Betting on the fast-growing grocery segment, Flipkart has forayed into online grocery with the launch of ‘Flipkart Supermart’, a sub-store within Flipkart. Starting with Bengaluru right now, Flipkart plans on expanding to 5-6 more cities before the year ends.
Flipkart’s groceries portfolio currently spans staples, FMCG and dairy products, and the category can be accessed through Flipkart’s android and iOS mobile apps, as well as its desktop and mobile websites.
Flipkart is harping on quality, innovation, convenience and price advantage to acquire customers in the online grocery space, which is currently just 0.5% of the total grocery market in India, which is pegged at $400 billion.
On quality, Flipkart claims that the freshness of the product will be guaranteed and against each of the products displayed the Best Before date will appear prominently, providing the comfort level to the customer to buy the products.
On the convenience front, there will be features like delivery at your doorstep at timings convenient to you would be followed. Additionally, an open tray type of delivery is being attempted so that the customer can quickly check the products ordered and if there are any returns for any reason, these could also be tackled then and there.
Coming to the pricing, Flipkart Supermart claims it can offer deeper discounts and better prices than any other store. This will be tested as the business rolls out and people try out and make the comparisons with other sources they were doing their shopping from.
According to a statement from Flipkart, it has created a separate infrastructure including warehouses and last-mile delivery systems to make same day or next day deliveries depending on customer’s requirements.
“Grocery shopping is a mundane chore in any home, despite its outsized impact on a household’s budget. And it remains an unsolved e-commerce market, despite its importance to consumers and to the economy. With Flipkart Supermart we have solved for problems of assured quality, savings, and convenience to create an unmatched offering. The feedback has been phenomenal. Customers who have tried it are absolutely delighted and have kept coming back. We’re now taking it wider and plan to expand our reach and scale rapidly over the coming months,” said Manish Kumar, Head of Groceries at Flipkart.
Flipkart has also introduced ‘Flipkart Supermart Select’, its private label in staples categories (pulses, spices, dry fruits).
One more attractive bait being offered, again in a way copying from the mom and pop store model, customers can keep ordering products within the ‘Flipkart Supermart’ through the month and make the payment by the 10th of the following month.