Reliance’s JioMart strengthens ties with kirana stores during lockdown

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
May 4, 2020

Reliance Industries’ e-commerce marketplace JioMart has augmented its services to tap into the grocery market during lockdown and has doubled its weekly credit limit for stores and increased WhatsApp orders.

 
As grocery and essential goods sales are one of the few opportunities for businesses to maintain cash-flow during lockdown, many businesses are focusing on this category.

JioMart is taking the opportunity to strengthen its ties with its partner kirana stores by managing an increasing portion of logistics and offering incentives including doubled weekly credit limited and discounts on bulk orders, TNN reported.

“Since the lockdown, they are checking my orders daily on the phone,” Kiran Prajapati, owner of a kirana store in Navi Mumbai told the Times of India. “My order volume has increased so our credit limit was recently doubled to Rs 60,000 [$792.16]. Reliance’s people come, pick up and deliver. Then they settle the payments with us. The supplies are managed by them and they bring it to my store, which saves me logistics cost and time.”
 
JioMart is funding incentives for customers at the kirana stores on bulk purchases to encourage them to purchase more. Kirana stores are credited when they return to make their next bulk purchase. 
 
The business is also building on its WhatsApp messaging service for orders. JioMart has allocated an employee to manage orders and inventory for each partnered kirana store. The business aims to fully take over logistics for its partner stores, another kirana store owner told the Times of India.