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Reliance Retail, the retail arm of Reliance Industries, is set to launch its e-commerce portal in April/May, coinciding with the pan-India roll-out of Reliance Jio Infocomm’s fourth generation internet and mobile services.
Hiring is on in full swing to put together a 2,000-strong e-commerce team along with an 8,000-10,000 team for delivery, supply chain and logistics, sources familiar with the company’s plans told BusinessLine . “The launch of the portal was earlier scheduled for the third quarter of FY-2015. The reason for the delay is because the company wants to wait until the roll-out of Jio’s 4G LTE services across the country, which will allow hundreds of thousands of Indians access digital commerce services from their mobile phones itself,” said a source.
“Reliance is planning to price its 4G services at existing 2G/3G rates, ensuring that it can attract a larger section of the population who will now have access to mobile commerce, as they cannot afford laptops, tablets and desktops to shop online.”
Chairman Mukesh Ambani had articulated something similar at the company’s 40{+t}{+h} annual general meeting last June when he talked of Reliance Jio’s 4G broadband initiative. “This initiative would ensure that every Indian has access to latest digital connectivity and services that are on par with or better than anywhere else in the world.”
Reliance Fresh DirectThe top e-commerce portals have reported that traffic on their sites are upwards of 50 per cent and in some cases up to 90 per cent, from mobile apps and browsers.
In the meanwhile, Reliance went online with its grocery brand, Reliance Fresh Direct, in November last year after piloting it among its employees over six months at Reliance Corporate Park campus in Navi Mumbai.
Since then, the option of ordering online or through phone from a choice of over 6,000 products has been extended to various parts of Mumbai. BusinessLine had reported last June that Reliance is looking to model itself after US retail giant Wal-Mart which has both an offline and online presence and will launch its e-commerce portal with three categories – Fashion & Lifestyle, Electronics and Groceries.
“The electronics, grocery/food and technology teams will be located in Mumbai, while the fashion and lifestyle team will be based in Bengaluru,” said another source.
Hiring is on for a 2,000 strong e-commerce team; besides this, the internal HR team of Reliance is putting in place a team of 8,000 – 10,000 people for delivery, supply chain & logistics.
“Three of the top six CXO (chief experience officer) positions in the company have already been filled” added the source.
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