INDIA – Flipkart, one of the largest online grocery retailers in India, has said it plans to expand its fulfilment centre capacity for grocery by more than 8,000 sq ft over the next three months across Delhi, Kolkata and other cities.
The Walmart-owned company said in a statement that the additional fulfilment centre capacity will bolster its capacity to cater to over 73,000 grocery orders per day.
“With this additional infrastructure, the marketplace will bring the ease of online grocery shopping to more users across the country,” a statement said.
Flipkart Grocery offers over 7,000 products across more than 200 categories – ranging from daily household supplies, staples, snacks and beverages, confectionery and personal care.
Unlike traditional warehouses, fulfilment centres are equipped with highly automated pick, pack and shipping processes to facilitate safe and timely processing of orders.
Flipkart boasts of an expansive grocery fulfilment centre network spread across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad among other cities, serving close to 64,000 orders a day.
“Customer safety is at the centre of the Flipkart group’s efforts and our new grocery supply chain infrastructure will help us serve more customers in the country who can order daily essentials seamlessly and avail of contactless delivery,” Flipkart Vice President – Grocery Smrithi Ravichandran said.
She added that the company is continuously engaging with brand and marketplace partners to ensure stock availability across the country.
Last month, Flipkart had announced the expansion of its hyperlocal service Flipkart Quick to six new cities – Delhi, Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Noida, Hyderabad and Pune – to provide consumers access to order daily essentials such as fruits and vegetables and get delivery within 90 minutes.
Flipkart’s expansion is timely as India’s e-commerce market is poised to grow by 84 per cent to $111 billion by 2024 on the back of accelerated adoption of digital technologies amid the Covid-19 pandemic, a report by fintech firm FIS.
The current Covid-19 wave has also once again highlighted the importance of online grocery delivery services.
As the movement restrictions and total lock downs are being implemented throughout India, consumers have been left with no option but to buy online.
This reliance on online delivery is expected to become a habit even beyond the pandemic creating many growth opportunities for retailers like Flipkart.
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