Competition in India’s
hyper-grocery market
, also called quick commerce, may get more fierce. According to a report in TechCrunch, Walmart-owned
Flipkart
is planning to enter this popular ecommerce segment. With this service, Flipkart will be taking on
Zomato
’s
Blinkit
,
Swiggy
’s
Instamart
,
Zepto
and Tata Group’s
BigBasket
.
Incidentally, the report comes about two weeks after a news report by the same publication claimed that Flipkart is exploring to acquire the instant-delivery startup Dunzo.
It said that Dunzo’s Reliance ownership “complicated the (deal) conversation”.
Citing a source familiar with the matter, the report said that the company intends to launch the instant-delivery service as early as May this year. However, quoting sources, it added that the deliberations are ongoing and the timeline may slightly change.
The company has invested in improving its supply chain infrastructure to improve its delivery time, with a focus on grocery items. These efforts have allowed Flipkart, majorly owned by Walmart and is valued at over $30 billion, to offer same-day and next-day delivery options.
What Flipkart has to say
A Flipkart spokesperson said that the company is “committed to meeting evolving customer expectations and delivering excellence in value, selection and speed, with more initiatives expected on this front in the coming months.”
“At Flipkart, customer-centricity is at the core of everything we do. We constantly work towards delivering a wide range of products to customers with speed,” a Flipkart spokesperson was quoted as saying.
In January, Flipkart announced that it will start same-day delivery of some products in February. The company said that under this programme, products like mobile phones, fashion, beauty products, lifestyle, books, home appliances and electronics will be made available in metro and non-metro cities, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Guwahati, Ludhiana, Nagpur, Siliguri, Vijayawada and Coimbatore.
Grocery delivery companies have also been working to cut down on the delivery times. For example, BigBasket said in January that it has cut the timeline for its slotted deliveries from a few hours or on the next day to less than two hours.
English (US) ·