JioMart Will It Disrupt The Grocery Delivery Market in India

You must have heard of the recent buzz of JioMart which is rumored to disrupt the grocery delivery market in India. JioMart is the ecommerce retail arm of the Reliance industries, however, currently, it is not available in the whole country. The customers of Thane, Navi-Mumbai, and Kalyan can use JioMart for ordering daily essentials. There is no minimum order value, free delivery, express delivery, return policy guaranteed, etc. The company claims to provide products at much better rates than competitors. If it hits the market then it may adversely impact the other grocery delivery market in India. In this article, we are going to discuss the JioMart in detail.

What is JioMart and How Does It Work?

JioMart is an online grocery ecommerce store which is promising to provide more than 50,000 grocery products and household essentials at highly competitive rates. There is an on-demand in the working of JioMart i.e. there will be no warehousing and the products would be delivered from the local retailers who must be partnered with the company.

Soon, the JioMart App would be available on Google Play Store and Apple Store.

Learn More: How to develop a Grocery Delivery Mobile App?

JioMart App Features

There is an Online to Offline business model on which the JioMart operates. It connects local retailers to customers. The goods are delivered to customers by the nearest store. It is not similar to the Amazon model in which a warehouse is involved.

The company aims to restructure the unorganized retail sector and give benefits to the local shopkeepers who are facing loss due to low sales amid coronavirus, high competition, and online warehousing platforms. The shopkeeper will not only get the benefit of high sales and margins but they will also get point of sale (PoS) terminals, billing applications, GST compliance, etc.

Some Other Features of JioMart Are

Free Home Delivery

Free Home Delivery is a very attractive point for customers who do frequent orders. They can order any number of items and get delivered free of cost, which the regular Kirana Wala Bhaiya may not deliver.

No minimum value of the order

In most of the ecommerce sites and online grocery delivery services, there is a minimum order value that a user must buy. But in JioMart you can order only what you require without the delivery charge.

Express Delivery

Express Delivery means faster delivery of products within 24 hours.

No questions return policy

There are scenarios when you receive faulty items and you wish to return the items you ordered, but at the time of return you are bombarded with unnecessary questions

3000 Rupees early bird discount

There is a promotional strategy on the platform of pre-registration where the users can save up to Rs. 3,000 in future shopping.

Business Model and Revenue Model of JioMart

Source: EconomicTimes

The business and revenue model of JioMart is quite simple. It offers an online-to-offline marketplace to the local merchants. In this model, a user will find a product or any service online but will purchase through an offline medium.

The local dealers are connected to customers as they deliver goods by procuring them from the nearest store of the customer’s area. The customers can use official WhatsApp for placing orders. After the order confirmation, they will receive a bill that has to be paid in cash. When the store is ready with the order, the customer will receive the notification to pick up the order from the store.

JioMart Partnership with Facebook

More than 3 crore Kirana stores would be connected to the JioMart platform via Facebook’s messaging platform WhatsApp. The Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani has said that the $5.2 billion deal with Facebook will empower Jio’s new ecommerce platform, JioMart.

There would be more than 3 crores Kirana shops in India which will digitally transact with every customer in their area. The customers will get a faster delivery through the WhatsApp platform. Facebook on Wednesday announced an investment of $5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crore) to buy a 10 percent stake in Jio Platforms, a firm that houses billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s telecom arm Jio as the social media giant looks to expand presence in its largest market in terms of subscriber base.

It is also rumored that Reliance can even go beyond the scope of just boarding Kirana stores for JioMart through WhatsApp platform. It can cover the other reliance and Facebook platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Reliance Brands, Reliance Trends, and Reliance Digital.

There are chances that the partnership could later be expanded into other retail categories like medicine distribution, fashion & lifestyle, stores, and food delivery, etc. The investment provides Facebook with a chance to onboard the large, small, and medium businesses and drives ecommerce via JioMart.

How It Works

Firstly, you should note that currently JioMart is not offering home delivery and you have to pick up the item from the store you have ordered. Here, we have mentioned in detail how it works:

• Firstly, you have to save this number, +91 88500 08000 as JioMart on your Smartphone (where WhatsApp works)
• After saving the number, open WhatsApp, and refresh your contact list. To refresh, tap the new chat icon and then click on 3 dots on the upper right corner, there would be a refresh button on it. Open the JioMart chat window and send a “Hi” message.
• You will get an instant response to the auto-generated message. The message notes that the service is available in Navi Mumbai, Thane, and Kalyan only.
• You will get the information that the orders placed using the JioMart before 7 pm would be available for pick up at your nearest JioMart Kirana store within the next 2 days.
• There will be a unique link on this message which will get expire in 30 minutes. If you don’t use it in 30 minutes again send a Hi message for a new link.
• Click on the link and a dedicated JioMart page will open in the browser. You have to fill the basic information like address and phone number on this page.
• After filling all the details, click on the Proceed button.
• You will get a list of available items in the nearest Kirana store.
• After placing the order, it will show you the total amount to be paid and send you another WhatsApp text immediately.
• There will be information about the nearest Kirana store such as name & address, from where you have to pick up the order. You will also get a phone number for inquiries. Once the order is ready, you will get a text to head the Kirana store and collect your order. You have to make the payment at the time of delivery.

If JioMart becomes a huge hit, then there are chances that the other grocery delivery services such as Bigbasket, Grofers, and ecommerce platforms like Amazon, and Flipkart can also be affected.