Kishore Biyani fortifies the importance of physical retail

Fortifying the importance of physical retail spaces, Future Group chief Kishore Biyani stated that consumers need retail spaces despite the prevalence of e-commerce.

E-commerce is a place where one is buying a product and a brand says Kishore Biyani. In a recent interview with a newspaper, Biyani commented that, in the long term, it’s all about who does it efficiently and what the customer prefers. Even after 20 years of e-commerce in the US, physical is 90 per cent of retail.

Biyani, who has popularised shopping at departmental stores in India in the 1990s, has been dismissive of the country’s fledgeling online businesses and their excessive discounting practices.

India remains largely a traditional retail market where most buying and selling happens through neighborhood mom and pop stores.

Conversely, the recent massive devaluation of India’s billion-dollar e-tail startups and an impending consolidation in the industry, are giving retailers like Biyani renewed confidence. After trying his hand at e-tailing four times and burning Rs350 crores, Biyani has fallen back on what he does best building more stores.

According to Bloomberg retail’s stock has surged 128 per cent between January 2017 and April 2017, for the year ended Dec. 31, 2016, Future Retail, which operates the Big Bazaar chain of hypermarkets, Easy Day chain of grocery stores, and HomeTown chain of home improvement stores, earned a net income of Rs 245 crores as opposed to a loss of Rs 89.8 crores in the previous year.

Biyani further added that the total non-electronic business that happens online is less than the turnover of the Future Group (last fiscal, the revenue was Rs 21,000 crores).