Forget Flipkart, Amazon, Reliance Industries set to hit e-retail space now

Petroleum-to-retail-to- telecom major Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is transitioning to become a technology-platform company. And while RIL does that at unimaginable speeds, its chairman Mukesh D Ambani sees a tremendous growth opportunity for the company in creating a hybrid, online-to-offline new commerce platform.

Addressing the shareholders at its 41st annual general meeting, Ambani said that the company shall create this “by integrating and synergising the power of Reliance Retail’s physical marketplace with the fabulous strengths of Jio’s digital infrastructure and services.”

“This platform will bring together, the 35 crore and growing customer footfalls at Reliance Retail stores, the 21.5 crore and growing Jio connectivity customers, the targeted five crore Jio Giga-Homes and most importantly, all the three crore small merchants and shop-keepers all over India who provide the last-mile physical market connectivity,” he said, adding that the company will integrate the physical and digital marketplaces in a uniquely collaborative Bharat-India Jodo enterprise.

According to Ambani, the company sees merchants and small shop owners as critical customer interaction and fulfilment points, who will share a mutually beneficial win-win relationship with Reliance.

“Through the deployment of merchant point of sale (M PoS) for small shop owners, we will enable them to do everything that the large enterprises and large e-commerce players are able to do. They will be able to manage inventory, keep digital records and file returns, improve working capital management, retain and upgrade customers, access new customers, run promotion and loyalty programmes, link to our highly efficient supply chain and much more,” he said.

The new commerce platform, according to Ambani, will redefine retail in India by enabling all customers (rich or poor, whether at home or on mobile), to transition from simple shopping to the personalised immersive shopping experience.

“This will be made possible by Augmented Reality (AR), holographic technology and virtual reality (VR) devices. Our digital tools will predict and anticipate the needs of shoppers. JioGigaFiber will bring the entire marketplace to large screens powered by high-speed broadband at home. We will also leverage Reliance Retail’s deep insights into Indian customers, large local presence, and best-in-class supply chain,” Ambani said.

The company will invest in data analytics engines using artificial intelligence (AI) to bring a powerful offering to all consumers, merchants and small businesses. It will also facilitate the availability of financing to small shopkeepers and merchants to improve their capital efficiency, thus assisting them to grow their businesses competitively.

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Mayuresh Joshi, fund manager, Angel Broking, said the RIL AGM was always going to be an important event considering that the group is in the midst of a major shift. “But what emanated was that Reliance Industries was well and truly becoming a consumer company. In the last 40 years, it has gradually transformed its core focus business through backward integration. First, it was textiles, then it was polyester, then petrochemicals and then refining and extraction. In the last few years, a major lateral shift has happened with a massive shift towards, telecom, data, broadband and retail.”

Source: DNA India