Reliance Retail scaling up quick commerce, plans to set up dark stores

Country's leading retailer Realiance Retail, which saw 2.4x growth in the number of orders from its quick commerce/hyper local delivery in the March quarter, is significantly scaling it with plans to open dark stores to expand the coverage area.

In the March quarter, Reliance Retail saw over 2.4 times growth in terms of the number of orders, which is a significant scale-up, said its CFO Dinesh Taluja during the earnings call earlier this week.

"And we are seeing very strong traction with a 2.4x quarter-over-quarter growth in daily exit orders. And this number will scale up substantially in the coming year as well. We are also starting to proactively market this proposition, our proposition of no hidden charges, quick delivery, and no delivery fees continues to resonate very well with the customers," said Taluja.

Reliance covers hyper-local deliveries, a sub-30-minute delivery, at 4,000 pin codes across the country through its network of existing stores, which has a much wider reach than any other quick commerce player in the country.

Through its JioMart app, Reliance Retail is offering quick and scheduled deliveries, which currently has three types of services.

There is an under-30-minute quick service, and second is a scheduled delivery, where the assortment is much wider, and then there is a subscription service, where a customer can subscribe and everyday goods are delivered at doorsteps early morning. 

"All three are picking up very well. The average daily orders were up 62 per cent on a Y-o-Y basis," he said, adding, "Specifically, our under 30-minute offering, which has the widest network reach. We have almost 2,000-plus stores which are on the network, covering more than 4,000 plus pin codes. So this is much wider reach than any other quick commerce player. We have kind of re-pivoted our model completely to under 30 minutes delivery.

According to Taluja, as part of the strategy, Reliance Retail is using its store network, delivering within a three-kilometre radius.

"There are some dark pockets where we will set up dark stores also, wherever there is a genuine requirement, there is enough volume and we cannot service it within 30 minutes, we may set up some dark stores as well. So that is on the quick commerce side of it.

"Our stores, purely on a standalone basis, are seeing double-digit like for like growth for last several quarters. So stores are also growing pretty rapidly. We are not seeing that impact either in metro or in any other city," he said.

Similarly, for its online fashion business Ajio, Reliance Retail has launched same-day and next-day delivery across 26 cities.

"So, we are increasing the speed at which we are able to deliver the products," he said.

For the 2024-25 financial year, Reliance Retail had reported a gross revenue of Rs 3.30 trillion, up 7.85 per cent and profit after tax was up 11.33 per cent to Rs 12,388 crore.