More global brands land in Ajio cart

Just weeks after pulling out all international labels that it sells in India from online marketplaces of Flipkart and Amazon, Reliance Retail is adding more international brands on its own e-commerce portal Ajio.com under a bridge-to-luxury category called Ajio Gold, two people familiar with the development said.

“Eventually all bridge-to-luxury brands sold by Reliance Brands will be hosted by Ajio Gold,” one of the persons said. “It may not have pure luxury brands like Zegna or Armani.” Reliance Brands sells the largest number of global marquee labels in India, numbering around four dozens, including Diesel, Canali, Hugo Boss, Furla, Juicy Couture and Kate Spade.

Over the last few months, Ajio had listed brands including Steve Madden, DC Shoes, Gas and Quicksilver. Those brands have been clubbed under Ajio Gold, which was introduced a few months ago. The company has now introduced G Star, Fcuk and Guess among others.

Toys from Hamleys, the iconic UK toy retailer that Reliance Brands acquired earlier this month for Rs 620 crore, have also been placed in Ajio Gold. Reliance Retail did not respond to an emailed questionnaire seeking comments as of press time Friday.

The ramp up of global brands on Ajio comes as Reliance Industries is preparing to launch a comprehensive "new commerce" that seeks to synergise between its vast network of brick-and-mortar stores with its upcoming e-commerce platform that also plans to attract largest suppliers to small kiranas to conduct business.

As a precursor to the launch of its own business-to-consumer (B2C) marketplace that will sell everything from food to fashion, the Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate had been withdrawing its clothes, shoes and lifestyle products from would-be rival marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart, as ET had reported last month.

A source had said Reliance's partner brands will be available on rival marketplaces only until their old stocks last.