Over a year after Amazon launched its grocery delivery arm in India, rival Flipkart has soft-launched its own grocery category ‘Supermart’ on its mobile app to a small set of customers from Bengaluru, reports the Economic Times.
This is Flipkart’s second attempt at the grocery segment after it launched a separate grocery delivery app ‘Nearby’ back in October 2015, which failed to take off. This pilot was first launched a few months ago for its employees in Bengaluru.
Supermart, now operational in Bengaluru for a few, requires users to order for a minimum of Rs 500. For orders over Rs 1000, Flipkart is offering free delivery.
“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 ecommerce 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,” ET quotes a Flipkart spokesperson as saying.
Grocery has been a sector that has been seeing major interest, especially from the ecommerce giants such as Amazon, Paytm and Flipkart.
After Amazon India launched Amazon Now in early 2016, ET reports that it has seen repeat purchases leading to higher customer acquisition. Amazon Now app has a tie-up with retailers such as Big Bazaar and Hypercity in some cities for grocery.
It is also planning investments to the tune of $500 million in e-retail of food products in India. Amazon Now is currently available in Hyderabad Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai.
Paytm’s ecommerce arm, Paytm Mall too, is reportedly in talks with e-grocery player BigBasket – currently the largest in India -- to buy a significant stake and expanding in this space.
ET reports that Flipkart is building a dedicated supply chain for its grocery service. It is also expected to give consumers options such as open-box delivery to verify products before buying or paying for them and doorstep returns.