Upping its ante in the online grocery war amid strong demand for essentials, Reliance’s Jiomart has now enabled free delivery for all orders with no minimum value required. This is being seen as a challenging move to corner new users to the service. Initially, JioMart required a minimum order value of Rs 750 for free delivery.
Existing players like Alibaba-backed Bigbasket, Amazon India or Flipkart typically require upwards of Rs 600 order size for free delivery. This further changes based on subscriptions a consumer has on these platforms. For example, BigBasket’s slotted deliveries are free for its bb star members for orders above Rs 600 but the same threshold is Rs 1,200 if you are not a BB star member, in cities like Delhi, Bengaluru.
Incidentally, Jiomart has also quietly launched its Android app, a day after its annual general meeting, where Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani announced Jiomart will expand in fashion, healthcare, electronics and pharmaceutical retail.
Read: Jiomart’s expansion to trigger a wave of consolidation
The official Android Jio Mart app was released on Thursday, according to the details on Google’s Play Store. So far, it was only available via its website. A person aware of the matter said the app was launched on Thursday night and is now available to download for all.
While Jio Mart’s entry in online grocery was already creating ripples among online grocers, the move to do away with ‘minimum order size’ for free delivery makes the upcoming challenge for rivals clear. Ambani, on Wednesday, said Jio Mart was clocking about 2.5 lakh orders a day across 200 cities and that its expansion is being accelerated now. Bigbasket, one of the key rivals, for example, clocks about 3.5 lakh orders daily-including its subscription-based morning delivery of essentials via BB Daily.
An email sent to a spokesperson of Jio Mart did not elicit any response.
What’s being seen as a major differentiator for Jio Mart is its partnership with WhatsApp–that has 400 million users in India. It’s a critical part of Facebook’s $5.7 billion investment in Jio Platforms. Jio Mart has run pilots in Mumbai suburbs where consumers can order via WhatsApp.
In its May 4 edition, TOI reported JioMart ramping up kiranas on its platforms with enhanced credit limits, store managers and consumer incentives to acquire users in the middle of a pandemic, when more customers are placing orders online.
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