Billionaire Mukesh Ambani Wants To Disrupt Ecommerce With O2O Model!

If you thought that Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart would be the eventual game changer in Indian ecommerce, then think again. Because now, billionaire Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries is all set to disrupt Indian ecommerce.

The first step has already been taken, and Alibaba’s proven business model: O2O or Online to Offline would form the foundation.

Get prepared to witness the ultimate eCommerce battle in India: It will be Amazon vs Walmart vs Alibaba vs Jio now!

Reliance Jio’s Ecommerce Gamble: O2O Model!

As per some insider reports, Reliance Jio will soon venture into eCommerce, with Online to Offline business model, also called O2O.

Merchants would be enrolled into the program, based on this O2O business model, with promise of optimizing their revenues, without any further investments.

As per some reports, demands would originate from Tier2 and Tier3 cities.

One of the officials said, “At present, the cost of delivery will be very high, making this unviable. So, you have to create local markets and be present everywhere, where you know the local merchants and local customers and Jio will have to connect them,”

What Is O2O Business Model?

Online to Offline business model is a hybrid business model, wherein both offline and online point of contacts are used to complete the cycle.

This can be a typical O2O based ecommerce process:

Step 1: Customer checkout the products online, while sitting in his/her office; and make the order.

Step 2: Customer chooses a delivery point, which would be offline merchant, near to his/her home.

Step 3: While coming back from the office, the product is picked up.Payment can be made both online and offline.

Last year too we had reported that Jio plans to venture into ecommerce via O2O model.

Paytm too is attempting to venture into O2O business model; besides Flipkart and Amazon.

Alibaba Is The Inspiration?

Alibaba, China’s largest ecommerce player has successfully implemented this online to offline business model in China, using which they have reached deep into rural hinterland.

Without spending much on logistics and shipping, their online platform is being used to deliver products in a timely manner.

Now, Reliance has already an impressive offline presence via Reliance Retail.

An unnamed Reliance official said, “That is going to help us in our e-commerce venture in a big way as each of them is a touch point to sign up merchants, and act as delivery points,”

There are right now 4000 Reliance Retail stores, besides 50 warehouses and 4000 Jio points, which would be soon expanded to 10,000 points.

The reports state that Mukesh Ambani wants 50% of their revenue via consumer facing business, and right now, 80% of the revenues come via B2B oriented oil and gas business.

Will Jio’s ecommerce venture prove to be the disruptor? Do let us know by commenting right here!