Reliance Retail, the retail arm of Reliance Industries (RIL), leveraged regional festivals and public sale events to grow topline in the June quarter, a top executive said in the firm’s latest earnings call.
Reliance Retail had reported a nearly 19% year-on-year (YoY) jump in its June quarter (Q1) profit to `2,448 crore on Friday. Gross revenue touched `69,948 crore, an increase of 19.5% YoY, the highest-ever reported by the retailer. The company also saw a 16.3% YoY growth in store count and 42.3% YoY growth in footfalls. The latter was the highest-ever for the retailer, its results showed.
Dinesh Taluja, chief financial officer at Reliance Retail, said in a post-results earnings call that the company undertook several marketing events targeting regional festivals such as Poila Baisakh in West Bengal and Tripura, Baisakhi in Punjab, Vishu in Kerala, Rajjo in Odisha, Eid in J&K and Kerala to take advantage of consumer spending during the period.
“There were curated assortments that were pushed across categories to serve customer needs during festivals and sale events,” Taluja said.
For instance, in jewellery, the company rolled out a special Akshaye Tritiya collection in April, launches such as ‘Vivaham ‘and ‘Amanti’ were done targeting the wedding season in April-May and limited edition jewellery was pushed on the occasion of Mother Day’s in May.
A similar strategy was used in apparels and fashion targeting special days during the quarter, Taluja said. Ajio, the online retail platform of Reliance Retail, added 2 million customers during the April-June period with several new launches, Taluja said.
In grocery, which posted a 59% revenue growth YoY, business was driven by Smart and Smart Bazaar formats. ‘Public Holiday Sales’ during Baisakhi and Eid, Taluja said, drove growth in footfalls and orders.
Category-led promotions (Chill-Fest for ACs, Boot-Up for laptops, IPL for TVs) and regional festivities drove engagement in consumer electronics, Taluja said. “Electronics is seeing better average bill values as consumers buy bigger and better products,” he said.
The consumer electronics business, excluding devices, delivered 14% YoY revenue growth, while the fashion and lifestyle business delivered revenue growth of 15% YoY driven by an increase in store traffic and average bill value, he added.
Taluja also said that the company was synergizing a grocery new commerce operating model (under JioMart) with Metro Cash and Carry India, acquired by the firm.
The executive also said that the company was building a new marketing property called ‘Grand Shopping Carnival’ to drive incremental users on JioMart.