Reliance Retail Initiates Pilot Programme On ONDC Via Fynd

Reliance Industries Ltd’s retail unit Reliance Retail has reportedly rolled out a pilot programme on the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) via Fynd, an omnichannel retail platform in which Reliance holds an investment.

As per ET’s report, one Reliance Retail store called Shri Kannan Departmental Store in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai is live on the seller side of ONDC through Fynd.

“This is being done as a pilot. A few more stores in Tamil Nadu are in the pipeline. They are testing it out. If it works, then Reliance Retail will scale it up to five stores and then to 100 stores on ONDC. Gradually all brands owned by Reliance Retail will go live on ONDC,” a source told ET.

In December 2021, Reliance Retail acquired Shri Kannan Departmental Store for INR 152.5 Cr.

Reliance Retail-backed quick-commerce company Dunzo went live on ONDC during its beta launch in Bengaluru in September 2022. However, since April this year, Dunzo has not been active as a logistics service provider on the network, the report added.

Founded in 2012 by Farooq Adam, Harsh Shah, and Sreeraman MG, Fynd is an omnichannel fashion platform which sells products across various categories – including clothing, footwear, jewellery, and accessories, from prominent brands in the country. 

It enables small and medium-sized businesses to go online by helping them list their inventory on multiple ecommerce platforms such as Amazon, Nykaa among others. The startup also helps these small businesses with last mile logistics delivery.  The Mumbai-based startup optimises delivery time by sourcing products from the outlets nearest to the customer.

In 2019, Reliance Industries Limited acquired an 87.6% stake in Fynd for INR 295 Cr (about $42.33 Mn).

Meanwhile, Reliance Retail’s operating revenue rose 9.8% YoY to INR 67,610 Cr in the quarter ended March 2024 as against INR 61,559 Cr in the year-ago period. Sequentially, revenue declined more than 9% from INR 74,373 Cr. 

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