Flipkart’s Shopsy to start delivering groceries in 700 cities, aiming to become the largest retailer in India
On Tuesday, Flipkart’s social commerce app Shopsy added groceries to its platform’s catalog. By leveraging the e-commerce company’s supply chain infrastructure and technology capabilities, Grocery on Shopsy is claimed to serve consumers across 700 cities, spanning over 5,800 pin codes. The new category is also touted to feature more than 6,000 products in 230 categories – from staples and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) to a variety of dry groceries. Flipkart is set to attract users on the platform by offering a fixed five percent commission margin.
Amazing claims to ensure strict quality control along with enabling social commerce for grocery shopping using Flipkart’s supply chain and fulfillment centers. The Walmart-owned company has fulfillment centers located in various parts of India, including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna and Pune.
With the new move, Shopsy users will now be able to shop for value grocery items by adding and checking products in their cart. Users can also combine orders for multiple individuals in their network and share grocery items via social networks through the app. This allows them to earn a fixed commission of five percent Flipkart promises to be transferred directly to their linked bank account. Furthermore, customers are claimed to receive savings of up to 50%.
Prakash Sikaria, Senior Vice President – Growth, Flipkart, said: “Grocery is a key consumer need and we are committed to making e-grocery affordable for everyone. consumers and sellers”. “We have been working to reduce the cost of grocery delivery over the past few months. We’re excited to announce that we’ve achieved the best results in our class cost structure, which gives us confidence to scale groceries on Shopsy. ”
Flipkart claims that by bringing in the new category, the company is aiming to make Shopsy the largest grocery retailer in the country. The company seems to be planning to take on things like being backed by Google Meesho, Reliance Industries’ JioMartand invested by Tata BigBasket.
Shock is launched by Flipkart as a social commerce platform in July of this year. At the time of its launch, the company did not consider groceries as a category, although it has now been chosen as one – considering the burgeoning online grocery delivery market in the country.
At the end of November, Flipkart announced that Shopsy had seen 4x revenue growth during the festival period and increased its user base by 3.7x compared to before. Apps, currently limited to Android devices, has also surpassed 10 million downloads on Google Play. All of that growth has come mainly from categories including fashion, beauty, general merchandise and homewares (BGMH), Flipkart said.
Flipkart claims to offer a commission-free marketplace model through Shopsy, where local and small businesses as well as individual entrepreneurs can sell products locally and between contacts. This model is similar to how Meesho allows small sellers to sell a wide variety of items for small fare using social media platforms. It’s also unlike Flipkart’s original e-commerce platform, where customers buy products from a variety of large-scale retailers.
According to a report by consulting firm RedSeer, social commerce in India is likely to reach $7 billion (approximately Rs 53,100) in gross merchandise value (GMV) by 2022. The growth of social commerce is also speculated to create New opportunities for resellers and suppliers in the next five years.
