Reliance Jio’s hotly-awaited online shopping portal JioMart is now open for orders in 200 cities across India including all major metros and tier II and III cities such as Mysuru, Visakhapatnam, Coimbatore, Dehradun and Bhatinda.
The wider launch of the service comes after the company began testing its home delivery service in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan in late April, soon after social network giant Facebook announced it was investing $ 5.7 billion in Reliance Jio.
“Reliance launches JioMart service across cities,†tweeted Damodar Mall, CEO of Grocery Retail at Reliance Retail. “Big town or small, JioMart delivers in over 200 towns.â€
JioMart lists fresh food, pulses, packaged food, household cleaning items and pet food among a few other categories of products on its website currently, going up squarely against players such as BigBasket, Grofers, Amazon Fresh and Pantry, and Flipkart’s Supermart.
While details of the sellers have not been disclosed on the JioMart website, the company is squarely targeting sales through local kiranas along with servicing orders through its Reliance Fresh and Smart stores and also distributions centres in areas where orders through kiranas are not serviceable.
“As the density of kiranas grows on JioMart, more orders will be routed through them,†said a person in the know of the matter who did not want to be named.
Reliance Industries did not respond to ET’s queries until the time of publishing.
JioMart isn’t available as an app yet and only as a mobile and desktop website, but is expected to become available via Facebook’s instant messaging app WhatsApp soon, just as it was for delivery in Mumbai’s suburbs in April.
ETtech
“Reliance Fresh and Smart makes your grocery shopping even simpler. No more hassles of sweating it out in crowded markets, grocery shops & supermarkets – now shop from the comfort of your home; office or on the move,†reads JioMart’s ‘about us’ page on its website.
The service is offering discounts across products and categories, with the website advertising a “minimum 5% below MRPâ€. In the fresh produce section, JioMart says it sources them directly from farmers. In packaged food, the website also displays Reliance’s private brands such as Snactac.
Jio Platforms, which operates JioMart, has lapped up investments totalling Rs 78,562 crore from Facebook, private equity funds Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, KKR and General Atlantic, over the last one month. Jio Platforms comprises India’s largest telecom operator—Reliance Jio Infocomm—that has 388 million subscribers.
