Reliance Retail Announced as the Second Largest Retailer in the World by Deloitte

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Reliance Retail Ltd. has been ranked second fastest growing retailer in the world in the 2021 ranking of global retail power houses by Deloitte, down from top rank secured the previous years. It has been ranked 53rd in the list of Global Powers of Retailing, improvement from the earlier 56^th position, according to the Deloitte report.

Featuring in the Coveted List

The list is topped by US giant Walmart Inc., which retains its position as world’s top retailer. Amazon.com Inc.’s position improved pushing it up to the second rank. Costco Wholesale Corporation of US slipped a rank to be placed third, followed by Schwarz Group of Germany.
The top 10 entries feature seven US retailers and one from the UK (Tesco PLC at 10th position). Other US retailers in the top 10 include The Kroger Co (ranked 5th), Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc (6th) and CVS Health Corporation (ranked 9th).

Coming In Second

Reliance Retail is the only Indian entry in the global list of 250 retailers. It features consecutively for the 4th time in the list of Global Powers of Retailing and World’s Fastest Retailers.
“Reliance Retail, last year’s Fastest 50 leader, dropped to second place. The company recorded YoY growth of 41.8 per cent, driven primarily by a 13.1 per cent increase in the number of stores in its consumer electronics, fashion and lifestyle and grocery retail chains, to 11,784 stores across 7,000+ towns and cities in India at fiscal year-end (FY20),” Deloitte said. E-commerce, it said, is a second growth driver, through both digital commerce (B2C) and B2B. “The company is partnering with WhatsApp to further accelerate Reliance Retail’s digital commerce business on the JioMart platform using WhatsApp and to support small businesses on WhatsApp,” the report stated.

“Reliance Retail acquired the 29 stores of Shri Kannan Departmental Store at the end of FY2019, and in August 2020 announced it would acquire Future Group’s retail, wholesale and logistics units for USD 3.4 billion.” When fully approved, the deal will almost double Reliance Retail’s store space. Reliance Retail also made two e-commerce acquisitions in 2020, buying Vitalic Health and its online pharmacy platform Netmeds in August, and a 96 per cent stake in online home decor company UrbanLadder in November.