Flipkart kicks-off grocery delivery in Bengaluru, eyes to build separate supply chain

After completing a successful pilot for a few months, Indian e-commerce major Flipkart has launched grocery delivery service Supermart in Bengaluru.

This is the second time Flipkart has entered grocery and FMCG segment. Earlier in 2015, it had launched Nearby to deliver grocery, however, soon the Softbank-backed company shut it down.

While select customers in Bengaluru can order with minimum basket size of Rs 500, for free delivery the order size should exceed Rs 1,000. Grocery has been a major focus for Flipkart, Amazon and Paytm from quite some time.

Last year, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart said that 80% of units bought in India is grocery, and Flipkart can’t ignore the segment.

“We have done a soft launch for grocery categories at Flipkart. Currently, it is available to select customers in Bengaluru. In line with our aim of transforming e-commerce in the country through technology, we want to make shopping for everyday essentials convenient for our customers, we intend to scale it up to all customers in Bengaluru and take it to other cities in future,“ a Flipkart spokesperson said to ET.

Flipkart is ramping-up separate supply chain for grocery segment. Media reports hint that it’s also devising open-box delivery to verify products before acceptance.

Flipkart’s rival Amazon India had launched its grocery ordering app, Amazon Now in February 2015. As per Kalagato, a data tracker platform, Amazon has about 31.2% marketshare in March 2017. Amazon delivers grocery in four cities - Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi.

Grocery has become a top priority for leading e-commerce companies in India as the transaction in other categories aren’t growing significantly. Paytm has been talking to Bigbasket to pick-up a controlling stake in Bigbasket.

Meanwhile, Amazon also had entered into a 60-day exclusivity agreement with Bigbasket for a potential acquisition in June this year. However, talks failed to go further owing to valuation asked by the online grocery platform.