After Amazon, Flipkart takes a shot at instant delivery service, launches Flipkart Quick in India

Flipkart Quick is piloting in select localities in Bengaluru starting today. The list includes Whitefield, Panathur, HSR Layout, BTM Layout, Banashankari, KR Puram and Indiranagar.

Flipkart says that customers can place their orders anytime of the day, and get their orders delivered between 6AM to midnight. They will have to pay a minimum delivery fee ₹29 for their orders. (REUTERS)

Flipkart on Tuesday announced the launch of its hyper-local delivery service, Flipkart Quick. The company is piloting the service in select localities in Bengaluru starting today. The list includes Whitefield, Panathur, HSR Layout, BTM Layout, Banashankari, KR Puram and Indiranagar.

In the first phase of the launch of the Flipkart Quick, the Indian e-retailer will deliver more than 2,000 products from various categories such as grocery, dairy, meat, mobiles, electronics accessories, stationery items and home accessories. Consumers can either choose to order in the next 90 minutes or book a two-hour time slot as per their convenience. The company says that customers can place their orders anytime of the day, and get their orders delivered between 6AM to midnight. They will have to pay a minimum delivery fee ₹29 for their orders.

The company says that Flipkart Quick will use innovative and advanced technology for location mapping. This technology promises to not only speed up the last mile process, but also bring more accuracy to the address mapping system, hence avoiding chances of mis-match or re-attempts.

The launch of Flipkart Quick, a service which is quite similar to Amazon's Prime Now service that was launched as Amazon Now back in 2016, comes at an interesting time. On one hand, Amazon is strengthening the presence of Amazon Pantry by making its services available in more cities across the country, on the other hand, JioMart, powered by Reliance Jio's partnership with Facebook is making inroads deep in the country. The company launched the JioMart app on Play Store and App Store last week and it has already already crossed 10 lakh downloads on the Play Store.

Coming back to Flipkart, the launch of Flipkart Quick comes less than a week after Flipkart acquired Walmart India's wholesale business and launched Flipkart Wholesale in India. Flipkart Wholesale will begin its operations in August 2020 piloting its services for the grocery and fashion categories.