Vocal for Local: Reliance Retail doubles down on local handicrafts; engages with this many artisans

Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries’ retail arm Reliance Retail has doubled down on its three-year-old initiatives Indie by AJIO and Swadesh that focuses on promoting artisans and artisanal products. The company has expanded engagement for a push to locally made artisanal products with over 30,000 craftsmen and more than 40,000 products, it said on Monday. Reliance Retail had showcased these products from more than 50 Geographical Indication (GI) crafts clusters during the festive season. The 30,000 craftsmen represent more than 600 art forms across clothing, textiles, handicrafts, and handmade natural goods. The programmes are “now bearing strong results both in our ability to engage with an increasing number of craftsmen as well as our ability to co-create and co-curate products,” said Akhilesh Prasad, President – Reliance Fashion & Lifestyle.

Reliance Retail’s Indie by AJIO is an online artisan store on fashion marketplace AJIO for local artisans and handcrafted products in categories such as apparel, home furnishing, and accessories such as jewelry, and footwear. Listing products from artisans have also created “direct employment for over 30,000 skilled artisans across the country,” Prasad added. On the other hand, Swadesh is a ‘special’ brand of Reliance Retail that offers more than 400 types of handmade textiles, handicrafts, and agricultural products listed with Geographical Indications. Swadesh already has a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Textiles to enable sourcing of crafted products directly from artisans.

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In its Q2 FY21 results, Reliance had reported 4x growth in orders on AJIO from pre-Covid levels with quarterly revenue run rate being equivalent to its full last year’s revenue. AJIO primarily competes with Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon Fashion in India and is part of Ambani’s e-commerce vision that has JioMart in its center. The e-commerce portal had extended its kirana partnerships to 20 cities during Q2 with a 4x jump in orders over Q1 FY21 with staples and processed food categories driving the growth. The venture had forayed into fashion and electronics as well to take on Flipkart, Amazon, and others.