tata Sons, acquired a majority stake in online retailer Big Basket. More retailers are building assets, both offline and online. Reliance Retail’s JioMart is set to expand into more categories after it started selling smartphones and white goods. Last year, Reliance Retail Ventures also bought over Future Group’s vast retail assets giving the company an edge in India’s retail market.
Euromonitor noted that e-commerce players such as Amazon, Walmart-owned Flipkart, and Reliance has already partnered with traditional grocery retailers.