Reliance’s entry into ecommerce has been long awaited! Now that ajio.com, their online fashion portal is finally here, what does it mean for Indian ecommerce?
The Reliance Empire Takes on a New Avenue
Reliance is one of the best at doing business in India. With their love for diverse business like telecommunication, petroleum and physical retail, delving into ecommerce was just a matter of when, for the conglomerate.
Ajio.com targets big online spenders from the 18-34 year age group. The platform was named after the telecom unit Reliance Jio and the upcoming digital wallet Jio Money. Three months prior to its launch, Ajio was tested on Reliance employees.
Their online shopping platform ajio.com caters specifically to women, who enjoy fashion. It offers a wide collection of varied private labels in clothing and accessories. Besides the obvious categories of western and ethnic wear, the online store also has a section for fashion week collections, so you can shop right off the runway. That’s not all! You can easily grab yourself a slice of global fashion from Australia, Russia and other international fashion houses from around the world.
Around 60% of their merchandise comprises of items completely unique to the fashion ecosystem, says Ajio CEO, Sanjay Mehra. “This means we have a selection that you won’t find anywhere. Omni-channel and our Jio digital ecosystem sets us apart in terms of providing better presence and connectivity respectively to our consumers.”
The Mechanism Behind ajio.com
- Ajio is an omni-channel initiative that will capitalize on Reliance’s network of large retail stores, like Trends and Footprints. (At the moment the Reliance Group runs more than 2621 retail outlets all across the country.)
- Ajio will partner with at least 200 different international and national brands offering daily wear that is fashionable and affordable.
- The portal’s current category range includes lingerie, jewelry, footwear, maternity wear, bags, belts, night wear and other attractive wearable goods. Very soon, Ajio will extend its online offerings to men’s wear and kids wear.
- For the next two months, (multiple) third party logistic firms will handle deliveries to 15,000 pin codes.
Heating Up the Online Competition?
Hold on to your horses, Myntra, Jabong, Koovs, abof and every other online fashion outlet! There’s a new fashion portal in town (online) and they have something new to add to your domain!
The Goal
Last year, Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), stated at his company’s annual general meeting, “With the advanced internet infrastructure built by Jio and a robust physical retail business built by Reliance Retail, we will create a differentiated e-commerce model for India. This model will entail seamless integration of online and offline while innovating across superior customer experience, delivery services and payment ecosystem.”
A huge portion of online retail is made up of apparel and footwear sellers, mainly due to its sizeable profits. Reliance may have chosen just the right time to jump into ecommerce. With all the rules on capped sourcing and discount slashes, the existing players are the most affected.
Ajio will mainly focus on high-fashion designer wear from international brands, in-house brands and local designers who want to sell through this channel. This way it can differentiate itself from established etailers in the cultured online apparel market, which happens to thrive on discounts. And like Sanjay Mehra said, there’s also the prospect that their presence and connectivity among consumers will grow rapidly due to the Reliance Jio digital ecosystem.
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