Reliance Industries Forays into Online Grocery By Introducing JioMart

The Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) launched JioMart, a new online grocery platform on December 31, 2019.

JioMart brings Reliance industries in direct competition with other major e-commerce players such as Flipkart and Amazon. The new e-commerce platform has been initially launched for customers in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan.

The service will be extended to people across India gradually. It will be operated by Reliance Retail. Reliance Retail has already started begun taking pre-registrations.

JioMart: Key Points

1. It will offer over 50,000 grocery products.

2. It will offer a wide variety of products including soaps, shampoos, daily staples and other household items.

3. It will offer free doorstep delivery with no minimum order value.

4. It will include an express delivery promise.

5. It will also offer no questions asked return.

Exclusivity of JioMart

JioMart is expected to link producers, traders, small merchants and others through technology. The online platform is expected to function alongside the company’s existing lineup of businesses including supermarkets, hypermarkets, wholesale stores and online stores.

Market on Online Grocery Market

JioMart is expected to increase competition for e-commerce platforms such as Flipkart and Amazon, especially amazon prime that offers express delivery (delivery within two hours for grocery products).It will also take on existing grocery platforms such as Bigbasket and Grofers.

Reliance Industries has been working with Kirana stores and consumer brands to create an operational model for a new e-commerce platform for the past two years. The RIL had also acquired Haptik and Fynd to strengthen its online presence in India, as against Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart.

The Reliance Industries plans to aggressively work on its e-commerce venture to generate at least half of the group’s revenue from the consumer businesses in the next 10 years. Currently, at least 70 percent of the group’s revenue comes from its oil and gas business.

JioMart is expected to partner with local grocers and equip them with points of sale (PoS) terminals, low-interest working capital, inventory management skills and help with GST compliance.