Flipkart’s grocery service now covers more than 50 cities in India

Flipkart on Tuesday said that it has expanded its grocery service to more than 50 cities in the country through its marketplace. The expansion will users in seven metro cities and over 40 neighbouring cities access Flipkart’s grocery section. The company now aims to expand its service to more than 70 cities in the next six months.

The e-commerce giant in a release said that it had invested in the rapid expansion of its grocery services in the country. It also pointed out that it had scaled up the portfolio “exponentially” in 2020. Apart from availability in metro cities such as Kolkata, Pune, and Ahmedabad, Flipkart is now catering to cities such as Mysore, Kanpur, Warangal, Allahabad, Aligarh, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Rajkot, Vadodara, Vellore, Tirupati and Daman, among others, through a satellite-expansion marketplace model.

“Grocery continues to be one of the fastest-growing categories, with the increase in demand for quality food and household supplies from users. In line with this, we have invested in scaling up our grocery operations across the country, strengthening ecosystem partnerships, thus ensuring a seamless grocery shopping experience through an expansive product selection, robust supply chain and smooth in-app experience for consumers. 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. It is a trend that we think will continue and will set the course of e-grocery space in India,” said Manish Kumar, Senior Vice President, Grocery, General Merchandise and Furniture.

Flipkart had launched grocery services in 2018 under the “Flipkart Supermart” banner. The biggest push to the sector came in 2020 when the Covid-19 pushed users to move to digital platforms for shopping items like daily essentials. According to the company, Flipkart Grocery has witnessed 3X growth in the last one year.

Flipkart in its release pointed out the Redseer report that says more than 50% (close to $570 billion) grocery retail space in India is addressable by e-grocery platforms – of this, value-first households account for a significant 61% portion, with metro and tier 1 markets covering more than 40% of this opportunity.

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According to the e-commerce company, Flipkart Grocery currently has more than 7,000 products across 200+ categories.

“Grocery is the next big frontier for online shopping and is a key focus area for Flipkart to bring new customers online. The company’s grocery operations will also give a fillip to the local food processing industry, connecting farmers producers to lakhs of consumers through the tech-enabled marketplace,” added the company.