After ruling the telecom space and broadband sector, Reliance Jio now brings its own online shopping platform called JioMart. With JioMart, the company wants to take on the likes of competition like Grofers, Amazon, and Flipkart.
Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) announced the soft-launch of JioMart– an e-commerce venture to deliver groceries and other household essentials. The platform, powered by Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio, has been launched on a pilot basis in parts of the state of Maharashtra including Navi Mumbai, Kalyan, and Thane. Here is everything you should know about Ambani’s latest venture– JioMart.
What is JioMart
JioMart is an online grocery delivery service, powered by Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio, where consumers can head over to buy essential household items from nearby retailers. The platform does not sell groceries directly to the customers but instead, connects offline retailers with online buyers. The JioMart is an online-to-offline (O2O) marketplace under which it will source grocery items from nearby merchants, instead of procuring from a native warehouse– similar to how Amazon Prime Now and Grofers started their business.
JioMart will serve as a platform for offline retailers to cater to customers in their locality who want to buy groceries online. At the RIL’s (Reliance Industries Limited) 42nd annual general meeting (AGM), Ambani said that, through the latest venture, the company is projected to connect three crores, offline retailers, with over 20 crores households in the country.
Way forward
While JioMart is limited to Maharashtra as of now, it will be gradually expanded across India to compete directly with Amazon Prime Now, Grofers, Big Basket, and Flipkart. As per a report, the company is sending invites to all Jio users to avail the preliminary discounts on JioMart. The report also suggests that the service will not be limited to three regions only and the company will scale it up further.
JioMart will be rolled out across the country soon. (Image: Reliance)
During the 42nd AGM, Ambani said, “Our beta trials with thousands of merchants across multiple locations in the country established the premise of New Commerce with a significant increase in sales and improvement in margins for the participating merchants. We are now getting ready to roll out the platform at a larger scale.”
JioMart app coming soon
According to a report, the company will soon launch an app for JioMart. The JioMart website also mentions the upcoming launch of Android and iOS apps for JioMart. The website highlights that the platform will offer over 50,000 grocery products at aggressive pricing.
The platform is claiming to offer free home delivery without the restriction of minimum order value. The platform also claims to have express delivery service as well as a “no questions asked return policy”. The JioMart website also has a form to pre-register as a seller and save up to Rs 3,000 when the platform launches.
Retailers on JioMart
As already mentioned, RIL has started taking pre-registrations from retailers to become a seller on the venture they are calling “Desh Ki Nayi Dukaan” (country’s new shop). As per a report by ET, as an aggregator, JioMart will partner local grocers and equip them with points of sale (PoS) terminals, integrated billing applications, low-interest working capital, inventory management skills, supply chain management, and GST compliance.
Save Up To Rs. 3,000 At Launch
On its official website, JioMart says that users who pre-register can save up to Rs. 3,000 upon pre-registration. Considering the strategy used for Jio LTE and JioFiber the brand is likely to distribute coupons of different value, which can be applied while shopping at JioMart.
As of now, there is no information on the denomination of these vouchers/coupons, which will be made available when the service goes live. To get this offer, go to JioMart’s official site and register yourself with information like email (optional), phone number, and Pincode.
Then, an OTP will be sent to the aforementioned phone number. We tried to sign-up for the same using Bengaluru’s Pincode and we got a message that said: “offer is not available in your area”. If you live in a location, where the service already available, then you can enjoy this offer.
