Reliance Industries to debut in e-commerce

Indian retail major Reliance Indu stries’ plans to enter e-commerce by offering express deliveries of fresh fruit and vegetables to homes in Mumbai, making it the first such bid to bridge the last-mile connect by a large retailer. The company will make its debut in the e-commerce business with the Mumbai grocery venture by the year-end.

 

Reliance plans to extend its retail business into e-commerce with the promise of a wider range of goods than currently available online, battling it out with an array of rivals ranging from Flipkart to niche startups, not to speak of Amazon and eBay.

 

As for the grocery segment, smaller firms such as localbanya.com and bigbasket.com currently deliver fresh products to consumers in some cities. The grocery venture, which will be run through a subsidiary, follows a successful pilot project at the Reliance Corporate Park office in Navi Mumbai. Over the past year or so, its 10,000 employees there have been buying home care, personal and pharmaceutical products along with food through the Reliance Fresh-Project Direct website.