Small format stores to drive Future’s growth, says Biyani
The Kishore Biyani-led Future Group is spending ₹100 crore in the first phase of rolling out its ambitious Retail 3.0 digital strategy, which blends technology with the brick-and-mortar store model.
Under the new model, the company is allowing customers, who have paid ₹999 annual membership fee, to order grocery and food products through its app, chat platform WhatsApp and phone from small format stores like Easyday, Nilgiris and Heritage. The move pits the retail giant against the entities such as online food and grocery platforms Big Basket and Grofers.
The company said that it has already signed up seven lakh members so far and aims to take this figure to 17 lakh by the end of this fiscal year.
Future Group aims to post a turnover of ₹40,000 crore this fiscal year out of which ₹5,000 crore is expected to come from smallformat stores, which have been identified as the growth driver.
“We expect our small format stores to overtake Big Bazaar in the next four years,” said Biyani.
Big Bazaar is Future Group’s flagship large-format retail store, which is expected to post a turnover of ₹20,000 crore this fiscal year. Currently, home delivery is
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available in 70 small-format stores in Delhi and the company plans to take this new model to 1,000 stores across the country in the next two months.
“What we are offering is similar to Amazon Prime, where one gets certain privileges having paid a membership fee. Customers want quality, convenience and competitive prices and we offer all three to them,” said Future Group chairman and chief executive Kishore Biyani.
Apart from the flexibility of ordering online, home delivery and picking the products from the store itself, the members will also get a 10% discount on the products at these stores. Members will also get to avail offers across the company’s retail stores like FBB and Central. Currently, the membership only allows online product ordering but the company plans to introduce services like movie ticket booking and home insurance in the next few months.