Reliance Retail enters quick commerce on JioMart, delivering from stores not dark stores

Reliance Retail is India's largest retailer, and JioMart is its e-commerce platform.

India's largest retailer can win quick commerce by using its store network instead of dark stores, charging no fees and targeting smaller towns.

Earlier in 2024 Reliance had tried to cut JioMart delivery to a few hours or the same day under a hyperlocal initiative, after JioMart's old model delivered in one to two days by small trucks carrying multiple orders. The executive said it then refined the process to 10-30 minutes.

Reliance began quick commerce on JioMart in select areas of Navi Mumbai and Bengaluru the weekend before the report, selling groceries and later value fashion and small electronics such as smartphones, laptops and speakers. It uses its acquired logistics service Grab for fulfilment and does not plan dark stores; each store covers a 3 km radius with one bike or cycle per order.

Reliance planned to scale across India by month-end, delivering most orders in 10-15 minutes and the rest in 30, with no delivery, platform or surge fee, and focusing on smaller cities. Analysts said the lack of dark stores may make 30-minute delivery hard in traffic-heavy cities. Reliance did not respond to ET's queries.

Quick commerce had become the fastest-growing channel for FMCG companies.

JioMart's earlier delivery of one to two days could not compete with 10-minute rivals.

Using existing stores avoids building a dark-store network and gives a wide range of products.

Free delivery and small-town focus aim to win share where Blinkit had not yet expanded.

A retailer with thousands of stores tried to turn them into the quick-commerce network rather than build dark stores, trading cost for delivery-time risk in dense cities.

As of 2024-10-07 quick commerce was live in select areas of two cities with a pan-India rollout targeted for the end of October. Delivery speed and cost without dark stores were unproven and Reliance did not comment on the report.