 "Flipkart")
Walmart-owned e-commerce firm Flipkart is gearing up to launch a quick-commerce service in the next couple of months, according to sources. It will compete with firms such as Zepto, Swiggy’s Instamart, and Zomato’s Blinkit.
“Flipkart is working on this service and may launch it in the next couple of months. The firm is also setting up several dark stores in the country to provide this quick service,” said a person familiar with the development.
Entrackr was the first to report the development.
According to industry sources, 15-20-minute deliveries provided by players such as Zepto, Instamart, and Blinkit are taking a major portion of the sales of products away from Flipkart and Amazon.
“At Flipkart, customer-centricity is at the core of everything we do. We constantly work towards delivering a wide range of products to customers with speed. Over the past few months, we have made several investments to enhance our delivery capabilities, including adding same-day delivery in 20 cities. This covers mobile phones, essential items, electronics, home appliances, fashion, books, and lifestyle products,” said Flipkart in response to a query about its foray into quick commerce.
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“We are committed to meeting evolving customer expectations and delivering excellence in value, selection, and speed, with more initiatives expected on this front in the coming months,” said the company.
Flipkart recently introduced same-day delivery of products across multiple categories. This move will enable the Bengaluru-based company to deliver products to millions of customers across 20 cities, including both metro and non-metro regions.
Some of the non-metro cities include Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, Guwahati, Indore, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Nagpur, Patna, Raipur, Siliguri, and Vijayawada.
The firm would further scale it in the months to come, covering more cities, including Tier-II and Tier-III locations and categories.
“The quick-commerce initiative is different from this service as the aim is to provide the products much faster,” said a person.
Flipkart has been delivering more than 120 million packages a month. It has invested in building a robust supply chain to reach customers across the country, even in very remote pincodes.
To enable same-day delivery, Flipkart has invested in multiple fulfilment centres and technology capabilities for better sortation and increased throughput from its fulfilment centres to strengthen delivery.
Flipkart recently raised nearly $600 million in fresh funds from its parent company, Walmart, and another investor. Industry sources revealed that Flipkart was in talks with investors to raise a total funding round of about $1 billion.
The company plans to deploy the capital to expand its infrastructure, seller support ecosystem, and the latest technologies.
Quick-commerce firm Zepto on Tuesday said its membership programme, Zepto Pass, has got 1 million sign-ups within one week of launch. “The energy at Zepto feels just like the early days, and I’ve never been more excited about our company’s momentum and strength of execution,” said Zepto Chief Executive Officer Aadit Palicha on the social media platform X.
The membership comes at a fee of Rs 99 per month. It offers unlimited free deliveries on orders worth more than Rs 99 and discounts of up to 20 per cent based on the order value.
Zomato’s quick e-commerce arm, Blinkit, said its gross order value grew 28 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 103 per cent year-on-year. This was largely due to the robust uptick in demand due to the multiple festivals and occasions in the quarter. It reported revenue of Rs 644 crore in the third quarter of 2023-24 (FY24) as against Rs 301 crore in the year-ago quarter and Rs 505 crore in the second quarter of FY24.
Instamart, Swiggy’s quick commerce business in 25 Indian cities, made “rapid strides” as customers drove growth in orders, Prosus, the food delivery firm’s largest investor, said last year.
“Basket sizes grew well ahead of inflation. Instamart’s store count ended June 2023 19 per cent higher, contributing to its gross merchandise value growth of 63 per cent.” It said that Instamart’s losses in the first half of FY24 fell by 75 per cent as it gained scale and improved profitability.
“Broader product selection, densification of the store network, and faster delivery times have continued to aid customer acquisition and retention,” said Prosus.
