Reliance Retail is all set to Rope in Kirana Stores as Franchise Partners for Jio Mart.

 

The Mukesh Ambani-owned firm Reliance Retail will exit direct sale of packaged food, grocery and FMCG goods on its e-commerce platform JioMart by roping in kirana stores as franchise partners that will sell these products to consumers in their respective neighbourhoods. This marks a shift in strategy that differentiates it from other big online grocery platforms.

Reliance has also decided to shelve its B2B cash-and-carry store format, Reliance Market, which will be turned into fulfillment centres for B2B delivery of products to kiranas. The neighbourhood stores will place their orders online and get deliveries at their stores.

The kiranas will source goods from Reliance or elsewhere, said two senior industry executives aware of the plans. In the case of products ordered on JioMart and not in stock with the kiranas—which typically sell the 300-400 most popular items—Reliance Retail will supply them and the margins will be shared equally.

Also, Reliance will continue with the sale of perishables like fruits and vegetables from its stores or fulfilment centres.

In order to pilot this system, JioMart has signed in nearly 56,000 kiranas from 30 cities. Reliance Retail is looking at enrolling kiranas in more than 100 cities by April and will eventually implement this format wherever JioMart has operations.