Flipkart Launches Grocery Delivery Service ‘Supermart’ in Bengaluru

After almost two years of shutting down Nearby, its online grocery delivery business, Flipkart has once again launched of its grocery delivery service with new name called ‘Supermart’. Apparently, the service has been made available on its mobile app to a small set of customers in Bengaluru only.

In April, we reported how Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy at the TiE event in New Delhi revealed his company's plans of entering the grocery market in India. He had said, “Yes we will get into grocery… 80 per cent of units bought in India is grocery… $400-600 million is grocery market, so we have to get into it."

Confirming this soft-launch of its new service, Flipkart spokesperson said, "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."

The 'Supermart' app further reveals that the grocery marketplace requires a minimum order worth ₹500. To be eligible for free delivery, users need to place order worth at least ₹1,000.

Flipkart first entered the Indian online grocery market in late 2015. It had launched its separate groceries ordering app called Nearby for delivering fruits, vegetables, soaps and other staples from supermarkets to customers. Following a poor response, the app, which was operational only in certain regions of Bangalore, was shutdown within 5 months of going live.

Amazon India, the biggest rival of Flipkart in India, already has a presence in this sector. In early 2016, the company had launched Amazon Now, which as per the reports, has seen repeat purchases leading to higher customer acquisition.

For Amazon Now mobile app, the company has a tie-up with retailers such as Big Bazaar and Hypercity for grocery delivery service in select cities.

Paytm Mall, which is the e-commerce entity of payments startup Paytm is also reportedly in talks to acquire stake in BigBasket — one of the leading hyperlocal delivery startup.

Flipkart To Shut Down 'Nearby, Its Grocery Delivery App

The online grocery delivery sector has been seeing a lot of new entrants into the market, from established startups expanding into this field to new ventures being launched. Flipkart made one such attempt about 6 months ago with their latest foray into this area, Nearby. Other major competitors in the market are Peppertap, Grofers and Amazon, which also launched a similar service.

Nearby was launched 6 months ago by Flipkart. It was operational only in certain regions of Bangalore between 10-8 PM. They claimed to deliver the order within an hour of it being placed. But unfortunately this did not work out as they had expected. They faced a lot of problems the major ones being lack of demand and customers, they have finally decided to put this little "experiment" to rest. 

Incidentally, Flipkart is not the only one to face such problems, giants like Grofers and Peppertap also had to withdraw from a number of cities, citing similar reasons. Grofers had to shut its operation in 9 cities and Peppertap closed down in 6 cities. Despite having raised a decent amount in funding, startups in this area still seem to be struggling and haven't been able to put down some solid roots in the ground.

Flipkart has recently seen a change in its reign. There is a speculation that this was a move by the new set of people at the top floor. Binny Bansal was recently made the CEO of the company replacing Sachin Bansal.

Notably, Flipkart saw two of its executives Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori leave the company to start with their own venture. With its leash in the hands of a new team Flipkart is on its way to restructuring which might lead to an eventual IPO in the next few years. Flipkart will be focusing more on making it delivery better in various cities of the country. They plan to deliver a major chunk of their orders through their own logistics and are working towards the same.

 

Flipkart To Shut Down 'Nearby, Its Grocery Delivery App

The online grocery delivery sector has been seeing a lot of new entrants into the market, from established startups expanding into this field to new ventures being launched. Flipkart made one such attempt about 6 months ago with their latest foray into this area, Nearby. Other major competitors in the market are Peppertap, Grofers and Amazon, which also launched a similar service.

Nearby was launched 6 months ago by Flipkart. It was operational only in certain regions of Bangalore between 10-8 PM. They claimed to deliver the order within an hour of it being placed. But unfortunately this did not work out as they had expected. They faced a lot of problems the major ones being lack of demand and customers, they have finally decided to put this little "experiment" to rest. 

Incidentally, Flipkart is not the only one to face such problems, giants like Grofers and Peppertap also had to withdraw from a number of cities, citing similar reasons. Grofers had to shut its operation in 9 cities and Peppertap closed down in 6 cities. Despite having raised a decent amount in funding, startups in this area still seem to be struggling and haven't been able to put down some solid roots in the ground.

Flipkart has recently seen a change in its reign. There is a speculation that this was a move by the new set of people at the top floor. Binny Bansal was recently made the CEO of the company replacing Sachin Bansal.

Notably, Flipkart saw two of its executives Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori leave the company to start with their own venture. With its leash in the hands of a new team Flipkart is on its way to restructuring which might lead to an eventual IPO in the next few years. Flipkart will be focusing more on making it delivery better in various cities of the country. They plan to deliver a major chunk of their orders through their own logistics and are working towards the same.