Reliance Industries is set to roll out its online shopping platform to 1.2 million retailers and store owners in Western India. With the aim of launching an online shopping platform, Reliance will be eyeing to take e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart.
Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance, revealed his plans about launching an online platform for retailers while addressing the “Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019”.
“Jio and Reliance Retail will launch a unique new commerce platform to empower and enrich our 12 lakh small retailers and shopkeepers in Gujarat,” the Reliance chairman said on Friday.
Jio has currently 280 million subscribers with rapidly growing users over-time, while Ambani’s retail arm consists of almost 10,000 outlets across more than 6,500 Indian cities and towns. Reliance will be looking to bring merchants abroad through Jio’s apps and devices, V. Subramaniam, a top executive of Reliance Retail said on Thursday.
India introduced a new rule that will disallow foreign-owned online retailers from selling products via companies in which they own equity, and forbid them from pushing merchants to sell their products exclusively through their platforms. The rule will come into effect from 1st February and is expected to impact the marketing of both Amazon and Flipkart. On the other hand, this new rule is expected to benefit local enterprises such as Reliance.
During the Summit, Ambani also mentioned that Reliance, which he claimed had invested Rs. 3,00,000 crores and helped create one million jobs in Gujarat, would double its investment and employee numbers over the next 10 years.
The new commerce platform for small retailers will set its root in Gujarat and then will expand to other parts of the country.
Mukesh Ambani, while addressing the Summit, also talked about data colonization and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lead the fight against data colonization and enable Indians to own and control their own data, rather than a corporation controlling it.
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