Future Group's new direct selling platform called `Big Bazaar Direct' will expand the retail giant's reach further, Chief Executive Kishore Biyani said.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a recently held retail forum, Biyani said the company recently launched the new format in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region and had plans to try it in the northeast and Gujarat also.

Big Bazaar Direct is Future Group's franchisee-based model in which franchisees personally pay visits to consumers and take their orders for products on tablets.

Biyani told reporters, "This is a completely new format. If it works, it will be bigger than Big Bazaar. We have launched the format in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region and planning to take it to northeast and Gujarat."

To make its new format a success, the company is planning to team up with as many as 1 lakh franchisees throughout the country. Entrepreneurs can become a franchisee partner of Future Group by paying Rs 3 lakh. The company will deliver products within 7 days.

This is Future Group's second such initiative. Previously, it launched KB Fairprice format, under which grocery shopkeepers can become a franchise of the group by signing a nine-year agreement that require them to pay a registration fee plus the initial working capital.