JioMart Looks To Take On Amazon, Flipkart With Electronics, Fashion & Meds

Reliance Industries, during its 43rd annual general meeting (AGM), announced that it will be expanding its latest grocery delivery venture JioMart to include all possible products like electronics, fashion, pharmaceuticals and healthcare products.

Reliance Industries’ chairperson and managing director Mukesh Ambani also announced that  JioMart will function closely with WhatsApp to create new opportunities for the local kirana stores and the consumers. He noted that Reliance Jio has successfully piloted the beta version of JioMart Grocery in 200 cities, delivering close to 2.50 Lakh orders daily. Therefore, it now aims to spread it across to other categories as well.

With this, JioMart will be a direct competitor to ecommerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart, who have marked their presence in all segments except pharmaceuticals. For the epharmacy venture, JioMart will be competing against 1mg, Practo, PharmEasy and others. NetMeds is, too, one of the competitors but several media reports have suggested that Reliance may be looking to acquire the company.

Isha Ambani, during the AGM, also announced that JioMart has enabled the Kirana partners to deliver their offering despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown. Keeping that in mind, JioMart has now enabled a multipurpose point of service (POS) service to enable smooth transactions between stores and their customers. Isha Ambani noted that the grocery delivery platform will further empower and engage kirana stores by allowing them to stay connected with their customers through multifunctional PoS.

She emphasised that the JioMart was built on two fundamental pillars. First, to create a powerful omnichannel tech-platform to unite customers, kiranas and producers. Second, to have a physical network of Reliance Retail that takes benefits of new commerce to every corner.

JioMart started its operations in December 2019 from Navi Mumbai, Kalyan and Thane in Mumbai, but was expanded to 200 cities in May. The platform is currently dealing in fruits and vegetables, dairy and bakery, staples, snacks and branded food, personal care products, home care and baby care products.

For the grocery segment, the JioMart is in direct competition with BigBasket and Grofers. According to US-based market research company Forrester Research, the Indian online grocery delivery segment is set to record $3 Bn in sales this year, representing a 76% hike compared to $1.7 Bn last year. It also added that the ecommerce segment is expected to grow by 6%, amounting to $35.5 Bn this year. However, compared to last year, the firm would also seek a hike of $2 Bn.