Many e-commerce and physical retailers, at the annual India Retail Forum meet, said both categories can co-exist.

A day after he signed an agreement with Tata-run Croma, Kunal Bahl, co-founder and chief executive of Snapdeal, said the e-commerce portal would forge more such partnerships with brick and mortar companies.

"With a partnership with Croma, we demonstrated that we can have a symbiotic relationship with physical retailers," he said.

Future Retail's joint managing director, Rakesh Biyani, said even after the advent of e-commerce portals, physical retailers are showing positive growth numbers.

"Nobody has taken our share or anybody else's share.

The pie is getting large.

Those who can give better customer experience can take a large share of the pie," he said.

New technologies, he explained, enable physical retailers to reach more customers, with a larger assortment.