Flipkart to foray into grocery segment; launches pilot project

Hyderabad: Flipkart has undertaken a pilot programme in Bengaluru, aiming to foray into grocery segment and may expand it to other places across the country, a senior official said here on Tuesday.

The homegrown e-commerce player plans to launch the grocery service shortly, Anil Goteti head of marketplace, Flipkart told reporters without giving any timeframe for the launch.

"We will be opening up groceries very very innovatively when we launch...The pilot is going on in Bengaluru. We will be launching it (groceries) in few months time.

"We will be doing more pilots (on grocery) across different cities. We will be coming out with very innovative and unique propositions that India does not have today," Goteti said.

He said the e-commerce player which currently has a base of over 100 million users is working towards bringing 500 million customers on its platform in the coming few years.

Replying to a query, he said the recently introduced Goods and Services Tax (GST) has not impacted sales and almost all of Flipkart vendors migrated to the new tax regime from July 1.

Goteti said the online marketplace recently has set up a new warehouse for large appliances here. It already has a 2.2 lakh sq ft automated fulfillment centre in Gundapochampally on the outskirts of the city.

"With over 28 lakh unique customers, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana together form one of the biggest and fastest growing markets in Southern India for Flipkart. While Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Nellore, Guntur and Tirupati are the top performing cities for the e-commerce company," he added.

The official however, did not reply when asked if the company has plans to open any new fulfillment centres in the near future.

Marking the tenth year celebrations of Flipkart's Big 10 campaign which is a year-long celebration to commemorate all aspects of the company's business and growth since it launched in 2007, through a plethora of activities involving all its stakeholders across the length and breadth of the country, he explained.