The Reliance Group recently launched Jio Mart. The launch came alongside the news that Facebook was now investing for a 10% stake in Jio. What that investment would mean for the entire retail market, the grocery and supply chains, as well as Jio as a whole, remains to be seen. But before we get there, let’s just take a quick look at what Jio has to offer, really. Now, at first, you need to save this number right here in your phone. +91 88-5000-8000
What that does is, it becomes a part of your contact, which is the gateway for essentially ordering from Jio. This might not be a surprise as most Indians are already on WhatsApp. The close tie up with Facebook is actually reflecting in the entire user experience, since WhatsApp is also owned by Facebook. As you can see, once you save the phone number, all you have to do is follow the steps given below. go into WhatsApp, send a Hi, and Jio, or the bot really, sends out a temporary link.
- Go on WhatsApp and send a ‘Hi’ to Jio or the bot really.
- Click on the registration link that you will receive on the chat. (link is supposedly active only for the next half an hour.)
- Enter your details like mobile number, address and region (currently, the region is limited to areas in Mumbai, Navi-Mumbai, and Thane.)
- Scroll through the list on the costume menu page and select the products that you wish to purchase.
- Place your order.
As you can see, the prices are quite fair with some decent discount on some grocery items. But the main concern is what actually came after this. While I was initially under the impression that JioMart is actually going to deliver the products at our home, I was quite surprised when I came to know that I have to be the one who has to go and pick up the products from the store as of now, which, again, I guess it’s fine during pandemic.
I’m still not sure if this is the permanent arrangement or is only related because of the COVID-19 pandemic going on and overall supply chains being dried up and delivery people not being there. Now, when we actually reached at the grocery store or the Kirana Dukan, we came to know that Jio had actually not sent the products to them, which is why they were not able to sell those products to us, at least not at that very price. The understanding that I got from the Kirana store owner was that Jio is supposed to give the products to these guys, and they will then sell these specific products at the specified prices to us.
Now, he did have almost all of the products that had already ordered from the app, but they were, of course, not able to honor the pricing that was mentioned there, which eventually meant that the sale actually didn’t grew, not at least through Jio. I feel that the overall launch was rushed. Maybe because of the whole announcement of Facebook investment, maybe they wanted to show what a large scale level pilot would look like or maybe they just wanted the media to know that, yes, they’re still ahead of the game.
Be that as it may, I foresee JioMart to be a formidable opponent in the food delivery space, especially the groceries. So you can think about Grofers, Swiggies or Big baskets. I think It’s time that all of these people need to be a little more scared to be a part of this market which is already extremely cutthroat. A full-fledged app might be just around the corner. Maybe they’re waiting for this whole COVID pandemic to wear off, or maybe it was just sort of a large scale public beta, backed by the investment news. I don’t know, but I’m more than happy and excited, and I look forward to this.
