Mukesh Ambani unveils online shopping platform to challenge Amazon in India

Saturday 04th January 2020 04:18 EST
 
 

Mega-etailers Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart will soon have to defend their turf against India’s newest online marketplace. Spearheaded by the wealthiest man in Asia, Mukesh Ambani, new startup JioMart is vying for consumers’ wallet share in the world’s second most populous country.

JioMart is now open as a label ‘the nation’s new store’ initially to pre-registered consumers. They offer more than 50,000 groceries product, free home delivery and return policy. According to the Website, they are currently available in only three localities of Mumbai. According to the pilot site, the Mukesh Ambabi is controlling the energy and petrochemicals conglomerate. He is stepping up customers’ offerings towards newer businesses. A Mumbai based Reliance industries official rejected to give further detail of the retail program.

India's online grocery market is in its infancy - currently estimated to be worth around $870m a year, with just 0.15% of the population using such services. However, analysts predict the sector could see annual sales of around $14.5bn by 2023. Mukesh Ambani’s previous project of capital expenditures of $50 billion is already leading to success. Ambani, 62 years old entrepreneur, is giving shape to his online retail ambitions by spending billions of dollars on a string of small acquisitions. The newer businesses, including telecommunications and retail, are likely to contribute 50% of Reliance Industries’ earnings in a few years, from about 32% now, Ambani said in August.

In 2016, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., the group’s wireless carrier, started up but today, they considered no. 1 Indian operators with more than 350 million users. The company is the world’s 2nd largest market by the subscribers, providing free calls and cheap data, forcing some incumbents to exit or merge with rivals. Mukesh Ambani is now looking ahead to replicate that success in online retail as well. He gave it a term of “new commerce.” In August Ambani said, his mission is to “completely transform” unorganized retail market of India, which accounts for 90% of the nation’s industry.

Mukesh Ambani told shareholders in August: “This tech-enabled partnership will link producers, traders, small merchants, consumer brands and consumers,” he also said: “We are now getting ready to roll out the platform at a larger scale.” Reliance Industries has revealed a general intent to make a $24 billion digital-services holding firm,and promised postings of the new organizations inside five years.


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