Reliance Retail was established in 2006 as a wholly owned subsidiary of
Reliance Industries, with chairman
Mukesh Ambani announcing an investment of up to for the new venture at Reliance's 32nd annual general meeting in June 2006. The first set of
convenience stores under the name Reliance Fresh were inaugurated in
Hyderabad in November 2006. This was followed by entry into consumer electronics via
Reliance Digital,
hypermarkets under Reliance Mart, apparel with Reliance Trends, jewellery via Reliance Jewels, and footwear through Reliance Footprint, all in 2007. In 2008,
Marks & Spencer established a 51:49
joint venture with Reliance Retail to open a chain of Marks & Spencer stores in India. In 2011, Reliance Retail started its wholesale
cash and carry chain called Reliance Market. In 2013, the company stopped retailing
non-vegetarian food items and shut down its 100-plus Reliance Delight meat and seafood stores, owing to opposition from shareholders, customers and
animal rights activists. By 2014, it also closed its book and music stores called Reliance TimeOut, and furniture retailer, Reliance Living, in order to focus on
value retailing and
e-commerce. In 2016, Reliance Retail
rebranded its hypermarket and mini-hypermarket formats–Reliance Mart and Reliance Super–under the name Reliance Smart. In April 2016, it launched its online fashion retail platform called AJIO. Reliance Retail largely grew organically until 2019, when it acquired the multinational toy retailer
Hamleys. In December 2019, the company
soft-launched its
online grocery service
JioMart, followed by a wide launch in May 2020 amidst the
COVID-19 lockdown. In August 2020, Reliance Retail announced its acquisition of
Future Group's retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing business for . However, the deal was called off in April 2022 after a prolonged legal dispute between Future Group and
Amazon. Later, Reliance Retail took over more than 200 of Future Group's
Big Bazaar,
Central and
Brand Factory outlets due to Future Group's non-payment of lease, and reopened them as Smart Bazaar, Centro and Fashion Factory respectively. In October 2021, the company partnered with
7-Eleven to franchise the latter's stores in India, opening India's first 7-Eleven in
Mumbai. In July 2022, Reliance Retail entered a similar
franchising agreement with
Gap to bring Gap to India. In January 2022, Reliance Retail invested $200 million in
Dunzo for a 25.8% stake. In 2022, soft drink brand
Campa Cola was acquired by Reliance Industries for ₹22 crores. In March 2023, Reliance Consumer Products (RCPL), the fast-moving consumer goods arm and subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL), announced the relaunch of Campa Cola in three flavours at select stores. In May 2024, Jio Leasing Services Ltd (JLSL), a subsidiary of
Jio Financial Services, announced that it would lease customer premises equipment, devices and telecom equipment worth $4.32 billion from Reliance Retail. In February 2025, Reliance Retail re-launched
Shein in India, nearly five years after the app was banned by the Indian government due to privacy concerns. This followed a 2023 partnership between Reliance Retail and Shein to source products locally from India. == Subsidiaries and divisions==