Diversification Is The Key To Expansion: Ola Starts Beta Testing Its App ‘Ola Store’ For Grocery Delivery

Ola has been expanding with quite vim and valor. Company has aggressive expansion plans which it aims to achieve by diversifying into different categories. The company has now started beta testing its app ‘Ola store’ for grocery and daily needs. The company started venturing into different segments with launch of Ola cafe which was its food delivery arm few months back.

The reports about Ola venturing into grocery delivery has been in news since past few week, the company had also posted job openings to hire delivery executives till last month and now the company has come up with the service, quite swift.

The move is somewhat similar to what Uber does in the US. The app will be a standalone app unlike ‘Ola Cafe’ which is part of the Ola Cabs app. A select few users received mail about the launch of Ola Store which started as follows

“At Ola, we are obsessed with making life simpler; we’ve already made your travel more comfortable and easy, and now we want to introduce the same efficiency to make your grocery shopping more convenient.” Only users who have received a link via mail will be able to download the app from Play Store, otherwise, it won’t work. These beta tester will be offered 50% off on their first order.

This development was first reported by YourStory. Here are screenshots of the app.

Order above INR 300 will be delivered for free while other will attract a delivery fee of INR 50. Besides regular categories like vegetables, fruits, dairy products and groceries, Ola Store also has electrical appliances, health supplements and medicines.

Online groceries have stoked ample interest among investors and consumers with businesses such as ZopNow, LocalBanya, Grofers and Peppertap fighting it out for a bigger share of the market. Ola’s grocery delivery will compete directly with recently funded hyperlocal delivery startups including Bangalore-based ZopNow and Delhi-based Peppertap.

Investors have poured more than $117Mn into online grocers and delivery companies over the past 18 months. The food and groceries market in India  which is estimated to touch $480 Bn in 2020 by India Brand Equity Foundation, has also drawn the attention of online marketplaces. Flipkart is planning to start selling groceries and  Amazon is running a pilot in Bangalore with mom-and-pop stores for express delivery. Snapdeal has not lacked behind as it has  already tied up with Godrej Nature’s Basket.

The average ticket size for a grocery order is INR 600-800, more than double the average fare for cab bookings, according to executives at online grocers and cab hailing services which makes this category more attractive to existing biggies.

Hyperlocal is the next big thing after ecommerce and if it continues to grow at this rate it surpass ecommerce as number of players is on a rise along with investment.

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