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Reliance Retail, the ₹14,496-crore retail arm of Reliance Industries that has been quietly running a pilot of its e-commerce model over the last six months, is set to launch it officially during the last quarter of this year.
The company’s hunt for the top management including the CEO, COO, Heads of Sales & Marketing, Logistics, HR and Finance, initiated late last year has finally come to an end.
“Reliance has zeroed in on the top five executives including the CEO for the portal and is currently in the process of negotiating their compensation packages,” said a source, requesting anonymity.
The CEO is likely to be an Indian as the company was clear that they wanted an Indian as he would be able to connect with the Indian consumer and their buying behaviour.
“An expatriate CEO may be very good at setting up operations, logistics, processes, technology platform and so on, but may not be able to relate to Indian consumer behaviour which differs from consumers in developed economies,” observed the source.
Fashion and electronicsThe company, which is looking to model itself after US retail giant Walmart, will launch with two main categories — fashion & lifestyle and electronics.
Reliance already has a consumer connect with both the categories with its Reliance Trends and Reliance Digital stores in the country.
The company has more than 1,600 stores in over 140 cities.
Groceries will be launched as the third category, again an area where the company has built a substantial presence with its Reliance Fresh stores.
In-store kiosksReliance plans to use its distribution muscle across the country to facilitate delivery and pick-up of its online merchandise to customers.
“They are looking to encourage customers to place their orders online and pick-up their orders from the nearest Reliance store.
“They are also toying with the idea of setting up in-store kiosks for customers who can opt to order online from within the store itself.
“This is because they don’t want to lose any business in the categories that they operate in to other online players,” said another Reliance insider.
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