Flipkart Quick taps hyperlocal delivery model

India’s Flipkart has launched a hyperlocal service, Flipkart Quick, in suburbs of Bangalore, four years after the Walmart-owned e-commerce giant pulled the plug on a previous foray into this space.

This leverages its supply chain infrastructure and a new location mapping technology framework to deliver more than 2,000 products across grocery, perishables, smartphones, electronics accessories, and stationary items within 90 minutes to customers.

Orders are sourced from local neighbourhood stores, warehouses and retail chains. Flipkart, which is working with a range of partnered firms, has put in place a delivery charge starting at 29 Indian rupees.

Sandeep Karwa, Vice President, Flipkart, says: “Hyperlocal is a great model for India as households of all sizes are already used to their neighbourhood Kirana stores. In fact, Indian families are so comfortable with what we call the ‘hyperlocal context’, that there is a tendency to develop deep, familial ties with vendors, shopkeepers and service providers - now with the convenience of e-commerce.”

He adds: “We start with our dark store (no-walk in) model, wherein we enable sellers to store inventory close to the consumer; this model has the potential of encouraging local entrepreneurship and enabling new business strategies and partnerships. Today, with Flipkart Quick, we have the potential to bring together the whole network of neighbourhood Kirana stores onto our platform with just a click.”

In late 2015, Flipkart launched Nearby to deliver perishables, grocery, wellbeing, and household items within 60 minutes. But the company abruptly called it a day, reportedly due to poor demand and an unsustainable model.