If you have been following the trend in the retail industry for a while, you would have seen that most of the huge retail operators such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy and other huge retailers have switched to e-commerce operations.
Now, we are not saying that these stores have been shut down and they have pivoted to e-commerce on the whole. However, it is also a fact that they have partially switched to e-commerce as a means of selling and they are seeing success as well.
But that does not mean that we will not see anything against this trend. As we see from the latest report from India’s LiveMint which reveals a reverse trend move by one of its biggest retailers. This report mentions that one of India’s biggest retailers which is Future Group led by Kishore Biyani has scaled down its e-commerce operations. Yes, the Future Group has also fired more than 400 of its employees due to this switch.
Getting more details into the matter, it has been reported that Future Group which launched its Retail 3.0 venture has scaled it down. In 2019, Future Group had decided to launch Retail 3.0 e-commerce venture because of a slowdown in retail spends and delays in expected funds. However, this move to cut down operations seem strange.
Also, some employees revealed that the Future Group laid off its employees for the last few months. But since nothing has been made official yet, they revealed this on the condition of remaining anonymous. At the time of launch of its e-commerce venture, Future Group had planned to switch from retail to e-commerce.
One employee even revealed that “The idea was to convert the entire offline journey of a Future Group consumer into the online world,”. However, it looks like Future Group’s plans did not turn out fruitful due to local and international competitors.
