Reliance Retail, India’s largest retail entity, finally made its move into the rapidly growing quick commerce market today, ratcheting up competition with established players such as Zomato-owned Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and BigBasket. The firm started offering quick commerce services on the JioMart platform in certain areas of Navi Mumbai and Bengaluru over the weekend, marking its intent to capture the market.
Grocery products will first be provided by Reliance from its extensive network of 3,000 retail stores in the country. However, it plans to expand its inventory to include value fashion and small electronics like smartphones, laptops, and speakers, said a top executive. Reliance’s quick commerce business will leverage the existing retail infrastructure of the company, including Reliance Digital and Trends outlets.
Reliance plans to scale up its quick commerce services across the entire nation by the end of this month, with most orders delivered in 10 to 15 minutes and others in less than 30 minutes. For delivery, the company will use its logistics wing, Grab, which it acquired earlier.
Unlike the dark store or local warehouse model for quick commerce, Reliance will rely on its existing retail infrastructure to fulfill all orders. Analysts argue this will present challenges in achieving a 30-minute delivery time window, especially in cities known for experiencing congestion during peak hours.
To attract customers, Reliance has not charged delivery fees, platform fees, or surge charges, irrespective of the order size. This approach is unusual, as its competitors like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and BigBasket do charge extra delivery fees. An important part of Reliance’s strategy, therefore, is targeting smaller cities and towns where quick commerce players haven’t been able to establish a strong presence. It hopes to gain a competitive edge by focusing on these underserved markets.
The company is positioning itself as a provider of a much wider range of offerings, linking its entire inventory to the Quick Commerce platform. With 10,000 to 12,000 SKUs, Reliance’s offerings will exceed those of competing platforms.
Reliance’s vision is to increase the number of cities covered under its quick commerce service to 1,150 across the 5,000 pin codes where it currently operates grocery stores. This scale, combined with its strategy of targeting smaller urban areas, is likely to provide a considerable advantage over its peers, who largely remain focused on metropolitan regions.
“Reliance has revamped the JioMart delivery model. Where deliveries previously took 1-2 days and were handled by small trucks making sequential deliveries at multiple locations, it is now more quick commerce, with each delivery made individually by bike or cycle within 3 kilometres from each grocery store,” he said.
Earlier this year, Reliance pushed hard to deliver JioMart orders within a few hours or even on the same day as part of its hyperlocal delivery initiative. The process has since been refined to provide deliveries in 10 to 30 minutes a solution that Reliance has developed to meet major market demand, he said.
Although a Reliance Retail spokesperson refused to comment on these developments, industry experts believe the aggressive push by the company into quick commerce may change the competitive landscape.
Devangshu Dutta, the chief executive of consulting firm Third Eyesight, believes that ultimately, Reliance may adopt a mixed delivery model: delivering quick commerce near its stores while providing scheduled deliveries to more remote areas. Reliance is focused on acquiring market share in the quick commerce space, offering discounts of up to 50% while waiving transaction fees. There is considerable opportunity for financially strong players like Reliance to dominate this high-growth segment. Their record in retail suggests they are willing to experiment vigorously once they identify a winning model, remarked Dutta.
Quick commerce is rapidly becoming an important channel for FMCG companies. E-commerce, in which quick commerce accounts for approximately 30-35% of total sales, presents a significant opportunity for major players like Reliance to exploit.
