Liquidity issues, funding challenges and lower valuations amid the Covid outbreak will lead to bigger corporations acquiring or acqui-hiring smaller and mid-size startups in the retail space, particularly those that are finding it tough to survive in the tough economic environment, says Anand Ramanathan, Partner, Deloitte India. In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Ramanathan, an expert with vast experience tracking the retail industry, said: “These conditions will result in the merging of two small to medium-sized firms to survive and take on big players.  Recently, the pharma retail sector witnessed a consolidation of two mid-sized online retailers as pharma retail may get more competitive with the entry of established players in online retail.” Ramanathan said that during the lockdown, lifestyle and fashion retailers (apparel, consumer durables, jewellery, accessories and footwear, among others) suffered revenue losses while food and grocery retailers saw an uptick in demand. However, despite Unlock 1.0-3.0 opening the economy, sales remained tepid.

(Moneycontrol)