Reliance Retail set to rope in kirana stores as franchise partners for fulfilling JioMart orders

Reliance Retail is planning to rope in kirana stores as franchise partners for fulfilling orders placed on its e-commerce platform JioMart.

The Mukesh Ambani-owned firm will be exiting from the direct sale of packaged food, grocery and FMCG products whereas the kirana stores will sell these products to consumers in their respective neighbourhoods.

According to the Economic Times report citing two industry executives aware of the plans, kiranas, which typically sell the 300-400 most popular items, will be sourcing goods from Reliance or elsewhere. In the case of products ordered on JioMart and not in stock with the kiranas, 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.

One of the sources mentioned above told the publication, “Since roping in kiranas is a long-drawn process, for next few months JioMart will have a hybrid model of sales through kiranas, and in pin codes where there is no such partnership, the Reliance Retail stores will fulfil till the time kiranas are roped in. But Reliance will eventually exit from direct fulfilment of FMCG and grocery in JioMart.”