Reliance Industries has been forced to recognise the threat posed by quick commerce but is preferring to follow its own playbook in the segment and is leveraging its existing store formats as well as kirana stores as its source base to make quicker deliveries, according to sources.

“We do not need dark stores, we will use our outlets such as Reliance Smart and we have tied up with kirana stores,” said a source with knowledge of the strategy. The idea is to pursue an asset-light strategy, as well as to expand those services pan-India.

On Thursday, the company said it was piloting  express deliveries across 4,000 pin codes with a network of over 2100 stores, a mix of its own stores and Kirana stores with whom it has partnered.

• Read: Quick Commerce sale in India surge by 280% over two years

The company is reluctant to term it as ‘quick commerce’ or even promise deliveries within a certain time on its Jio Mart app, unlike other players such as Zepto, Zomato and Swiggy. However it is creating express deliveries and scheduled deliveries through Jio Mart. It said it was accelerating express deliveries with strong unit economics by leveraging existing infrastructure and scale. Its presence through big box stores also enabled hyper-local selection, especially in the fashion and value segments.

Sources indicated that express deliveries are those that are delivered in under 30 minutes.

The company’s foray into faster deliveries is seen as a compromise to the quick commerce ecosystem. The company has viewed the quick commerce space with scepticism, prone to cash burn and low margins. With its focus set firmly on profitability, Reliance Retail has still managed to protect its margins despite a slowdown in revenue and adverse product mix.

“However, in this process, it lost a bit of market share to quick commerce players and more importantly it lost a lot of valuation premium as well,” said HSBC analysts.

• Read more: Quick commerce to expand into new categories and cities in 2025

Reliance Retail is looking to leverage its existing retail footprint and sees it as an advantage compared with its competitors, said BNP Paribas in a post-earnings note.

The company has been engaged in rationalising  its store network. During the quarter, it added 779 new stores and closed 623 stores, effectively net adding 156 stores. The area also declined by 2 million square feet to 77.5 msf.

“While quick commerce is impacting our business, companies have approached us for providing our products that can be delivered to the customers instantly. I am in talks with companies to start delivering products however, the scope of delivery is very limited,” said a Kirana shop owner from Mumbai.

• Also read:Quick commerce’s disruptive digital distribution