SUMMARY
A Flipkart spokesperson said that the ecommerce giant has realigned its priorities internally for Flipkart Supermart and will focus more on the grocery business
Flipkart Quick delivers only fruits and vegetables in 25-30 minutes, and is now operational in only two cities in the country
Flipkart Supermart services are currently available in over 1,800 towns and 10,000 pin codes across the country
Ecommerce giant Flipkart has scaled down its quick-commerce service ‘Flipkart Quick’ and has consolidated the business with its next-day grocery delivery platform ‘Flipkart Supermart’ as the Walmart-owned company is bullish on the grocery vertical.
Flipkart Quick delivers only fruits and vegetables in 25-30 minutes and competes with the likes of Swiggy Instamart, Zomato-owned Blinkit, and Zepto. While the service was available in 14 Indian cities, including Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Chennai, it is now operational in only two cities.
In a statement, a Flipkart spokesperson said that the ecommerce giant has realigned its priorities internally for Flipkart Supermart and has decided to focus more on the grocery business as it is in high demand in Tier-3 cities and beyond.
“Flipkart Quick is not shutting down, it has scaled down from a few cities and continues in a couple of cities as we build a sustainable business model in quick commerce that is centred around fresh grocery. Flipkart is bullish about grocery and is a significant player in this category,” the spokesperson said.
Flipkart Supermart services are available in over 1,800 towns and 10,000 pin codes currently, and the ecommerce behemoth said that it will continue to expand the services.
“The focus for Flipkart on grocery has been to give Indian customers what they truly want – great quality selection at a very good value which the Supermarket model is built for. It has scaled significantly over the last year leading us to focus more on this model,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that there were no layoffs due to the move as Flipkart has consolidated both the businesses.
In the past one-and-a-half years, the ecommerce giant said it has scaled Flipkart Supermart facilities to 23 fulfilment centres across India.
ET was the first to report about Flipkart shutting down Flipkart Quick in multiple cities.
The development comes at a time when the quick-commerce space in the country is seeing immense competition. Besides the startups, corporates like JioMart and Tata-owned BigBasket’s BBNow are also operating in the segment. However, the startups continue to burn cash in the segment and are not profitable.
Last week, it was reported that quick-commerce startup Dunzo shut down a few dark stores across cities to optimise cost. Foodtech giant Zomato, which acquired Blinkit earlier this year, last week reported a 35% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) rise in its net loss to INR 250.8 Cr in Q2 FY23, with the quick-commerce startup contributing most of the loss.
Meanwhile, Flipkart continues to be a loss-making entity. Its marketplace division Flipkart Internet clocked a net loss of INR 4,361 Cr in FY22 as against INR 2,881.3 Cr in FY21. Its B2B vertical Flipkart India also reported a loss of INR 3,404.4 Cr in FY22 as compared to INR 2,444.8 Cr in the previous financial year.
