Flipkart launches online grocery store ‘Supermart’ in Mumbai

With an aim to capture a lion’s share in the online grocery segment, leading e-commerce player Flipkart on Wednesday announced the launch of its online grocery store ‘Flipkart Supermart’ in Mumbai.

The e-commerce giant had done a soft launch in the city in February. Since then, it has been delivering to 91 pin codes, which roughly covers about 85 percent of the city.

The Walmart-owned company had ventured into the online grocery business in 2017. In the last one and a half years, it has launched the service in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Delhi.

To cater to Mumbai’s needs, Flipkart has set up a fulfilment centre in Bhiwandi and a last-mile delivery network. It will bank on them to offer next-day doorstep delivery at the buyer’s preferred time slot.

According to reports, at USD 400 billion, grocery is the biggest retail category in the country. However, e-commerce barely accounts for 0.5 percent of it. Flipkart will compete with the likes of Amazon and BigBasket in the segment.

“Grocery is the space which is going to give the next level of e-commerce growth. However, it is one of the toughest category from online perspective. We are cognizant of it. We built a dedicated supply chain for groceries,” Flipkart head of Grocery Manish Kumar told reporters.

Kumar said the company’s grocery business has grown phenomenally over the last year and it remains bullish on India. Further, Walmart’s backing allows it to have long term bets, especially in a category like grocery.

“Grocery has started giving stickiness to the platform also because customers who buy grocery come back to the platform to buy something else as well,” he said.

In Mumbai, the company will offer over 10,000 products, including several hundred of its private labels. It also has plans of launching a daily milk delivery service at some point in the future.