India-based oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries has plans to focus on last-mile delivery for its planned online marketplace, taking on rivals such as Flipkart and Amazon.
Citing sources, Economic Times reported that the firm will focus on working on this aspect of the business as its competitors have a huge head-start.
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The sources told the financial publication: “Last-mile delivery and the overall customer experience are going to be priority areas for Reliance.”
Reliance intends to make huge investments on bolstering its supply chain to strengthen its own delivery logistics, as well as tap third-party companies with the intention of taking ownership of delivery and experience, the source added.
An area of focus for the firm will be on the quick delivery of the right products with minimum scope for errors.
This e-commerce venture will not only host Reliance Retail’s fashion, grocery, jewellery and electronics, but also of the independent sellers.
The firm plans to go for major hiring for its online foray.
Last week, Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani unveiled the company’s plan to use its telecom service Reliance Jio Infocomm along with the Reliance Retail chain to provide a ‘hybrid online-to-offline’ venture.
The company also announced its intention of tapping kirana (local grocery outlets) stores as partners for the last-mile delivery.
Online retailers such as Amazon and Myntra have enlisted the help of several small retailers as their delivery partners.
Reliance is looking at a multi-channel platform, which can offer goods and services that can be bought from anywhere through online and offline modes.
Customers would get the provision of having their ordered products delivered to their doorstep and they also would have the feasibility of picking up their purchases from any of the Reliance’s network of stores or last-mile delivery partners.
Entities such as Amazon and Myntra are using an increasing number of small retailers as their last-mile delivery mechanism.
Reliance has a current country network of warehouses and a supply chain for its 7,500 outlets.
