Reliance Retail’s wins and losses with kiranas

The neighbourhood stores were to be a pillar of Reliance Retail’s industry-disrupting omnichannel strategy. But things may not have worked out exactly as planned.

Seven or eight years ago, D took over his family’s grocery store in Solapur, Maharashtra. Today, his little store in a tier-2 city is a microcosm of the ambitions, successes and failures of India’s largest retailer in conquering the neighbourhood mom-and-pop shop.

Sometime in 2020, D became a Reliance JioMart kirana partner. Reliance Retail had come with a unique package deal: 

• Stand out from the dozens of other local stores as a JioMart-branded location, driving more walk-ins
• Source from Reliance JioMart’s wholesale service, with better rates and faster turnaround times than what other distributors offer
• Use the company’s JioPOS card …