Akhilesh Prasad is on a mission to create an Indian enterprise which can take on the best of global competition and emerge the leading player…
Akhilesh Prasad, President & CEO of Reliance Retail (Fashion & Lifestyle), has built a distinguished career adorned with numerous achievements. For over 32 years, he has played a pivotal role in disrupting, transforming and innovating the Indian fashion, lifestyle, grocery and CDIT retail sectors.
His current retail portfolio includes Trends, Ajio, Ajio Business & Project Eve to name a few. Under his leadership, these portfolios have worked towards creating startups that have disrupted legacy-practices in the industry, creating tremendous scale and acquiring leadership roles at an unprecedented pace.
According to him, he is on a mission to create an Indian enterprise which can take on the best of global competition and emerge the leading player in the Indian and global fashion and lifestyle space.
He spoke to IndiaRetailing Editor, Surabhi Khosla, on the sidelines of the India Fashion Forum 2025. Excerpts from the conversation…
Lessons learnt during Covid
Adversity is the biggest motivator. If everything happens the way we want it to, then there will be no motivation. Motivation is the challenge to do something which is difficult to do and then attain desired results. With Covid, difficult times surmounted and that was also the time for change and innovation. So, I say difficulty should be welcome.
The offline experience
Reliance is perhaps the only company which runs as large an online business as it does offline. While technology is important, you will notice that most brands around the world are established offline as well – this is because there’s a ‘touch and feel and experience’ factor which is only possible in the offline world.
Importance of innovation & technology
Offline retail stores will use technology to reinvent themselves but they will never become obsolete. If this was true, then store rentals would never have shot up 20% in the last couple of years.
For example today, stores use facial recognition technology to recognize consumers as soon as they walk in a store. In a matter of mere minutes, the system knows the customer and is also be to extract his past buying history. Using this, messages are sent on the customer’s phone to direct them to products they are more interested in instead of making them wade through 1000s of square feet of store space.
RFID technology will help the shopper know within seconds whether the product they desire is available in store and in the right size / colour.
Customers can also book trial rooms in advance so they don’t have to stand in long lines and wait for their turn to try and buy.
Finally, self checkout systems make the process of buying all the more convenient for customers.
Stores of the future
These stores, will perhaps be those which have no stock. Customers come in, get scanned, thumb through catalogues and decide what they want. The brand gives them designing abilities. They can upload their pictures and wear clothes digitally to see what they look good in, what they might want to buy.
There are also capabilities where in customers can buy in store and get their products delivered home, or buy online and come pick up in store. So everything is to the customer’s specification. Now this will mean a lot of collaboration between offline and online stores and technology will add this collaboration – basically an offline experience deployed using online systems and technology.
New innovations in Reliance-backed brands
Azorte is looking to add facial recognition systems soon. The premium fashion brand was launched in 2022 with a vision is to deliver exceptional global styles to customers. It has since expanded its presence manifold and is committed to exploring new customer segments and enhancing the shopping experience.
Biggest learning of your career
If change is not happening in what you are doing, force yourself to change because change is inevitable.
