India’s Flipkart is giving its hyperlocal delivery service another chance

Flipkart launched its hyperlocal service on the outskirts of Bengaluru on Tuesday, four years after the e-commerce group abruptly ended its previous foray into the category.

The Walmart-owned e-commerce group says Flipkart Quick leverages the company’s supply chain infrastructure and new location mapping technology to deliver over 2,000 products to customers spanning groceries, perishables, smartphones, electronic accessories and consumables within 90 minutes. stationary.

When a customer places an order, the products come from local stores, warehouses and retail chains. Flipkart Quick – initially operating in Whitefield, Panathur, HSR Layout, BTM Layout, Banashankari, RK Puram and Indiranagar, among other suburbs of Bengaluru – allows customers to book a convenient two-hour time slot from 6am to midnight for delivery.

The company, which works with multiple partners, charges a fee to handle these orders, starting at 29 Indian rupees (39 cents).

The launch of Quick stands is expected to give Flipkart the opportunity to reach out to a new group of users, especially those who otherwise see no reason to shop online, offer more timely deliveries, and also create headaches for some existing startups like Dunzo that are already operating in similar space. This also marks Flipkart’s entry into servicing orders for fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and milk.

Dunzo, powered by Google, operates in Bangalore and allows customers to order any product from nearby stores. One of the experiments carried out in recent quarters was the signing of contracts with smartphone suppliers such as Xiaomi to deliver new phones to customers within half an hour.

If this becomes the norm in the country, it could pose a serious challenge to both Flipkart and Amazon India. Both companies, which take at least one day to deliver phones, count the sale of smartphones as one of their main businesses.

“This is a great model for India as households of all sizes are already accustomed to neighborhood Kirana stores. In fact, Indian families are so comfortable in the so-called ‘hyperlocal context’ that there is a tendency to develop deep, familial bonds with sellers, shopkeepers and service providers – now thanks to the convenience of e-commerce,” said Sandeep Karwa, vice president of Flipkart, in statement.

“We are starting with a dark store model (no walk-ins) where we enable sellers to store inventory close to the consumer; this model can encourage local entrepreneurship and enable the creation of new business strategies and partnerships. Today, with Flipkart Quick – our Hyperlocal feature, we have the potential to bring the entire network of neighborhood Kirana stores to our platform in just one click,” he added.

This is not the first time that Flipkart has explored the hyperlocal delivery category. In late 2015, Flipkart launched Nearby, which enables delivery of perishables, groceries, wellness and household items within 60 minutes. However, according to reports, the company abruptly discontinued Nearb,y operations due to weak demand and an unsustainable model.

Flipkart didn’t mention Nearby today, but did talk about the efforts it has taken to build Quick and the opportunities it sees in the market. Flipkart said the company plans to expand its fast hyperlocal delivery service beyond Bengaluru in the next few months.

In the case of Quick, Flipkart said it is also moving away from the traditional model of using the postal code system to identify the delivery location and will instead adopt a latitude and longitude-based approach. Thanks to this model, the company can “not only narrow down the location” but also “more precisely” and efficiently deliver deliveries.

Both Flipkart, which raised an additional $1.2 billion this month, and Amazon India have rushed to capitalize on the huge presence of mom-and-pop stores across the country in recent months.

Last week, Flipkart said it was acquiring a 100% stake in India’s Walmart, which had a limited standalone presence in the country and operated Best Price, a cash and carry company that operates 28 warehouse club-style stores across the country. country and has over 1.5 million members. The company plans to launch wholesale operations in the country next month.

These local stores are located in tens of thousands of cities, towns and villages in India. They survived – and thrived – despite billions of dollars of investment by retail giants in the country. The space has also attracted the attention of India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

JioMart, a new e-commerce venture between the country’s largest retail chain (Reliance Retail) and telecom network (Reliance Jio Platforms), began limited operations in April this year and has since expanded to over 200 cities and towns across India. The new venture plans to work closely with mom and pop stores.

Facebook, which invested $5.7 billion in Reliance Jio Platforms earlier this year, said the two companies will explore ways to serve the country’s 60 million small and medium enterprises.