Now, with JioMart’s quick commerce pivot, Reliance has deployed one of the largest fulfillment grids in the country – 3,000 retail stores doubling as delivery hubs and 600 dark stores closing network gaps in top cities. The platform added 5.8 million new customers in one quarter, clocking 42% sequential growth and a 200% year-on-year (YoY) surge in daily orders.
What’s different this time is Reliance’s hybrid model – omnichannel, asset-light, and leveraging existing retail muscle. The company is delivering everything from groceries to electronics and fashion within 30 minutes across 5,000 pin codes in over 1,000 cities.
“My proposition is the strongest because I have the widest assortment. I have the best pricing. We do not differentiate between pricing in our stores and on JioMart. Thirdly, we do not have any hidden charges. We do not, what you see is what you get,” Reliance Retail CFO Dinesh Taluja told analysts, underlining the company’s value proposition.
While Blinkit and Zepto burn capital to conquer metros, Reliance is quietly extending its reach into Tier-II and semi-urban markets, where it already dominates modern trade. “Reliance Retail suggested it has an advantage in delivering quick commerce in the Tier II/semi-urban areas of the country as it already has store presence in these areas and understands local purchase preferences,” JP Morgan analyst Sanjay Mookim noted. “In urban/metro areas, Reliance is a late entrant into quick commerce and hopes to compete with incumbents on the basis of its infrastructure rollout and greater SKU breadth.”
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Reliance is banking on its competitive prices and a larger assortment as the differentiator in the quick commerce business, which is largely dominated by the trio of Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart. Amazon, Flipkart, and even Rapido are now trying to make space for themselves in the q-com segment, which is being billed as a trillion-dollar opportunity in a winner-takes-most market.
India’s q-com market more than doubled to Rs 64,000 crore in FY25, and Careedge Ratings believes that the market size in gross order value (GOV) terms will triple to Rs 2 lakh crore in FY28.
Reliance played the waiting game and rolled out quick deliveries only once they were confident of meeting the delivery timelines of the competition.
Foreign brokerage firm BNP Paribas called RIL’s move a formidable late pivot. “Reliance Retail (RR) is the largest buyer in the country for some of India’s largest consumer companies, and it has large-format modern-trade stores, and it is looking to leverage these strengths despite being a late entrant in the quick commerce space,” the brokerage said. “In most of the smaller towns, RR is the only modern-trade retailer, and in those towns, RR would look to capture the market before any of the quick commerce players arrive.”
HSBC noted that Reliance Industries had lost market share and its valuation premium to quick commerce players while focusing on profitability. “We believe RIL Retail has finally embarked on its entry into quick commerce by leveraging its hyperlocal network of stores. It is still in the early stages, but fine-tuning its strategy based on its learnings could drive back investor confidence,” HSBC said.
Explaining the strategic pivot, Taluja said that JioMart’s initial model focused on scheduled deliveries at a time when consumer behavior, especially for groceries, was still evolving. “We pivoted our model last year. Once we shifted from next-day delivery to 60–90 minute delivery, we further reduced it to 30 minutes and now significantly below 30 minutes to match competition,” he added.
Reliance added around 400 new stores during the quarter as it scales aggressively. Over the last two quarters, the company set up most of its 600 dark stores in urban areas to address coverage gaps, while leveraging its 3,000-plus physical stores for wider reach.
CLSA highlighted quick commerce as a key growth trigger: “The ramp-up of production at new energy facilities, further positive momentum in retail, plus growth in underappreciated areas such as FMCG, media, and quick commerce, remain triggers, along with the IPO of Jio in 1H26.” The brokerage maintained its outperform rating with a target price of Rs 1,650, implying 16% upside.
For India’s 10-minute delivery darlings, the competition isn’t over yet. But with Ambani now in the game — and a customer base growing 120% quarter-on-quarter – the momentum just got louder.