Amazon, Flipkart not on Mukesh Ambani’s radar; Reliance Jio readies platform to wire kirana stores

Reliance Jio, which has plans to foray into e-commerce, will not be taking on the likes of Flipkart and Amazon, at least initially. Instead, the company’s first project on which pilots have started is to build a B2B platform targeted at merchants who run grocery, fruits and vegetable stores in the neighbourhood markets. The company has termed it ‘Hybrid Online-to-Offline’ platform. At a later stage, this B2B platform would be connected to the MyJio app and thus provide the B2C interface also.

Sources in the know said the B2B platform, for which an app has been developed, will require kirana merchants to become members of Jio Prime after which they can procure groceries, fruits, and vegetables by placing orders on the app, and the platform will take care of their full inventory management.