What: Indian retail giant is accelerating in the e-commerce world to become the equivalent of Alibaba in the country.

Why it is important: Reliance Retail is building up a full digital ecosystem including apps and software, which might very well generate the ideal context for new disruptive brands to appear there, just like how Shein emerged from a similar context in China.

Reliance Retail, which is focused on the Indian middle class (30% of the total Indian population) is in the midst of a shopping spree through various acquisitions of start-ups and B2B solutions to leverage whatever portion of the middle class wallet size. Its strategy is to combine traditional retail in top tier Indian cities, and partner with smaller stores or merchants in the tier 2 and tier 3 through its omnipresence in the Indian e-commerce world. As such, it places itself directly in competition with Amazon or Alibaba, by being at the same time a direct retailer and a wholesale marketplace.

Reliance Retail's Covid strategy is to further boost its e-commerce reach