Reliance Industries Ltd. has started testing its online grocery retail business with the launch of Jio Mart, to take on e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon.
The firm has begun sending intimations to Reliance Jio customers to register at Jio Mart to shop for more than 50,000 grocery products and avail discounts of up to ₹3,000. Reliance Retail had sold more than 6.4 lakh tonnes of groceries during FY19.
Jio Mart will offer customers free home delivery on no minimum order value, with no-questions-asked return policy. Initially, the services will be available in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan and rolled out across the country gradually.
During its AGM, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani had hinted at the firm’s foray into ‘new commerce’ which, he said, was a massive $700 billion opportunity. “The main purpose of new commerce is to completely transform the unorganised retail market, which accounts for 90% of India’s retail industry . The three crore merchants and kirana shop owners, who generate direct and indirect livelihoods for over 20 crore people, form the backbone of India’s commerce eco-system,” he had said.
