Reliance about to join the quick commerce race

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With Zomato’s Blinkit, Tata Group’s BigBasket, Swiggy’s Instamart and Zepto going full throttle, the quick commerce segment is set to be more throbbing with Reliance Industries preparing to step into the market, The Times of India has reported. The company has targeted to complete deliveries within 30 minutes of placing the order.

JioMart will inaugurate the service with deliveries in at least seven-eight cities. The plan is to scale it up to more than 1,000 cities.

The new plan has been made more than a year after the company stopped its 90-minute grocery delivery service JioMart Express.

Incidentally, Walmart’s Flipkart has also decided to join the quick commerce bandwagon.

The entire quick commerce space is becoming extremely popular, especially due to demand from millennials and Gen Zs who find it far more convenient to get things – groceries and sundry homecare requirements — delivered to their doorstep rather than go out for unexciting shopping.

The entire model survives on lightning-fast deliveries with Blinkit, Swiggy and Zepto promising delivery of groceries and non-groceries within 15 minutes.

However, Reliance is likely to adopt a model which is a bit different from the dark store model. Unlike the existing players in the market, JioMart will utilise the wide network of Reliance Retail stores to pick up the material to deliver. As of now, JioMart offers slotted and next-day delivery options to customers. Reliance Retail has more than 18,000 stores across categories and formats which offer a vast range of goods that are typically ordered through quick commerce.

“Over time, JioMart will also deliver non-grocery items through quick commerce. JioMart is focused on hyperlocal omnichannel presence and continues to serve its customers from thousands of stores located in proximity to consumers across the country,” an official told the newspaper.

Blinkit has about 40-45% market share and is easily the leader in the quick commerce segment. The entry of Reliance will surely spice up the competition since the Ambani enterprise can boast of countrywide reach and deep pockets.

The market, it seems, is set to increase in future. According to a Goldman Sachs report, the gross order value of online grocery market rose to about $1,100 crore in FY24 and quick commerce has grabbed about half of it. Even neighbourhood grocery stores might be losing business to quick commerce the main appeal of which is to save the time, effort and banality of regular visits to the grocer.