Future of Retail – Bada Business

New Delhi, September 24: The retail asset monetization is picking up pace as private equity firm KKR announced a Rs 55.5 billion ($ 0.75 billion) investment in Reliance Retail. The equity firm announced the investment for a 1.28 percent stake implying a pre-money equity value of $57 billion. This marks the second investment by KKR in a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, following a Rs 11,367 crore investment in Jio Platforms announced earlier this year. Bada Business ‘Retail Ka Mahakumbh’ 2020: Dr Vivek Bindra to Share Business Expansion Strategies on September 27; Click Here to Register.

On Wednesday, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) announced that global investment firm KKR will invest Rs 5,550 crore into RRVL. The RRVL is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. This investment values Reliance Retail at a pre-money equity value of Rs 4.21 lakh crore. KKR’s investment will translate into a 1.28 per cent equity stake in RRVL on a fully diluted basis.

A report by Morgan Stanley stated that the valuation is in line with the last transaction that was announced with Silverlake and compares to its retail base case valuation of $45 billion. The report said. “At these valuations, it would add 6 per cent to Morgan Stanley’s base case NAV for RIL. KKR earlier invested $1.51 billion for 2.3 per cent of Reliance Digital platforms. RIL has sold a 3 per cent stake in RIL retail till date for $1.75 billion”.

Reliance Retail Limited, a subsidiary of RRVL, operates India’s largest, fastest growing and most profitable retail business serving close to 640 million footfalls across its 12,000 stores nationwide. Adding further, the report said the firm sees capital allocation, execution and de-gearing as key to the next leg of stock outperformance. “With industry consolidation pickingup pace in telecom, retail,and global refining, we expect RIL to emerge stronger post-Covid-19 and margins to surprise as pricing power rises,” it added.

The Future of Retail in the COVID-19 Era

The fast-changing landscape is making the retail industry turn from an unorganized to an organized sector. This sector remains one of the greatest industries across the globe. Big moves are marked, in the industry with the introduction of technology, and the retail industry has shown rapid adoption of it very well.

Due to COVID-19, the whole country was under lockdown, which has affected not only the lives of humans but has also hugely affected industries, and they have to cope up with a lot.

Finally, unlock happened after the lockdown of months, and now the retailers have started to evaluate the losses due to the pandemic. Now, the retail industry is hoping to bounce back to the pre-COVID-19 state.

Therefore, consumer behavior is tough to predict currently. Here are the things to be expected post-COVID-19.

Social Distancing the New Normal

After many governments have started allowing stores to open with the rules and set of guidelines for preventing COVID-19, masks are one of the important rules to follow. For running, business owners need to follow these rules by limiting the number of the customer at the store. This will lead to fewer sales, but high-end retailers can achieve it can be achieved by adopting an appointment system.

That’s a true majority of retailers will be facing trouble in maintaining social distancing, and it will affect their business.

Controlling the fear of infection

If you want up your sales, take this serious health emergency seriously, as these health emergencies as serious you can. As we know, people have taken extra careful measures and cautions to avoid the infection. Now owners who are strictly following the rule of wearing masks, avoiding handshakes, sanitization of hands, and doing cashless transactions are attracting more and more customers.

Stores offering these are likely to achieve more sales as the customer will notice business owners care about their health too.

The approach of the omnichannel

There was a time when buying clothes or shoes online seemed like an odd thing to do. Fast forward to today’s time, it’s one of the common and popular ways to shop. The omnichannel approach has raised since the lockdown is imposed as pandemic made this boomed in the eCommerce industry.

This is one of the biggest opportunities that came from retailers to encash the chance and this is a big chance for today as well as gain for future ground.

Due to the pandemic, our life’s work has been thrown us out of order, and we have been forced to accept new normal. The benefit of this hard time approached innovation has taken place. With the aid of technology, things may get easier to face this difficult time After 4 months of incurring losses of ₹90,000 crores this lockdown, the organized retail sector works every day on new strategies to cope with the game.