Brands
Unlock 1.0: Despite 20% dip in footfall, Enrich Salon records 1% business hike in Bengaluru
NEW DELHI: Safety, hygiene, and sanitation have become the key identifiers of all businesses as lockdown restrictions are eased across the country. Major hotels, restaurants and salons are taking stringent quality control measures to ensure maximum safety of their clients and teams from the highly contagious Covid2019 virus. The very popular chain of salons, Enrich, which has always been dedicated to providing safe and hygienic services to its clients, has improved its SOPs to serve the changing scenarios.
In an exclusive conversation with Indiantelevision.com Enrich Salon founder Vikram Bhatt shares, “We at Enrich salons have always had been very careful about providing the safest and most hygienic services to our clients. We have always been dedicated to safety, sanitisation, and hygiene and there’s not much of a change there as we proceed into the new normal. For example, we had introduced products like single-use kits, disposable towels and gowns, etc, a few years back.”
However, the salon chain has now further improved its procedures and physical spaces to fit in the changing times. “We have now been working on ensuring even stringent safety measures at our salons. To cite a few examples, the salon doors can now be opened by your feet, we are placing overhead acrylic sheets between the client and the technicians for services like facials, and working hard to reduce the chance of contact at common-touch areas.”
All these measures have been introduced in addition to the standard safety norms decided on by the industry, including sanitisation of the staff and clients and regular infrared checkups.
Some other technologies that Bhatt is investing in for the salons are handheld switches to open store doors and sensory sanitisers. The clients who will visit the salons will be given complimentary kits with sanitisers and switches to open car doors, etc., so the whole consumer experience goes beyond the stores too. They will also be educated to maintain social distancing.
Bhatt shares that he hasn’t struck any particular brand deals to assist in introducing these changes and technologies. “For us, consumer safety is a very serious matter and therefore, I don’t see it as a business proposition. I am dealing closely with local-level manufacturers to source the sanitisers, and masks. There is a strict quality control procedure in place and we don’t purchase handmade masks to make sure they are completely safe and hygienic. For the changes in in-house architecture, our whole team is working to chart out the best plans and working with architects. We are sourcing our own material for acrylic sheets and door fittings. Everything has been personalised with the core aim of keeping our teams and clients completely safe.”
He adds that customers are taking these developments very positively. “We have our Bengaluru stores open for around 15 days now and we have been witnessing around 80 per cent of the regular footfall. However, the customers are seeking more services and our business has been up by one per cent there. In Gujarat, despite us working on alternate days and for restricted hours, the footfall is down by just 35 per cent of the regular, and again service demand is higher.”
Bhatt feels that the business will pick up even better during the festive season starting October and will remain on a positive track through the quarter. “The demands will obviously be lower because of the restrictions on social gatherings like weddings but I am positive that the business will improve a lot by then.”
Bhatt is also working hard to market the many initiatives that the salon is taking these days. The salon chain has introduced its new app with the whole catalogue of services on display. Clients can also use it to book prior appointments with the technicians of their choice.
Apart from that, the salon teams are calling up their clients personally under its “Call is Well” campaign. They are providing personalised on-call assistance, guiding the clients on self-care during the lockdown and also checking-in to see how they’re doing. With 70,000+ calls made by the professionals; the activity was well-received by clients, shared Bhatt. They are also delivering personal care and grooming products to clients’ houses without any additional charges.
Additionally, they are also running impressive B2B awareness campaigns and indulging in public service. Under their “Me to We” campaign, the brand surveyed 15,000+ customers across Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore, Vadodara, Surat and co-created the stringent hygiene protocol for customer and the salon team safety against Covid2019. The protocols detailed as a part of the campaign communication brings alive necessary rituals for customer and salon team’s safety once business resumes.
Brands
Reliance Retail FY26 revenue rises 11.8 Per Cent to Rs 3.7 lakh crore
Q4 revenue up 11.1 Per Cent, hyperlocal orders surge 4x, PAT steady
MUMBAI: Reliance Retail isn’t just ringing up sales, it’s ringing doorbells faster than ever. Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) reported a steady FY26 performance, with growth powered by store expansion, a sharp surge in hyperlocal commerce, and consistent traction across grocery, fashion and jewellery. For the full year, revenue rose 11.8 per cent year-on-year to Rs 3,70,026 crore. In the January–March quarter, revenue from operations climbed 11.1 per cent to Rs 87,344 crore, up from Rs 78,622 crore a year earlier.
Operating performance remained stable, with Q4 EBITDA inching up 3.1 per cent YoY to Rs 6,921 crore from Rs 6,711 crore. However, quarterly profit after tax held steady at Rs 3,563 crore. For the full fiscal, PAT grew 11.7 per cent to Rs 13,842 crore.
Expansion remained a key lever. RRVL added 1,564 new stores during FY26, while simultaneously scaling its digital and hyperlocal commerce play. The latter emerged as a standout, with daily orders surging more than fourfold year-on-year in Q4, underlining a clear shift towards faster, localised fulfilment.
In grocery, large-format stores maintained momentum, aided by festive demand and the expansion of Smart Bazaar, which crossed 1,000 stores. Promotional campaigns such as ‘Full Paisa Vasool’ delivered record results, with sales rising 26 per cent YoY.
Digital commerce also picked up pace. JioMart added 5.8 million new users in Q4, nearly doubling its registered base year-on-year. Hyperlocal orders grew 29 per cent sequentially and over 300 per cent annually during the quarter.
Fashion and lifestyle saw steady traction. Ajio recorded a 23 per cent YoY rise in average bill value, while fast-fashion platform Shein crossed 11 million app installs, scaling rapidly with expanding product lines.
The jewellery business added further shine, with average bill value jumping 53 per cent YoY, largely driven by rising gold prices and sustained consumer demand.
Commenting on the shift, RRVL executive director Isha Ambani said hyperlocal commerce has become a structural growth driver, with orders rising more than fourfold over the year.
Looking ahead to FY27, the company is betting on technology to deepen engagement. The focus, Ambani noted, will be on AI-led merchandising, sharper pricing strategies and disciplined execution turning scale into sustained customer value.
In short, the carts are fuller, the clicks are quicker, and the next phase looks less about reach and more about precision.
