For online retailers, India’s grocery market is the new hotspot as it attracts repeat purchases and leads to higher consumer acquisition. The latest entrant is Flipkart which has soft launched its grocery delivery service Supermart on its mobile application to select customers in Bangalore, reports Economic Times.
Supermart requires a minimum order value of Rs 500 (US$ 7.73) and provides free delivery for orders over Rs 1,000 (US$ 15.46). The company intends to scale it up to other cities in future, the daily added.
This is in fact Flipkart’s second foray into grocery space. It had launched Nearby in 2015, but had discontinued it later.
India’s online grocery space is currently dominated by BigBasket, promoted by Supermarket Groceries. It has been implementing a hyper-local strategy wherein it has joined hands with neighborhood grocery stores for speedy delivery of goods.
For Flipkart’s US-based rival Amazon, grocery has been a major focus area and offers food products through Amazon Pantry in some cities and same-day grocery delivery on Amazon Now app through a tie-up with retailers such as Big Bazaar and Hypercity in some cities.
The Seattle-based company recently got Indian government’s approval to set up physical stores to sell food products. It will be spending US$ 515 million over next five years.
Another player Paytm Mall, along with its main investor Alibaba, is in talks to buy a significant stake in BigBasket.