India's Reliance tests online grocery
Trial area focused on affluent Mumbai suburbs
The service, operated by the retailer's Reliance Fresh unit, will see it deliver groceries to customers homes in Navi Mumbai, South Mumbai and Thane.
RelianceFreshDirect.com is part of the retailers first exploration into the world of online grocery shopping and will fulfil the orders via both a pick in-store model, or via other distribution channels. The service offers over 6,000 products in categories such as produce, dairy, bakery, groceries, packaged foods, drinks, confectionery, household and personal care. Before the launch, the retailer had tested the service on its 10,000 employees at the Reliance Corporate Park in Navi Mumbai. Customers will be able to pay for their online shopping in a number of ways including cash, credit card, internet banking or with food coupons.
Online a growing focus for India's modern retailers
India's expensive real estate prices, coupled with the rapidly increasing penetration of internet usage, means that retailers are increasingly looking to develop more compact formats and supplement these with complimentary online services. Walmart is currently rolling out its B2B online platform for members of its Best Price wholesale stores, with a whole host of pure play and bricks and mortar retailers also starting to trade online. By 2018 over half a billion Indian's are predicted to be able to have access to the internet via a smartphone, signalling the huge opportunity that both retailers and suppliers should be starting to look at today.
Source: igd.com
