90-minute deliveries in India from Flipkart
Flipkart's hyperlocal service, Flipkart Quick, will be selling mobile phones and stationery items, moving it further than Amazon Fresh, which offers two-hour delivery of groceries. Flipkart Quick has started in select locations in Bengaluru. Later, the service will be expanded to 4-5 major cities in the coming months. For a minimum delivery fee of Rs.29, consumers can get deliveries in 90 minutes, or book a two-hour slot for deliveries later.
Bengaluru-based Flipkart is planning to go not only against Amazon but Alibaba-backed e-commerce firm BigBasket and grocery delivery startup JioMart, owned by Mukesh Ambani.
The grocery category and small grocers - mom-and-pop stores regarded as the backbone of theeconomy are the next battleground for India's e-commerce firms, especially in this period of COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused many more Indians to come and shop online.
Flipkart said, "The hyperlocal category, known for being a convenience for many, has now emerged to be a long-term essential service for the country."
As we have already told that Mukesh Ambani's Jio Platform is soon to launch an online service for Indian grocers and small businesses called JioMart, and Amazon is quickly adding small Indian shops as sellers on its platform to provide them a good and big online exposure.
Google-backed Dunzo and Naspers-backed Swiggy also offer hyperlocal deliveries in India also for groceries. These firms are much smaller than Amazon or Flipkart.
The new Flipkart system is to be implemented in two phases. Flipkart will source directly from sellers and deliver to customers in the first phase. Then Flipkart will enable the kirana ecosystem and bring them onboard along with their infrastructure as a second phase.
Paytm Mall is also looking to start same-day hyperlocal deliveries in groceries, electronics including smartphones and wellness products. Currently, Amazon India offers two-hour delivery services in Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Hyderabad. The service was first known as Kirana Now, in 2015 which was renamed Prime Now in 2018 and now known as Amazon Fresh.