JioMart Temporarily Halts WhatsApp Delivery Service From Kirana Stores

JioMart, Reliance Industries Limited's lastest service of delivering groceries from neighbourhood Kirana stores has been temporarily suspended according to news reports.

Over a month ago, JioMart went live on WhatsApp for delivery in the Mumbai suburbs of Thane, Navi Mumbai and Kalyan, however, the pilot run of the ambitious project was paused due to a shortage of delivery staff, a Mint report said. Owners of several provisional stores, which were roped in by JioMart for the project, said the services have been suspended as they were unable to deliver orders.

On 23 May, RIL had also launched its own website, jiomart.com, with an aim to service 200 cities.

Meanwhile, Reliance Retail, the retail arm that runs neighbourhood stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, wholesale, and online stores, has been catering to online orders of customers.

Further, according to Jefferies India's conversations with seven retailers in Mumbai who were part of the pilot, the JioMart service via WhatsApp has been halted for the past two weeks. The brokerage said that one of the reasons for the disruption of services may be COVID-19 that has created issues on delivery fulfilment.

Jefferies further said that Reliance Retail has informed most retailers that the shutdown is temporary and operations will resume soon.