Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Reliance Retail’s e-commerce venture JioMart, which was launched in May 2020 with 200 cities, is on course to partner with 1 crore merchants as it expands presence to cover the entire country, serving over 7,500 towns and 3 lakh villages in the next five years, said Isha Ambani, Director, Reliance Retail Ventures at the 45th annual general meeting of Reliance Industries on Monday. 

The new commerce initiative JioMart, which currently delivers in more than 260 towns, has grown its merchant partner base to more than 20 lakh partners (in the financial year 2021-22), adding around 1.5 lakh partners a month, Isha said as she shared the progress of Reliance Retail during FY22 at the AGM. 

Jio Platforms along with Meta also announced the launch of JioMart on WhatsApp. Meta called it to be the first end-to-end shopping experience on the messaging app. The launch will allow people in India to browse the JioMart catalogue, add products to their cart and pay to complete purchases, all within WhatsApp, according to the company.   

“Excited to launch our partnership with JioMart in India. This is our first-ever end-to-end shopping experience on WhatsApp — people can now buy groceries from JioMart right in a chat. Business messaging is an area with real momentum and chat-based experiences like this will be the go-to way people and businesses communicate in the years to come,” said Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta in a statement.  

Meanwhile, for Reliance Retail’s B2B e-commerce platform AJIO Business, Isha noted that the initiative works with merchant partners across 3,500 towns and gives them access to a collection of over 8,000 regional and national brands. The platform had sold over 43 crore garments last year, enough to clothe the entire population of the US and Canada, she said.

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Reliance Retail catered to over 200 million registered customers at its physical stores and digital platforms last year. The digital commerce platforms delivered nearly 6 lakh orders every day, up 2.5 times over last year, said Isha. Reliance Retail had opened over 2,500 stores during FY22 to take the total store count to over 15,000. 

The company will launch its fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business this year. “As part of our commitment to India’s rich culture and heritage, we will soon start marketing quality goods produced by tribals and other marginalised communities across India. This will not only provide these communities gainful opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship but also help preserve the incredibly rich talent, skill sets and knowledge base of our traditional Indian artisans, especially women,” Isha added.  

Mukesh Ambani introduced Isha as the leader of the retail business at the AGM as he shared the succession plan of Reliance Industries. Ambani said Akash and Isha have assumed leadership roles in Jio and Retail respectively. “They have been passionately involved in our consumer businesses since inception. Anant has also joined our New Energy business with great zeal. In fact, he is spending most of his time in Jamnagar. All three have fully inherited our founder’s mindset.”  

Also read: Reliance Retail’s ‘Panch Pran’: How imperative are small businesses to Mukesh Ambani’s retail venture