Reliance’s ambitious JioMart initiative hasn’t yet made a splash in India’s online grocery space, but it is looking to add a feature that might end up changing its fortunes — 10-minute deliveries.
Reliance has initiated efforts to enter the quick commerce market, ET reports. The move will pit it against companies including Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and Big Basket, which have been betting big on the quick commerce space for a while. Reliance has already begun offering its quick commerce services in select areas of Navi Mumbai and Bengaluru through JioMart since last weekend.
True to form, Reliance will not charge a delivery fee or platform fee on these 10-minute deliveries, and look to undercut rivals on price — other companies in the quick commerce delivery space currently charge various fees including platform fees, handling fees and delivery fees from customers. Also, while these platforms focus mainly on high-density urban areas, Reliance JioMart will look to target smaller towns and cities where these quick commerce companies currently don’t have a presence.
Also, unlike other quick commerce companies, Reliance doesn’t intend to build any dark stores, and will instead use its own network of stores, including Reliance Digital and Reliance Trends, to fulfil orders. Reliance will initially sell grocery items from around 3,000 stores around the country. It will eventually add items like fashion and electronics products to its quick commerce portfolio. Reliance aims to deliver most orders in 10-15 minutes, and the rest within 30 minutes. It’ll use acquired logistics company Grab to fulfil orders.
It sounds like a good plan on paper. Reliance has a sprawling network of stores, which could potentially help its executives reach most areas in 10-15 minutes. It likely also has the tech to be able to maintain inventory information, and can likely also run a logistics operation to get goods into people’s homes in 15 minutes.
But Reliance has largely failed to make a splash with JioMart thus far. While JioMart had launched more than two years ago, it lags far behind companies including Blinkit, Zepto, BigBasket and Swiggy in India’s grocery space. Also, Reliance is choosing a different way to get goods into people’s homes in 15 minutes — while quick commerce companies use specialized dark stores which are optimized to send items out quickly, Reliance will look to use regular stores to fulfil orders, which can make it hard for it to match other quick commerce companies in delivery times. But Reliance seems to be making a 15-minute delivery play of its own, and given its deep pockets, execution ability and the scale of its ambition, other quick commerce companies will ignore its moves at their own peril.