Reliance has got no chill; its retail arm Reliance Retail is all set to enter the instant grocery delivery market in India with its ‘JioMart Express‘.
Reliance will soon begin trials for ‘JioMart Express’ in Navi Mumbai, through which it will sell and deliver around 2,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) in just a few hours. The two senior industry executives aware of the plans told EconomicTimes.
The retail giant is planning to offer instant grocery delivery in over 200 cities and towns across India by the end of the next quarter, where JioMart currently operates. It intends to more than double this number in the coming months, making it India’s largest quick egrocer.
Reliance is also testing a separate app for express grocery deliveries, which will reportedly be integrated with the JioMart app.
For instant grocery delivery, JioMart Express will reportedly use Dunzo in markets where it has a strong presence such as metro cities such as Bangalore, Mumbai, and New Delhi. It’s worth noting that Reliance Retail has become the largest shareholder in Dunzo after leading a $240 million funding round in January 2022.
Existing big players such as Tata-owned BigBasket, Zomato-funded Blinkit, Swiggy’s Instamart, Walmart’s Flipkart Quick, and Zepto will face stiff competition from Reliance JioMart Express.
Quick Commerce Market In India
During the Covid-19 pandemic, when people were confined in their homes and online grocery delivery became the only option for survival. Soon the idea of quick commerce has caught the attention of businesses all over the world, in order to gain more customers.
According to Redseer, the quick commerce market in India is expected to reach $5.5 billion by 2025, from $300 million in 2021. The country will outperform other markets including China in terms of quick commerce adoption in the next three years.
Big challenge ahead for instant grocery delivery companies
Unlike traditional e-commerce deliveries that take a day or longer, quick commerce (or q-commerce) allows customers to get small quantities of goods in a shorter period of time. Maintaining frequent orders within a 15-30 minute time frame will be a big challenge for all companies currently operating or planning to enter this segment. However, Reliance Retail is no stranger to quick commerce. It has been delivering orders in less than three hours placed through Reliance Digital online or app.
“However, order volumes are going to be much more frequent in grocery, so it will need a robust backend and delivery fleet,” an executive said.
What’s your take on the soon-to-be-launched Reliance JioMart Express for instant grocery deliveries in India? Do you think the company will soon eat into the market of other players, as it did in the telecom space?
