Reliance launched a small pilot of JioMart deliveries in select areas of the Indian financial capital Mumbai late last month.
JioMart offers free express grocery
delivery from neighbourhood stores
Reliance
Industries has launched an online grocery service, JioMart, the head of
its grocery retail business said, in a move aimed at rivalling Amazon.com's
local unit and Walmart's Flipkart in the huge Indian market.
JioMart will deliver
groceries in more than 200 towns across the country, Damodar Mall, chief
executive of grocery retail at the Indian conglomerate, said on
Twitter late on Saturday.
Mumbai-headquartered Reliance has
not announced JioMart's launch at a time it is selling $7 billion (roughly Rs.
53,000 crores) in new shares.
Reliance launched a
small pilot of JioMart deliveries in select areas of the Indian financial
capital Mumbai late last month, days after announcing that Facebook would
spend $5.7 billion for 9.99 percent stake in the company's digital
unit, Jio Platforms.
That partnership will help
Reliance roll out service for India's grocers and small businesses by
capitalising on India's 400 million-strong user base for Facebook's WhatsApp messaging
service.
JioMart, the e-commerce
venture of Reliance's retail arm, offers free express grocery delivery from
neighbourhood mom-and-pop stores. It will pose a formidable challenge to local
rivals, which are also betting big on groceries for their growth.
The launch comes as India is
witnessing a surge in coronavirus cases. A person familiar with the matter told
Reuters the product catalogue on JioMart's website will be expanded after
lockdown restrictions aimed to curb the spread of the new coronavirus are eased.
"Never waste a crisis,
they say!" Mall said in his tweet. "A wise colleague
mentioned today, 'Alibaba also flourished starting from the SARS crisis.'"
The oil-to-telecoms giant,
controlled by India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, did not immediately respond
to an email seeking comment on the launch.
Reliance is on a fundraising
spree with Jio Platforms, which houses telecoms ventures Jio Infocomm, winning
a massive $10 billion from investors including Facebook, KKR, and General
Atlantic in a month.
Tags
Tech