INDIA – Flipkart Grocery, one of the largest e-grocery stores in India, has expanded its grocery services to more than 50 cities via Marketplace, and now aims to reach over 70 cities before the end of the year.
The Walmart- owned grocery business has witnessed 3 times growth in the last one year largely due to a pandemic driven shift towards online buying.
RedSeer’s analysis highlights that e-groceries grew by nearly 75% in the lockdown period alone.
A KPMG report expects Indian online groceries to grow steadily for the rest of the year at least, reaching a gross merchandise value (GMV) of over US$3 billion – compared to nearly US$2 billion last year.
Accounting for the ecommerce boom being a permanent fixture, the report predicts a CAGR of nearly 60% for online groceries in the lead up to 2024, taking the segment past US$18 billion GMV.
This makes online grocery one of the fastest-growing categories in India making companies such as Flipkart and its Competitor BigBasket to invest a lot of time and effort into expanding their presence in the Asian country.
“We have witnessed increased demand for groceries from tier 2 cities in the past year, fuelled by customers increasing preference for contactless shopping, from the comforts of their home,” said Manish Kumar, Senior Vice President – Grocery, General Merchandise and Furniture, Flipkart.
Kumar is of the opinion that this is a trend which will continue and will set the course of of India’s grocery space.
As the market expands, Kumar notes that consumers are going to demand more quality food and household supplies from users.
“In line with this, we have invested in scaling up our grocery operations across the country to ensure a seamless grocery shopping experience through an expansive product selection, robust supply chain and smooth in-app experience for consumers,” explains Kumar.
As the company expands into more regions in India, its operations are expected to also give a fillip to the local food processing industry, connecting farmers producers to lakhs of consumers through the tech enabled marketplace.
Flipkart Grocery already sources from these players over 7,000 products across over 200 categories including household supplies, staples, snacks and beverages.
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