RELIANCE RETAIL TO RAMP UP ONLINE GROCERIES BIZ

At a time when the world’s largest e-tailer, Amazon.com Inc, prepares to enter the food retail business in India, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd’s retail arm Reliance Retail is confident that it will emerge as the country’s top online grocery retailer by 2020.

“The full-stream action on home delivery will be seen this year. The design will feed off our store network,” said Damodar Mall, CEO, Reliance Retail, which runs cash-and-carry retail under Reliance Market, supermarket chain Reliance Smart, neighbourhood food and groceries chain Reliance Fresh and online store Reliancesmart.in.

The online foray will be supported by group company, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd’s broadband services. “The first phase of Jio was rapid establishment of consumer base and network. Now the synergies will kick in. Jio will differentiate us as a retailer this year,” Mall added.

The company’s online journey began two years ago with Reliancefreshdirect.com which got rebranded as Reliancesmart.in last year. The retailer offers online services through web and app in parts of Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune. In March, the company also announced a tie-up with food and groceries e-tailer Grofers India Pvt. Ltd in 14 cities.

“What we have seen with the online pilot is that the total purchase from the family has gone up,” said Mall, who did not divulge specific numbers.

The goods and groceries business of Reliance Retail has over 500 Reliance Fresh stores across 80 cities, 77 Reliance Smart stores and more than 40 Reliance Market stores across 37 cities. Across formats, the retailer has stores across 702 cities with an area of over 13.5 million square feet which includes 344 Trends stores across 186 cities and 1,996 Digital stores, according to the company’s annual report.

Amazon India has been piloting groceries delivery since February last year through an app called Amazon Now. Since then, Amazon has grown the category rapidly and challenged the status quo of established incumbents such as BigBasket and Grofers, which are struggling to prove that their businesses are sustainable in the long run, a Mint report said.