Despite initial setbacks in the q-commerce industry, Reliance Retail, the country's largest organized retailer, has not abandoned its objectives. The retailer, which has over 19,000 outlets throughout the nation, has commenced trial or pilot runs of 30-minute delivery services under the JioMart brand in important cities in states such as Maharashtra and Karnataka. Sources informed FE that this is part of a bigger strategy to re-enter the q-commerce or hyperlocal delivery services business.

Customers who purchase on JioMart for groceries and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) will have their orders fulfilled by Reliance Retail outlets and kirana partners that are part of JioMart's merchant partner programme, according to sources.

According to insiders, the objective is to gradually expand hyperlocal delivery coverage to roughly 20-30 cities by October-November, with the goal of reaching 100 cities by the middle of next year. At the time of publication, no answer had been received to an email submitted to Reliance Retail.

However, Reliance Retail is anticipated to evaluate its performance at each stage of the gradual deployment in order to better understand consumer response to its new JioMart program. The prospect of reducing delivery delays to less than 30 minutes may not be ruled out either, sources said, while the business is unlikely to directly compete with companies like as Zomato-owned Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart, which guarantee delivery in 10 minutes and have a network of dark storefronts for order fulfillment. According to insiders, the potential of introducing new categories such as fashion, lifestyle, and technological items is being considered, although this will most likely occur later.

If Reliance gets the model right, it will be the third time lucky, since its previous two tries at q-commerce were failed. In 2021, the shop introduced JioMart Express in Navi Mumbai, however the service was stopped after two years. It acquired a more than 25% interest in hyperlocal delivery business Dunzo in 2022, but the investment has proven futile as the latter has struggled with both financial performance and vital finance in the previous two years.

"Quick commerce is thrilling but challenging since it is nimble by nature and requires a well-tuned logistics network. Reliance has built a strong ecosystem in which all aspects of their retail operations are interconnected, but quick commerce is a different beast entirely," said Navin Honagudi, managing partner of Elev8 Venture Partners.

According to several observers, Reliance did not anticipate such rapid commerce penetration, which players such as Blinkit, Swiggy, Instamart, and Zepto have benefited from in recent years. Interestingly, Amazon and Flipkart, like Reliance Retail, underestimated the segment's potential. While Walmart-owned Flipkart has finally entered the q-commerce market with Flipkart Minutes, amid the heated competition among existing firms, Amazon plans to enter India by 2025.