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The Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart is planning to enter the quick-commerce business, aimed at providing customers with the convenience of receiving their orders instantly after making their purchases, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n
The firm, majorly owned by Walmart, plans to make the instant-delivery service available in select locations as early as May this year, the source said, requesting anonymity as the matter is private. The deliberations are ongoing and the timeline may slightly change, the source cautioned.<\/p>\n
A Flipkart spokesperson said the Bengaluru-headquartered e-commerce firm is \u201ccommitted to meeting evolving customer expectations and delivering excellence in value, selection and speed, with more initiatives expected on this front in the coming months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flipkart, valued at over $30 billion, has been steadily laying the groundwork to improve its delivery time for quite some time. It has heavily invested in its supply chain infrastructure over the years, with a particular focus on reducing delivery times for grocery items. These efforts have allowed Flipkart to offer same-day and next-day delivery options.<\/p>\n
The new foray comes at a time when Flipkart is also engaging to explore acquiring the instant-delivery startup Dunzo<\/a>, TechCrunch reported last month. The overarching ownership of Reliance on Dunzo has complicated the conversations, however, the report added.<\/p>\n Flipkart\u2019s interest in quick-commerce coincides with\u00a0the ambitious expansion plans of instant-commerce players such as Swiggy, Zepto, and Zomato\u2019s BlinkIt. These companies are aggressively widening their product offerings, venturing beyond grocery delivery to include a diverse range of items, from daily essentials to electronic gadgets, in a bid to capture a larger slice of India\u2019s burgeoning e-commerce pie.<\/p>\n Quick-commerce has shifted from an \u201cadjacent offering\u201d to becoming a \u201ccore offering\u201d for food delivery players, Bernstein analysts wrote in a recent note. Quick-commerce accounts for about 40% of the online grocery delivery category, the analysts said.<\/p>\n \u201cQuick commerce with a potential TAM of ~$45 billion (~7% of the grocery market of $620 billion),\u201d they wrote. \u201cServiceable market is metros\/Tier1 cities (~17%). Mid-to-high income households (~60%) and top-up orders (~70%). We estimate quick-commerce GMV to grow to $6.2 billion by 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n