Walmart-owned Flipkart is expanding grocery sales to more Indian cities

BENGALURU (Reuters) – Walmart-owned Flipkart will sell groceries online in more Indian cities as it seeks to better compete with Amazon and Reliance in an e-commerce market that has expanded rapidly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Flipkart has already expanded online grocery sales to over 50 Indian cities and aims to reach over 70 locations in the next six months, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Bengaluru-based company said its grocery services grew “exponentially” last year when many Indians started buying essentials online due to the health crisis.

“Grocery continues to be one of the fastest-growing categories,” said Manish Kumar, senior vice president of Flipkart, adding that in 2020, the company saw an increase in demand for the service from smaller cities.

JioMart, owned by Reliance Industries, last year became another major entrant into India’s e-grocery market, a sector that also includes Amazon.com Inc, BigBasket and several smaller players. Indian conglomerate Tata is reportedly buying a majority stake in Alibaba-backed BigBasket.

Reliance, backed by India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, raised more than $20 billion last year from global investors including Alphabet’s Facebook and Google for its digital arm to be backed by JioMart.

The broader Indian retail industry is also witnessing a fierce legal battle between Reliance and Jeff Bezos-led Amazon over Future Group’s $3.4 billion sale of its retail assets to Reliance, a move disputed by Future’s partner Amazon.

Flipkart’s recent expansion has taken its grocery services to major cities including Kolkata, Pune and Ahmedabad.

“Grocery is the next big area for online shopping and a key area of ​​focus for Flipkart to attract new online customers,” the company added.

(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)