Flipkart Forays Into Hyperlocal Space With 90 Minutes Delivery Plan Termed Flipkart Quick, the hyperlocal service plans to offer 90-minute deliveries for groceries and home accessories
By Shipra Singh
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As the e-commerce battle gets fierce in the country, Flipkart has forayed into hyperlocal space with the launch of Flipkart Quick. The service plans to offer 90-minute deliveries for groceries and home accessories.
Built on the company's existing supply-chain infrastructure, the hyperlocal delivery model aims to tap new consumers by widening the accessibility of products and enabling consumers to order products from Flipkart hubs in their location while ensuring quick delivery, the company said in a statement.
Flipkart Quick will compete directly with the e-tail behemoths in the grocery space, including Amazon, Alibaba-backed BigBasket and Mukesh Ambani-led JioMart, launched early in May.
Commenting on the same, Sandeep Karwa, Vice-President, Flipkart, said, "Hyperlocal capabilities can be described simply as building connections between locally available products and consumers in a particular area."
In the first phase, the service will debut in Bengaluru in select locations, including Whitefield, Panathur, HSR Layout, BTM Layout, Banashankari, KR Puram and Indiranagar and will offer consumers over 2,000 products in categories varying from grocery, dairy, meat, electronics accessories and stationery items, among other items.
To begin with, the service will start with dark store (no-walkin) model, wherein sellers will be able to store inventory close to the consumer. "This model has the potential of encouraging local entrepreneurship and enabling new business strategies and partnerships," said Karwa.
Consumers will have the option to either order in the next 90 minutes or book a 2-hour slot. Orders will be delivered between 6 am to midnight, starting with a minimum delivery fee INR 29.
Moving away from the traditional model of using a pin-code system to identify the delivery location, the service will use advanced technology for location mapping. "Flipkart Quick will adopt a latitude and longitude approach that will not only narrow down the location to be more precise but will also result in sharper delivery time," as per the company statement. This technology attempts to speed up the last mile process and bring more accuracy to the address mapping system, hence avoiding chances of re-attempts in delivery.
The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of Indian hyperlocal market is expected to exceed INR 2,306 crore by 2020 (pre-COVID industry estimates), as per the company statement.
