AJIO is a fashion and lifestyle brand by India’s leading telecom business and chain of retail stores, Reliance Industries. AJIO brings to the customers the best of fashion at the best prices. The brand offers hand-picked and unique styles to its customers and today it has emerged as the ultimate fashion destination for millions of its customers.
Launched in 2016, the brand offers tough competition to giants like Amazon and Flipkart, mainly because of the business model it has adopted. Reliance made use of the business model used by Alibaba, typically, the O2O model for introduction and to make its online retail store AJIO a huge success.
O2O Business Model of AJIO
O2O business model, also known as the online-to-offline business model, is the one that is dedicated to offline businesses. This business model aims to focus on marketing physical stores on online marketplaces. Any e-commerce business that wants to make use of the O2O business model needs to develop a website to market the offerings. Reliance has used this business model to launch and successfully run AJIO.
The Beginning of AJIO
The online services were launched by Reliance and JIO as AJIO for the first time in Gujarat. To implement this model, the organization first started selling groceries and food staples on the app. To further leverage the business, the organization used its contacts and invited local traders to register on the platform. This further enabled AJIO to start selling fashion, lifestyle, and electronics on the platform.
How does the AJIO Business Model Function?
The traders registered with AJIO can take orders online and deliver the same online and offline. AJIO also offers in-store pickup to enable customers to check for the products, choose as per their needs, and take directions from the store. This reduces the wait time for delivery and enhances sales. Additionally, with online payment facilities, customers can easily make payments. The timely sales help the platform get more business.
Marketing Strategies used by AJIO Business Model
The AJIO business model is a highly successful one that needs to make use of specific marketing strategies. Some of these strategies used include
- Social Media: Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram offer a marketing approach to advertise products and services. Social network helps AJIO to market its products to a large number of customers and enables it to earn huge profits.
- Artificial Intelligence: AJIO also makes use of artificial intelligence to track and analyze the behavior of customers. This further enables AJIO to make sure that it improves its services and products as per the needs of the customers.
- Offers and Discounts: To gain customers and retain them, it provides offers and discounts on its products. The offers and discounts are very attractive and this not only increases the sales of the products but also ensures that the customers keep returning to the platform.
Benefits of AJIO Business Model
The O2O business model used by AJIO offers several benefits that include
- Improves the reach of the business.
- Lower delivery cost if the platform orders in-store pickup.
- The model gives enough time and choice to check for products online. This reduces in-store traffic for the local traders and enables them to manage their sales.
- With the in-store pickup, the customers get fair chances to try products before purchasing and this helps to reduce the product return rates.
Growth of AJIO
AJIO, today, has also entered the luxury market segment. AJIO has been able to make profitable deals by entering into contracts with luxury brands like Superdry, GAS, Steve Madden, Dune London, and many more. With the contracts with luxury brands, AJIO also offered deep discounting in the year 2017 that enabled the platform to see a 78% year-on-year growth and continues this practice to ensure that the platform is successful.
