Anil Ambani to venture into retail via mobile phone

In yet another instance of clash between the Ambani brothers, Anil Ambani is venturing into retail business using the strength of Reliance Communications’ mobile phone network which has 3.5 crore subscribers.

The venture would be known as ‘Mobi-Retail’ and would be launched in over 1000 towns in the initial phase. The mobile phone would act as the interface where once can choose from over 100,000 products.

ADAG would also leverage on its other outlets of Reliance World, Reliance World Express, Reliance Money, Reliance Insurance, Big Flicks, and Adlabs, which would act as delivery points for home delivery or pick up.

Reliance Communications would offer different formats such as Mobi-HyperMall (for all products), Mobi-Mall (mini hypermarket), Mobi-Store (neighbourhood stores), Mobi-Fresh (vegetables), Mobi-Groc (groceries) and Mobi-Express (regular products).

The response for the venture is doubted since there is lack of ‘touch and feel’ experience. Also, browsing of products through mobile would be difficult to access and time-consuming as compared to shopping in traditional format or through Internet.

Though, the margins are likely to be better off as the investments in such format is much less than the traditional model.

But the venture may not go down well with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail, as for even mobile retail, the company needs to have a sizeable operations for stock, warehousing, delivery and other retail operations. via