JioMart Express to launch instant grocery trial this week

Reliance JioMart will be starting a trial for its instant grocery service JioMart Express in the next 2-4 days in Navi Mumbai. The service aims to sell 2,000 stock keeping units (SKUs), and deliver them in a few hours.

According to Economic Times, JioMart aims to expand this instant service to the 200 cities and towns where it is currently operational by the end of the next quarter. Beyond that, it aims to become the country's largest instant grocer by doubling its reach in the next few months.

An executive told ET that JioMart express will be scaled up using the lakhs of kirana stores onboarded under its B2B programme JioMart partner, and will utilise both its own delivery fleet and Dunzo in metro locations where the latter has a strong presence.

Reliance announced a $240 million funding round in Dunzo earlier this year, picking up a 26 percent stake in the Bengaluru-based quick commerce startup.

The instant grocery ecosystem has seen tougher tailwinds recently as Zomato has had to scale back their valuation of Blinkit in a few months. After valuing the instant grocer at over a billion dollars last year, Zomato has had to announce a merger at a valuation closer to $700-$800 million this month.

Globally, American foodtech startup Instacart also announced last week they would be unilaterally reducing their valuation by just under 40 percent in order to attract better talent and match industry standards.