Reliance Retail enters quick commerce race with Ajio Rush
Reliance Retail has rolled out Ajio Rush, a quick commerce service fulfilled out of its store networks promising delivery in under four hours across six cities.
Reliance Industries' retail arm, Reliance Retail, has announced the launch of Ajio Rush, a quick commerce platform launched in six major cities.
During a post earnings call with analysts, the company, which operates ecommerce platform Ajio, along with Reliance Digital, Reliance Trends, and Reliance Fresh, among others, said it has carved out spaces in its stores to fulfill online orders, enabling deliveries in under four hours.
The service currently offers a curated selection of over 130,000 products across the six cities where it is live.
"We see in initial signs, it is still relatively young but what we see is that the average bill values are significantly higher. They are 50% to 60% higher compared to a normal transaction. The acceptance is much higher. So, what we are seeing is almost close to 12% to 15% of bills where we are offering this service, our people are adopting a Ajio Rush," said company’s chief financial officer Dinesh Taluja in an analyst call after Reliance Industries posted its earnings.
The company also noted that the service is seeing significantly lower returns, as consumers are less likely to return the parcels delivered within four hours, as compared to items ordered from other platforms.
Last year, Isha Ambani-led Reliance Retail partnered with global fast fashion brand Shein to re-launch the platform in India, which officially launched in February this year.
The Shein India app features products that are manufactured, marketed, and sold exclusively by Nextgen Fast Fashion, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd.
Shein has re-entered the Indian market almost five years after it was banned. It was one of the several apps that was banned by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in June 2020, following heightened tensions with China.
Since its launch, the app, which offers over 20,000 SKUs (stock keeping units), has crossed two million downloads.
Besides Shein, the company has also seen strong traction for Ajio, with new customers on the platform contributing 18% in the first quarter. During the same period, its average bill value increased by 17% on yoy basis.
"Also, we have been consistently focusing on increasing our average bill values by premiumising our offering, increasing the share of exclusive brands onto the platform and that has been having good results," added Taluja.
Reliance Retail's net profit rose to Rs 3,271 crore for the quarter ended June 30, up from Rs 2,549 crore in the same period last year, according to exchange filings.
Gross revenue for the quarter stood at Rs 84,171 crore, a 11% y-o-y rise from Rs 75,615 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. However, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, revenue declined 5% from Rs 88,620 crore in the March quarter.
(With inputs from PTI)
Edited by Megha Reddy