Amazon Partners With Future Retail, Is This A Move Against Mukesh Ambani?

Amazon is attempting to widen its footprint in the Indian retail market by deepening its relationship with Future Retail, the second-largest retail chain in the country. India is one of the most important overseas markets for the company, as it is for many other companies.

On Monday, Amazon and Future Retail said that they have entered a long-term business relationship agreement so that Future Retail’s stores can expand its reach via Amazon India market place. Currently, there are over 1,500 Future Retail stores in the country, but the company hasn’t explored the online market place, not in an aggressive way.

Under the agreement, Amazon India will be Future Retail’s authorized online sales channel for Big Bazaar, its grocery and department stores chain, as well as Foodhall, its lifestyle food superstore. Future Retail, which has more than 350 million footfalls annually, will also list its items on Prime Now, the two-hour delivery platform of the e-commerce giant, which is in operation across Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi.

The two companies said that they will focus on the grocery category, which Amazon India has been working on some time now, including beauty, apparel, fashion, and merchandise products. India’s second-largest retail chain will also augment its current store infrastructure at its outlets to facilitate product packaging and pickup seamlessly for online sales. Future Retail and Amazon India have already rolled out this service to 22 stores, saying that the early results are encouraging.

Future Consumer, a part of Future Retail, has also partnered with Amazon for online distribution on Amazon India marketplace. Future Consumer sells a wide selection of beauty, personal care, home care, and food products. The company has also set up several in-house brands like CleanMate for household cleaning, Kaka for personal care, Mother Earth for organic staples, Karmiq for dry fruits, Dreamery for dairy, Voom for fabric care, and Tasty Treat for snacks.

As stated by Future Retail’s Chairman and Managing Director Kishore Biyani, this partnership will help the companies to build upon the other's strengths in both the digital and physical terms so that consumers can be beneficial from the best products, services, price, and assortment.

The news on this partnership comes days after Mukesh Ambani announced that he would launch JioMart to take on Amazon and Flipkart. Is the e-commerce giant taking its turn to fight back?