Bullish on ecommerce, Biyani's relaunches Future Group's net sales channel

The Future Group's ecommerce initiative was relaunched by the group's founder Kishore Biyani in Mumbai today. The relaunch envisages generation of a tenth of the group's revenues in the next four to five years.

The relaunch followed a period in which the Rs10,000-crore groups revised its strategy consolidating its loss-making formats and sharpening focus on ventures such as Big Bazar, Central and Ezone, in the economic downturn. Biyani said that of the group's revenue target of Rs30,000 crore over the next five years, FutureBazaar.com would contribute around Rs3,000 core.
He said the group expected a business of Rs1,000 crore in the next 18-24 months from FutureBazaar.com.

Among the group's relaunched ventures are mobile commerce, teleshopping and online platforms. Biyani added that physical stores were getting expensive and digital commerce was cheaper to physical commerce by 5 to 10 per cent, electronics retail was even more so at 25 to 30 per cent.

He added that a huge amount could be saved on warehousing and inventory costs in the format which could be passed on to consumers.

Future Group has high expectations from its e-commerce initiative as it gears up to expand operations.

To allow consumers to avail of the channel online and through mobile, the company has unveiled The Battle, a dedicated four-day online shopping festival, which would offer mega discounts for consumer electronics products.