Flipkart Wholesale expands into general merchandise ahead of festive season

Flipkart Wholesale, the digital business-to-business (B2B) marketplace of the e-commerce firm has launched the general merchandise category on its platform. With the addition of general merchandise products to its app, Flipkart Wholesale reinforces its efforts to connect with local Indian manufacturers. These include connecting MSMEs with retailers using technology and more products will now be available on the wholesale marketplace for kiranas and small retailers.

Flipkart Wholesale is live with a general merchandise portfolio covering 24,000 products across home accessories, cookware, storage, toys, luggage, sports and fitness categories. The category will be available to Kiranas and retailers across the country including Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Daman and Diu, Goa and Gujarat. The other locations include Jharkhand, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Pondicherry, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Tripura.

Flipkart Wholesale competes with players such as Udaan, Amazon and Reliance’s JioMart.

“By leveraging our strong capabilities in technology, we have successfully delivered growth by providing small businesses access to a wide selection of products at a significant value,” said Adarsh Menon, senior vice president and head - Flipkart Wholesale. “With the help of technology and the right investments, we will continue making lives easier and business more profitable for small business owners and kiranas.”

The platform will be made available for customers covering deliverability over 1350 cities across 8,000 pin codes in these States and Union Territories. These products are sourced from the best manufacturers across Ahmedabad, Delhi, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Meerut, Panipat,  Rajkot, Surat and  Tiruppur. The platform will scale up and add 55,000 listings in the next 6 months and further aims to strengthen the supplier ecosystem by adding 1,000 sellers.

The General Merchandise market is fragmented and retailers have very limited access to high-quality brands and products, resulting in the limited assortment. The concentrated supplier ecosystem cuts manufacturers’ reach to pan-India buyer audiences. Through its entry, Flipkart Wholesale aims to solve the problems that prevail in the category. It would do this by achieving ease of doing business and enhancing the reach for manufacturers and high-quality selection and convenience for the customers.

Flipkart Wholesale has also expanded its fashion category to a pan India consumer base and will now be available in 1100 new cities and 7,000 plus pin codes, to boost up this festive season. Fashion retailers in these cities can now experience the Flipkart advantage and get better margins on apparel and footwear ordered on the platform. The fashion category in Flipkart Wholesale has witnessed tremendous growth through e-commerce with over 29,000 fashion retailers onboard being serviced by 950 sellers. The majority of them are direct manufacturers residing from large fashion hubs in the country. In the coming months, Flipkart Wholesale aims to scale this number to 2000 sellers and manufacturers from key apparel and footwear hubs in India.

Flipkart Wholesale that launched in 2020 was available to retailers and small businesses through the Fashion category in Bengaluru, Bihar, Delhi, Gurgaon and Mumbai. It is now steadily expanding its reach to newer clusters. It serves over 1.5 million members across the country, which include kiranas, HoReCa (hotels, restaurants and cafeterias) and O&I (offices and institutions).