Reliance Retail refashions its biz to align with Gen Z needs
The retailer is speeding up product cycles and investing in tech-enabled store experiences
Reliance Retail is reshaping its fashion business around faster-moving private labels as it looks to win over India’s young shoppers. It is betting that speed, and control over its own brands, will be critical as competition intensifies across apparel and lifestyle retail.
The shift is visible across its brands, such as Azorte and Zivame, where the retailer is speeding up product cycles, adding more trend-focused styles, and investing in tech-enabled store experiences for consumers who increasingly discover fashion through digital content and influencers.
The push reflects how Reliance Retail is adapting to a market where younger consumers are increasingly setting the pace of competition.
“India’s median age is 26. If you are in an aspirational category like fashion, lifestyle or beauty and you are not targeting this segment, then you are missing the obvious,” said Ankur Bisen, senior partner at The Knowledge Company. “This is the bread and butter segment, and it is extremely [competitive].”
Reliance Retail’s fast-fashion brand Azorte offers a glimpse of how the company is responding to that shift.
“When we launched Azorte, the focus was on building a brand as good as H&M or Zara, but homegrown,” Sara Fanning, creative head of Azorte, told Mint in an interview. “We were very fashion-focused and wanted to be bang on trend, in time with what you’d see internationally.”
Consumer feedback has helped the brand evolve and expand into various product categories, she said.
The brand is preparing to launch
“AZ”, a youth-focused line aimed at teenagers and first-time fashion buyers, this month.
“There’s a big group of customers between the kids’ category and 18-plus who want something more exciting,”
Fanning said. “So we’re launching a youth brand that’s younger and more dynamic, with price points that are accessible for students.” Azorte was launched by Reliance in 2022 with its first store in Bengaluru. It now has 40 stores in India.
The brand positions itself as a techdriven experiential fashion brand. Its large-format stores within malls have smart trial rooms with adjustable lighting and digital interfaces, seamless checkout options and data-backed merchandising. Younger Indian consumers are increasingly spoilt for choice, with a wave of digital-first brands competing through Instagram-led discovery, influencer marketing and rapid trend drops.
According to Bisen, the crowding is unprecedented. “Myntra alone carries almost 300 national and international brands on its platform. And that’s just brands, not counting its private labels,” he said. A similar shift is underway across Reliance Retail’s innerwear brand, Zivame, reflecting how the retailer’s fashion portfolio is evolving across categories to remain relevant to younger consumers.
The brand, which was acquired by Reliance back in 2020 for $160 million, is also refreshing its product portfolio to cater to younger consumers without losing its core customer base.
“It’s generally said that generations don’t buy the same brand, but that’s not true for us,” said Kiruba Devi, chief operating officer, Zivame. “We still have our core consumers, and we have a new group completely joining us.”
As part of this shift, Zivame is expanding beyond lingerie into adjacent categories, like kids’ innerwear and more versatile sleepwear and loungewear.
Reliance Retail is not alone in sharpening its Gen Z focus. Rival retailers and digital-first brands are also doubling down on the cohort with dedicated subbrands and platforms.
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd has scaled up its youth-focused label “Owned” to tap value-conscious young shoppers. Myntra has carved out FWD, a separate Gen Z-dedicated storefront that curates trend-first brands and influencer-led drops.
Venture-backed players such as Newme have built businesses entirely around rapid trend cycles and social media discovery, while Tata Group has tested youth-centric fashion propositions such as Burnt Toast.
Reliance Retail also has Yousta which caters more to the value conscious young consumers.
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