Reliance Retail, the retail subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, is bracing up for the launch of ecommerce stores in April/May. The move comes close on the heels of the pan-India roll-out of Reliance Jio Infocomm’s fourth generation internet and mobile services.
According to sources hiring is on in full swing to put together a 2,000-strong ecommerce team along with an 8,000-10,000 team for delivery, supply chain and logistics.
Reliance is looking to model itself after US retail giant Wal-Mart which has both an offline and online presence and will launch its e-commerce portal with three categories – Fashion & Lifestyle, Electronics and Groceries.
Currently, Reliance has ecommerce presence only in Mumbai via reliancefreshdirect.com, its online grocery store which was launched in November last year.
It’s electronics, grocery/food and technology teams will be located in Mumbai, while the fashion and lifestyle team will be based in Bengaluru.
Online retail is expected to be worth $6 Bn this year, a 70% increase over 2014 sales of $3.5 billion, according to Gartner Inc and represents less than 4% of the total retail market, according to a Gartner report published in October.
