Chennai: To boost Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)’s new online-to-offline commerce platform. its chairman Mukesh Ambani is now working on using Jio’s infrastructure and services, reports have said.
The telco’s over 5,100 small Jio Point stores that are present in more than 5,000 cities and towns, will be integrated with Reliance Retail, reports have said.
According to a report by a daily, Reliance Retail would also set up ecommerce kiosks in the Jio Point stores from where store executives will help consumers place orders.
The company will undertake assisted sales of everything from daily provisions to apparel from these stores, leveraging the telco’s distribution network, which already reaches these stores to supply SIM cards, mobile handsets and accessories.
Senior executives in the know have said the ecommerce venture is likely to take off by April next year, the report said.
“Potentially, they can sell anything using this network which has a shelf life and doesn’t require installation service. The customer can pick up the product from the Jio Point or store executives can deliver it to them,” it said.
The idea, according to the report, is for Reliance Retail to reach out to 95 per cent of India’s population directly – including consumers without Internet access, as well as those who have never shopped online – which will only be possible through the omnichannel route.
Jio Point stores already account for 10 per cent of Reliance Retail’s overall consumer electronics sales.
Reliance Retail is also looking at a huge distribution network with the Jio Point stores as, according to the report, Reliance adds over 500 new such stores every quarter and is targetting 50,000 Jio Point stores across India, which will operate as customer sales and service touch points for Jio.