India’s organised retail sector is witnessing rapid expansion as some of the country’s biggest business groups increase their physical presence across cities and towns.
Reliance Retail, Tata Group’s Trent and Aditya Birla Group’s fashion and lifestyle businesses together added 3,891 stores over the past three financial years, taking their combined retail network to 26,067 outlets by March 2026.
The expansion highlights the growing competition among major retail companies as they move beyond large metropolitan markets and target smaller cities, towns and emerging consumer markets.
Reliance Leads Store Expansion
Reliance Retail contributed more than half of the total increase, adding 2,120 stores between March 2023 and March 2026.
The company ended FY26 with 20,160 stores spread across 78.3 million square feet after opening 1,564 outlets during the year. Its network had 18,040 stores in March 2023.
Reliance Retail reported revenue of around Rs 3.7 lakh crore and a profit of Rs 13,842 crore in FY26. Its strategy focuses on building scale across grocery, fashion and lifestyle, consumer electronics and digital commerce.
Smart Bazaar has crossed the 1,000-store mark, while Reliance has also built more than 3,100 fulfilment points to support its hyperlocal delivery operations.
Trent Expands Across Cities
Tata Group’s retail company Trent has also significantly increased its store network.
Trent grew from 590 stores in March 2023 to 1,286 stores, including six outlets in the UAE. Its network now covers 321 cities and more than 17.7 million square feet.
The company’s revenue from operations increased 18.2% to Rs 19,701 crore in FY26. Profit also rose to Rs 1,967.82 crore from Rs 1,584.84 crore in the previous year.
Aditya Birla Steps Up Retail Growth
Aditya Birla Group’s two demerged retail entities together added 1,075 stores during the three-year period.
The expansion by the three major groups reflects different approaches to the Indian retail market. While Reliance is focusing heavily on scale and store density, other players are expanding through fashion, lifestyle and premium retail formats.
The rapid increase in physical outlets also shows that brick-and-mortar retail continues to play an important role despite the strong growth of e-commerce.
As Reliance, Tata and Aditya Birla expand into smaller markets, competition for Indian consumers is increasingly moving beyond the biggest cities and into a much wider retail landscape.
