Ali Hasan
JioMart which is an e-commerce venture initiated by Reliance Industries Limited is now starting to take shape and is functioning to deliver 5 lakh orders per day.
It started in December 2019 with a beta launch and was later officially rolled out across the country in May 2020. In July 2020, they were delivering 4 lakh orders per day, as stated by Mukesh Ambani. This is a straight 25% increase in daily orders.
According to a JPMorgan report, they already have a million daily active users and 2.3 million active monthly users. The same report said that, they have already crossed BigBasket and Grofers in terms of daily active users but falls behind Swiggy.
While other entrenched players like BigBasket and Grofers, who have been around for much longer, still have 7-8 times more app downloads, the rise of JioMart in the last 6 months only reflects the speed at which Ambani has tried to push his ecommerce dream.
Since its launch, every 3 downloads of any online groceries app, 2 of them have been JioMart. Ambani’s e-commerce bet made a soft launch in December 2019 in select areas of Thane, Navi Mumbai, and Kalyan.
But as the coronavirus lockdown began and the opportunities in e-grocery became more evident, JioMart was quick to act and expanded to over 200 cities. This fast growth across India has given them an early-mover advantage in India’s smaller towns, say an analysts at JP Morgan.
A Goldman Sachs report from November 2020 had pegged the Omni channel capability — using different channels for distribution, both online and offline — as the reason for their growth.
“India has 10 million kirana stores, which account for 90% of grocery retail in the country. JioMart has already launched in more than 200 cities, leveraging Reliance Retail’s store network, with kirana partnerships across 20 cities,” said the Goldman Sachs report.
The deal between Facebook and Jio will now serve its true purpose as it’s a win-win situation for both the companies. The integration of WhatsApp with Jio means that Jio will get the advantage of WhatsApp’s 400 million user base. On the other hand, WhatsApp will benefit from WhatsApp Pay which could become the default payment platform by which people can pay for e-groceries.
Since Reliance has acquired a stake in each and every vertical, they have the capability to dominate the market and grab the largest stake in any segment they want to. So far they have entered various verticals by acquiring various companies such as:-
- Online Pharmacy – NetMeds
- Online Lingerie – Zivame
- Online Furniture – Urban Ladder
- Last Mile Logistics – Grab a Grub
But before they begin to dominate the retail segment, they need to settle their score with Amazon as they are in a legal battle with them regarding the acquisition of Future Group. Reliance acquired them for almost Rs 25,000 crores.
Reliance also stated that it will continue to add new features to JioMart, which it calls “Desh Ki Nayi Dukaan”. The platform had launched with a selection of 50,000 products available at “5% below MRP“, with free deliveries and no minimum cart value. JioMart is now adding non-essential categories like electronics and consumer durables.
Mukesh Ambani also stated that “JioMart aspires to serve tens of millions of small shopkeepers in India, who are the bedrock of employment”. JioMart is going strong and only future will tell us that who will win India’s Retail War.
