Retail Chronicles_ Volume-2_Issue8_16-30November

06
Looking at this information, it can be
quickly expected that given its rapid
growth to gain more than 150 million
subscribers, its entry into online-tooffline
E-commerce will trigger a market
share war among mobile payment
wallets such as Paytm, Freecharge,
Mobikwik and phonepay etc. just like it
did in the telecom sector.
India’s $650-billion retail industry
which comprises only 3-4% E-commerce
and 8% of organized retailers such as
shoppers stop and Big Bazaar, still has
88-89% void of small entities, local
vendors and corner stores. Jio is
planning to bridge this 88-89% gap with
E-commerce. For their pilot project, Jio
has already tied up with ITC, Wipro,
Godrej Consumer products etc. In the
initial stage, Jio will provide its platform
to these consumer brands, on the other
hand, it will connect with the corner
stores through brands’ distribution
networks.
In this plan, instead of offering cash
back to its customers, Jio will send
digital coupon codes of a brand to its
mobile users. The users will be able to
use those digital coupon codes at nearby
stores to buy goods. Stores (online/
organized/ unorganized) enrolled with
Jio would be equipped with software to
scan or read these coupons.
To facilitate better connectivity between
manufacturer and retailers, Jio will also
partner with the offline stores to provide
its platform for clearance of stock. Jio
will also allow the retailers to send text
messages regarding promotional offers
even to those who aren’t Jio customers.
Jio is also planning to provide the facility
of Geotagging to retailers and
E-commerce websites by which they can
push the sales in leftover stocks for a
specific geographical area. This will allow
the brands to make their retailers proactive
in stocks clearing. Jio is also
planning to introduce a new technology
in which a missed call will allow Jio to
indicate to shoppers about the
promotional offers in a specific area.
The revenue model of this plan is also a
unique one. Jio will charge the brands for
using its platform for ‘below the line
marketing.’ It is a money saving option of
advertising for those companies which
involve the distribution of leaflets and
.
other promotional material in their
advertising. It is obvious that Jio will not
use a single penny on it as it already has
a huge network of infrastructure,
technology and consumers, neither it will
use its money for offering discounts on
products. Jio has already on-boarded
many such e-commerce brands but with
this giant step of using its pre-existing
network, it is seeking to get more brands
whose products are omnipresent in
Indian markets.