Brands
Reliance Capital acquires 6.83% equity stake in Saregama
BENGALURU: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) company Reliance Capital Limited (RCL) has acquired a 6.83 per cent equity stake totalling 11.88 lakh shares from the open market of Indian custodians of music – Saregama Limited (Saregama).
RCL has filed disclosures under Regulation 29 (1) of SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 at the bourses today. Before the acquisition, RCL did not have any stake in the company.
Saregma has an equity share capital of Rs 17.40 crore for 1.74 crore shares of face value of Rs 10 each. At the time of writing of this report (29 December) the share closed at Rs 362.40 on the BSE, Re 1 lower (0.27 per cent down) from the previous close of Rs 364.40. The high for the day was Rs 388.10 and the low for the day was Rs 360.50. Over the past 52 weeks, the share had a high of Rs 509.00 and a low of Rs 116.00.
The share closed at Rs 362.90 down as compared to the previous close of Rs 363.55 on the NSE. The share had opened at Rs 370 today and had an intraday high of Rs 388.25 and an intraday low of Rs 360.00. The 52 week high on the NSE was Rs 509 on 10 August, 2015, and the 52 week low was Rs 114.95 on 27 March, 2015.
Brands
E-commerce growth rises, but profits come under pressure
Shop Culture flags rising costs, weak systems and a $5.38 billion quick-commerce boom reshaping global retail
MUMBAI: E-commerce is booming, but profits are thinning. A new report by Shop Culture warns that brands clinging to outdated, growth-at-all-costs strategies are being outpaced in a costlier, more complex 2025 landscape.
Global online retail is expected to cross $6.86 trillion this year, with 2.77 billion shoppers making at least one purchase. Yet returns are under strain: average return on ad spend has slipped to 2.87:1, exposing cracks in how brands chase scale without building sustainable margins.
Three shifts are rewriting the rules. First, retail media is getting pricier, with Amazon’s average cost per click rising 15.5 per cent year-on-year to $1.12. Second, while 77 per cent of e-commerce professionals now use AI daily, many see limited gains as weak systems blunt its impact. Third, geography is no longer expansion, it is strategy. The share of Shop Culture clients operating across multiple markets has more than doubled, from 30 per cent in 2024 to 65 per cent in 2025.
Subarna Mukherjee, founder and ceo, Shop Culture, is blunt: “The e-commerce industry has a nostalgia problem. In 2022, the playbook was simple: list aggressively, spend on ads, and ride the wave of post-pandemic digital adoption. It worked. Revenue grew rapidly. But by 2025, the industry is seeing the consequences of those structural shortcuts. E-commerce itself is not slowing down, the challenge lies in how brands are operating within it.”
Nowhere is the shift sharper than in India’s quick-commerce boom. The segment is set to hit $5.38 billion in 2025, growing 17 per cent and emerging as the fastest-growing globally. What began as a convenience play is fast becoming a margin buffer. In one case, quick commerce drove 70 per cent of a packaged food brand’s online revenue, delivering 130 per cent year-on-year growth. A beauty brand, meanwhile, saw selling prices rise 25 per cent higher than on traditional marketplaces.
Expansion, too, is being rethought. The report argues that brands chasing the largest markets first often stumble. Better outcomes come from sequencing entries based on efficiency, regulatory readiness and competition, with markets such as the UK and Germany offering smarter entry points than the United States.
Compliance has turned from a checkbox into a revenue lever, especially in Europe. Brands with ready frameworks can go live in 8 to 12 weeks, while others risk delays of six months or more due to listing and documentation hurdles.
AI, for all the hype, is no silver bullet. Across more than 1,500 listings, it improved conversion rates by 10 to 15 per cent, cut TACOS by 7 to 10 per cent and reduced stockouts by 20 per cent, but only when layered on strong foundations. As Mukherjee puts it: “AI is not a growth strategy, it is an amplifier. It enhances strong systems and exposes weak ones.”
The message for 2026 is stark. Growth alone will not save brands. Margins, discipline and smarter strategy will. In a market still expanding at breakneck speed, the real race is no longer for scale, it is for survival.
