Flipkart Launches Its 1st Grocery Fulfillment Center in Rajasthan, Offers Delivery Slots as Per Consumer’s Choice

India's homegrown e-commerce marketplace, Flipkart, has recently inaugurated a new grocery fulfillment center (FC) in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Notably, this new FC is Flipkart's first grocery FC in the state of Rajasthan, which will help meet increasing consumer demand for online groceries through enhanced speed and serviceability across the region. Earlier, consumers in Rajasthan and nearby regions were reliant on Dharuhera FC (near Gurugram) in Haryana.

This move strengthens Flipkart's delivery capabilities and caters to the growing demand for online groceries in the region.

The new FC spans 69,000 square feet and is equipped to dispatch 6,500 orders daily to Jaipur and neighboring cities, including Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, and Kota. It features over 5,000 products, including local brands, to offer a wide range of quality grocery items to customers.

Flipkart's new Grocery FC in Jaipur

Delighted to launch our first grocery Fulfillment center of Rajasthan state in Jaipur; This will boost MSMEs/farmers’ digital market access on @Flipkart , help boost their income and also create over 600 local jobs in addition to boosting supplier job ecosystem. Consumers will… pic.twitter.com/PLEOaVkyIh

— Rajneesh Kumar (@rajneeeshkumar) June 20, 2024

The establishment of this FC will create 600 direct and indirect jobs, benefiting the local economy and supporting small businesses, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and Farmers.

Flipkart aims to enhance delivery services and meet the growing consumer demand for online groceries in Rajasthan. The center aligns with their commitment to strengthen partnerships with local farmers and businesses while fostering sustainable growth

Consumers in Rajasthan can now expect quicker deliveries and better value, along with services like cash on delivery, pay later options, no-cost equated monthly installments, easy cancellation, and unified payments interface for digital payments.

This initiative reflects Flipkart's dedication to providing convenient grocery shopping experiences while empowering local communities economically.

Smt. Manju Sharma, Member of Parliament, Jaipur, said, “Flipkart's first grocery fulfillment center in Rajasthan is a significant milestone in our state's digital and economic growth. We are happy that Flipkart’s expansion in its supply chain infrastructure in the state will provide local consumers with faster and more convenient access to essential goods. At the same time, it will empower the local MSMEs and farmers, thereby uplifting the overall livelihood opportunities of the local ecosystem. I commend Flipkart for their commitment to enhancing our PM Shri Narendra Modi ji's vision of 'Digital India' by giving benefits of digital commerce and contributing to enriching the economy of our New Bharat.”

Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Flipkart Group, said, “As a customer-first organization, Flipkart leverages its homegrown technology to keenly identify high-demand hotspots and address consumer needs for quality grocery products. The launch of our first grocery fulfillment center in Jaipur marks a significant advancement in our efforts to enhance delivery services and meet the growing consumer demand for online groceries in Rajasthan. As we continue to expand our footprint, the new FC aligns with our commitment to strengthening partnerships with local farmers, MSMEs and other local businesses. We remain committed to furthering our vision of empowering these communities economically and fostering sustainable growth while creating new livelihood opportunities.”

Hari Kumar G, Vice President, Head of Grocery, Flipkart, said, “We have been witnessing significant demand for online groceries among local consumers of Rajasthan, which offers an opportunity to bridge the digital gap and make online shopping more convenient for consumers. With the launch of the new FC, consumers will now have access to a vast assortment of high-quality local and national selections at the right value at the delivery slot of their choice. We aim to address the needs of value-seeking consumers of tier 2 and 3 cities by elevating consumer satisfaction and improving the growth of the overall regional ecosystem.”

Xume, India’s 1st AI-powered Grocery Scoring and Recommendation Startup, Launched

• Backed by Aakash Chaudhary, the platform aims to empower over ten lakh consumers by the end of 2023
• More than 60 health parameters are analysed to develop a personalised health and nutrition score
• Its extensive database currently comprises more than 60,000 products, 10,000 ingredients, and 3,500 plus brands

Xume, India's first AI-powered platform for personalised grocery scoring and recommendation, has been officially launched to address the complexity in choosing packaged food in the country.

In the backdrop of reports terming India's packaged food ecosystem as one of the least healthy globally, the platform aims to empower users to make informed decisions about the food they consume by providing personalized grocery scoring and recommendations, utilizing more than 60 key dietary preferences, health, and lifestyle goals. Having been seven years in development, Xume boasts of an extensive database comprising over 60,000 products, 10,000 ingredients, and 3,500 brands within the Indian packaged food and beverage ecosystem.

With multiple reports predicting the size of the grocery market in India to touch $1 Trillion in the next few years, with health driving most of the growth, Xume aims to empower up to one million (10 lakh) users by the end of 2023.

According to the latest FSSAI Annual Report 2020-21, out of over 1 Lakh samples analysed, more than 28,000 were found to be non-conforming in terms of safety, sub-standard ingredients, and misleading labelling, resulting in penalties exceeding INR 50 Cr. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as the Indian packaged F&B ecosystem is currently plagued with mislabelling, false claims, and the use of substandard ingredients to save costs and improve margins.

A recent survey by The George Institute for Global Health, Australia, analysing over 4 lakh products from 12 countries, declared Indian packaged food as the least healthy globally. In this context, Xume empowers users with the ability to scan the barcode of any packaged food item and receive a personalized health score along with a comprehensive understanding of its ingredients, nutritional value, and allergens.

Renowned education entrepreneur and VC, Aakash Chaudhury, has backed Xume with undisclosed seed funding for its initial growth journey. "When I personally tried Xume, I was blown away by the depth of research and insights it provides. Every week I am inundated with dozens of pitches from brands that claim to be the healthiest. I see great value in Xume’s scoring methodology and nutrition intelligence both as a health-conscious consumer and investor," said Aakash Chaudhary, Chief Mentor of Aakash Educational Services Limited.

Akshaye Jalan, Founder & CEO, Xume

Akshaye Jalan, Founder & CEO of Xume, said, "You are what you eat, but how can we eat right if we don't know what's really in the food we are eating? Furthermore, how do you choose what’s right for you when every product claims to be the healthiest? We exist in a marketplace where every consumable claims to be the healthiest for you. With many brands choosing unhealthy alternatives to drive profit margins, it’s not a coincidence that India has been touted as the lifestyle disease capital of the world. We are more than a startup idea; we are a movement on a mission to empower every citizen to make informed and better choices and take back control of their health. We’re here to make a difference and cherish the support of Aakash, who has been instrumental in helping us build the Xumeverse."

Xume currently operates via Android and iOS apps, B2B APIs, and its website xume.co. The platform aims to revolutionize the way Indian consumers select packaged foods, fostering a healthier nation and promoting transparency in the food industry.

Chennai-based One Hour Bazaar (1hb) Announces Successful Fund Raising for Its Online Grocery Delivery Services Launch

Chennai based One Hour Bazaar (1HB) has announced successful fund raising for its Online Grocery Delivery Services launched last year during the pandemic.  Conceived by Mr V Vijayakumar and alumni of IIT Bombay and his sister Ms Madhu Gayathri Vaithiyanathan, alumni of IIT Madras this pioneered the concept of express delivery by promising the customers delivery with an hour of order. 

With unique and distinctive technological advantages the company is well poised to offer customer delight in the coming days. Already the company has a loyal base of customers over the last one year. The company has a strong professional team drawn from Banking, logistics and retail sector.

Mr. S.V.Raja Vaidyanathan till recently the MD of Asirvad Microfinance Limited has come on Board with a 25% stake for an undisclosed sum in the company.  Mr Vijayakumar, CEO of Voice Gear Networks said that the investment will enable to reach out to another 100,000 customers from present base by offering online grocery with superior service and at affordable price. He said that the 1HB app offers ease of ordering online grocery and backed by quicker service delivery.  He conveyed that 1HB has ambitious plans and this initial funding from him and guidance will steer the company to greater heights in quick time. 

Mr S V Raja Vaidyanathan said that the business model is highly scalable and efficient and the recent investment from him will enable to scale business in multiple locations. He is also from IIT Madras and a MBA for IIM Calcutta besides being a qualified Cost Accountant and a Company Secretary. With 4 decades of experience in Telecom, Retail, Financial Services he brings in tremendous start up experience having worked in about 6 such projects two of which he promoted. The MFI he was heading until recently was built from scratch to a 1400 branch PAN India INR 7,000 crore AUM company. He had an Investment Banking company in the nineties.

About One Hour Bazaar

1Hour Grocery is an online supermarket for daily essentials and groceries. We have a good collection of products from most popular brands and you can choose from them. You can place an order at any time and it would be delivered to your doorstep within 60 minutes. We are operative in Chennai currently and would be expanding to other cities soon. You can pay for your orders through Paytm wallet, debit / credit card, net banking and cash on deliver.

Wildermart Launches in India

Swaroop Mohan and Shweta Thakur

Wildermart, a clean grocery store, launches today in India on Earth Day. The online grocery store aims to be a truly sustainable model that offers a conscious solution to help everyday consumption be clean, green, and earth friendly. Launched in Bangalore with an offering of over 1000+ products across 30+ categories the brand aims to take this sustainable model to conscious consumers across the country within the next 3 years. The brand launched with Maneka Sanjay Gandhi- Member of the Lok Sabha, Animal Rights Activist, and Environmentalist, making the first purchase on the portal today.

The market potential for eco-friendly products and services is over $40 bn. The 10-year-old industry will occupy a market share of 0.5% of online F&G market = INR 400cr by 2023 Trend for purpose-led purchasing is greater among consumers in emerging economies than in developed markets (88% in India). Not just in metros but it is expected to penetrate into Tier II & III markets in 2021 Environment-consciousness and eco-friendliness of brands were ranked as the highest parameter influencing shoppers (67%), followed by natural and organic ingredients (66% and 65%, respectively) Growing export trend from India - 2.1% of global volume along with govt support being provided to the farmers - within next 5 years, 4% of Indian agri land will be under organics Source: Euromonitor, CII & GFI

Swaroop Mohan, Co-founder, Wildermart, commented on the need of the hour, “We have two homes – the body and this planet. Over the past few decades, our individual health has been gradually declining with the health of our environment. The current covid situation makes it amply clear to everyone that everything is connected. We believe it is a problem of consumption. Advertising and corporates have sold a certain, unsustainable lifestyle to the people. And that is killing our planet and all the species, including us. A correction can only be achieved when we look for a wholistic solution for a better, cleaner consumption which doesn’t damage our bodies or the environment.”
 
Commenting on the launch, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi said, “The best way to preserve the Earth is with your pocket. Buy less, but whatever you buy, make it organic, chemical free, plastic free, and good for the Earth."
 
“Wildermart is a solution we have been looking for as consumers. It gives the convenience of any online grocery store whilst providing better quality products which are good for their health and the environment. Added to this, a consumer can now contribute to the solution by doing something they do every day – consume groceries. We find that empowering. And we hope that everyone will!” Shweta Thakur, Co-founder, Wildermart also added.
 
The team has earlier produced vegan festivals called Wilderfest in Bangalore and Delhi. The idea of providing a clean solution to consumption has been brewing for the last 3 years. Today, that has evolved to becoming a business built on the 3Ps of the Triple Bottom Line – People, Planet and Profit. They hope to lead the way for the entire industry. The Wildermart team will create a clean supply chain that delivers products packaged in an eco-friendly material through electric vehicles. While they will start with products that meet all the requirements, the team intends to encourage existing brands in the market to join the movement.

 Shop at: www.wildermart.com

Know more on:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildermartindia/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildermartindia/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildermartIndia
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiiLomRaegULeuz92Q_wwAg/featured
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wildermart

Otipy, India’s Largest Social Commerce Platform for Fresh Groceries Records 1 Lac Customers

Otipy Mobile App

Community group buying is revolutionizing the grocery e-commerce space in China. Disruptive brands like Furong Xingsheng (Valued at $3 Bn as per Bloomberg - Link/Funding: $740M) and Nice Tuan (Valued at ~$1Bn as per articles, Link/Funding: $450M funding) are garnering major traction by cracking the long-standing conundrum around e-commerce for fresh produce and have raised multi-millions in funding from marquee investors like Tencent, Alibaba, and more. Closer home, Otipy, India’s largest social commerce platform for fresh produce, is implementing this very model to transform fresh grocery delivery in the country. Otipy is in talks with investors to raise $10M.

The fresh grocery category in India stands at $200 billion, of which less than 1% accounted for online grocery so far. Finally, in March 2020, Otipy emerged with the most innovative and enabling business model where the unit economics work at scale and the produce is sourced and delivered fresh, every single day. Otipy connects consumers with farmers through resellers (women and small neighborhood stores) who sell fruits and vegetables to their communities through WhatsApp groups.

Mr. Varun Khurana, Founder, Otipy said, “No one in India has been able to crack the model for fresh produce. We have a history and deep understanding of fresh that we have leveraged to build a social commerce model that creates earning opportunities for women and stores, helps farmers, and provides fresher, more nutritious produce to consumers at a lesser price. In the last 8-9 months, we have built a robust platform in the fresh produce category supporting 2500+ women and stores as resellers and are witnessing a phenomenal response from customers in Delhi NCR. We now plan to further expand this market in other cities as well.”

These community leaders/resellers earn a commission of up to 10% for all group sales – the highest across all social commerce brands in India. While on average resellers make INR 2,500 – 3,000, the platform’s top 20% resellers make more than Rs 15,000 per month which, again, is higher than any other reseller network. With 2500+ women and stores as resellers across Delhi-NCR, Otipy is already catering to 5000+ daily orders from 1 lac+ consumers. And these numbers are growing at a rapid pace. To empower more resellers and further build its business across India, Otipy is in active discussions to raise a $10M+ fundraise in 2021. Otipy also plans to extend its platform to other categories and has already launched specific dairy, grocery products on the platform.

Since community leaders are responsible for creating their own customer groups, Otipy’s customer acquisition cost is very low (1/10th of category cost) while conversion rates are much higher than other business models. Similarly, last-mile deliveries have become more cost-efficient than ever before with community leaders being conveniently located close to the end consumers. Moreover, at 30-35%, Otipy’s gross margins are highest across all models, benefitting every stakeholder in its supply chain including the consumer, community leader, and the produce platform itself.

India’s investments in the agritech sector are likely to exceed $500 million in the next two years. Otipy, too, has seen a rather continuous interest from investors. It has already raised $2M in 2020 from Inflection Point (IP) Ventures and the Smile Group. So, is the platform set to become the next Furong Xingsheng or Nice Tuan in India? With Otipy’s growth trajectory mirroring that of China’s most inspirational brands, the answer would be a resounding yes.

Grocery Retail Aggregator Kirana King Raises INR 7 Cr in Pre-Series-A Round from RVCF

Jaipur based firm Kirana King, a Unit of Kirana King Retail Network Pvt Limited raised INR 7 CR from Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund (RVCF) in a Pre-Series A round. Kirana King started its Retail Aggregation Operations in 2017 and has a Grocery Retail Network of more than 200 stores in Jaipur, Rajasthan. 

Within a span of 3 years, Kirana King has widened its network to 200 plus stores in Jaipur alone which is probably the highest number of stores under a single brand in a City Wise Store penetration in Grocery Retail Market in India. Kirana King now aims to expand its operations in various parts of Rajasthan where it targets of achieving 1000 stores by the end of 2021. 

The company is slated to be a powerful grocery retail aggregator player in India by 2025. Kirana King is aiming to achieve 4 times revenue growth during the ongoing financial year in comparison to the last year.

Kirana King provides a gamut of Services to conventional Kirana stores through its dynamo of RaaS (Retail As a Service) which is a very unique combination of Store transformation, Enhanced and Convenient Store Layouts, supply chain and Marketing of these store among consumers to drive more footfalls, Digital solutions, eCommerce stack, and Training & Development of Kirana Eco-System to empower the most important person in the entire value chain of Grocery Retail in India- “The Kirana Store Owner”. 

RaaS model impacts the core journey touchpoints of Grocery consumers when they shop at their local neighbourhood stores and they soon realize the massive changes in operations and convenience at these stores which are the foremost drivers in this format and something which was missing from the Indian Grocery Retail Ecosystem all this while. This also further proves the receptivity of their concept and the buy-in of the conventional store owners of their operating philosophy. 

Mr. Anup Kumar, Founder and CEO Kirana King

Mr. Anup Kumar, Founder & CEO Of Kirana King states, “We defined the Problem Statement at the brainstorming level of our idea of Kirana King in two words-Empowerment and Change, as most of the dynamic and revolutionary products or services across the globe have been driven either through Empowerment or Change, we went into detail study of the missing links that had been acting as severe bottlenecks in Grocery Retail Eco-System in India. Our thoughts were trying to break into the reasons of a very slow pace growth of Grocery Retail in India while the other emerging economies around us like in the Middle East or South-East Asia Region had been witnessing a surge in convenience store format.”


Mr. Anup Kumar, Founder & CEO Of Kirana King further said, “Our research concluded that requisite empowerment to the conventional Kirana Stores was just not enough, the entire value chain of Kirana Retail is fragmented to a large extent with services in bits and pieces leading to the resistance for the change as well, although it seems to be a behavioural aspect but when I went to the various part of India and visited thousands of Kirana stores myself. One thing was crystal clear to me- There is no problem when it comes to the resources available to the Kirana Stores but there was a lack of comprehension platform which can act as Single window service to this massive sector of Grocery Retail. We need to psychologically align our beliefs with that of the Kirana Store owners.”


Anup Kumar has witnessed and seen the Grocery Retail revolutions from close quarters in the Middle East and South-East Asia as an Entrepreneur said, “Once Kirana King started with its Retail As a Service-based interventions, the resistance levels of Kirana Store owners went down and the brand witnessed queries from store owners from the far-flung corners of India who wish to join the network of Brand Kirana King. Kirana King seeks to use the recently raised funds to expand its retail network, Manpower, enhancement & development of Technology.”


Mr. Gaurav Chowdhry, VP at RVCF said “India has been witnessing substantial changes and developments in the field of Kirana or Grocery Retail. There are not only certain large corporate houses eying the space but also the emergence of few strong regional players like Kirana King who are backed with huge on the ground experience, the advantage of technology, evolved business process very specific to Kirana Retailing, the alignment of their thought process with the neighbourhood Kirana Store owners and creating value for all the stakeholders involved in Grocery Retail ecosystem. For an early-stage investor like us, Kirana King looks very promising with its Retail as a Service (RaaS) USP. We are very excited to join Kirana King at this stage of their massive expansion.”