The Indian online grocery market has gained immense traction over the past two years on account of the changing lifestyle of consumers, growing urbanization, and the tech-savvy generation who prefers buying products online. With the growth in disposable incomes and busier lifestyles, people are increasingly seeking out customizable and convenient online platforms for grocery shopping instead of walking down to neighborhood vendors. The preference for online delivery of grocery products became more visible following the COVID-19 outbreak. 

The establishment of the new normal in India has pushed every sector to adapt and embrace ways that prove effective on hygiene as well as safety factors. One of the most important elements that have promoted the online grocery market is the changing behavioral patterns in customers' shopping preferences. The increased attention being paid to health concerns and the need to buy nutritious meals has become an important aspect of grocery shopping online.

“The key requirements for the ever-evolving customer's online purchasing journey will continue to be convenience, hassle-free shopping, a wide variety of products, and quick access to information,” asserted Smrithi Ravichandran, Vice President and Head of Grocery at Flipkart Group.

Ensuring Seamless Delivery

Grocery is one of the fastest-growing segments in e-commerce today, with an increasing number of consumers turning to online grocery shopping for convenience and reliability. To match the changing needs of the consumers, Flipkart focuses on quality and ensuring seamless delivery in the remotest corner of the country. Flipkart’s grocery business is tech-enabled and offers improved user experience and features such as voice-enabled shopping, credit offerings, and open-box delivery. To make the shopping experience more seamless, Flipkart launched ‘Buy Now Pay Later’, a customer-centric service that is focused on the affordability and convenience of shopping online, including groceries.

“To enable new customers who are exploring grocery shopping online for the first time and as Flipkart expands the availability of groceries across 1,800+ cities and 10,000+ pin codes, we recently revamped our homepage. As part of the new design, there is a separate and more visible tab available for groceries on the homepage. As we continue to attract and serve the majority of our consumers hailing from tier II and beyond cities, the introduction of the grocery tab on the homepage enables seamless and easy navigation to a category that is very important in our consumers' daily lives. Additionally, to enable greater inclusivity and reach out to heterogeneous consumers, we have made our app available in 11 Indian languages so far, including Odia, Bengali, and Assamese,” she explained.

“We currently have more than 7,000 products across a wide range of categories. We have a strong focus on regional and local products in each category,” she further added.

Enabling Growth

Flipkart is dedicated to creating new avenues of progress for all its stakeholders. In order to improve the opportunity for the local farmer communities and to supplement their income, Flipkart Grocery has a strong partnership with more than 300 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) in India, wherein through training and capacity development initiatives, it aims to enhance their livelihood opportunities. As of now, over 10,000 Indian farmers have received training and capacity-building from Flipkart. This initiative is empowering local farmers as they use the opportunity to join the digital economy and gain access to the national markets. 

“By launching grocery fulfillment centers in strategic locations, we are working towards our goal of generating as many jobs as possible for the people in and around the location. In this regard, we have so far launched 23 fulfillment centers in the country, the recent one being in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. This center itself is aimed to create over 1,000 local direct and indirect job opportunities and enable pan-India market access to thousands of local sellers, MSMEs, and small farmers in the region. Over the past 6 months, we have launched 6 new fulfillment centers for grocery in different cities,” she stated. 

“At Flipkart, we are focused on supporting the socio-economic development of the regions where we operate by creating and improving livelihood opportunities for local  MSMEs, sellers, and farmers, and by augmenting local businesses engaged in food processing, logistics, packaging, and other allied activities,” she further added. 

As part of our Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) initiative within the supply chain, Flipkart has introduced several initiatives and policies for female employees to level the playing field in the male-dominated industry.  It has ensured the creation of a conducive working environment to not only provide a platform to showcase their talent but also augment their employability rate in the country. 

“The establishment of in-house projects, such as ‘Vividhta’ and ‘Pink Shifts’ has really made a difference. Project Vividhta introduced in 2017 was aimed at increasing women's representation in the large and structured supply chain ecosystem. In 2019, we introduced Pink Shifts; a women-only shift at its sortation centers in Chennai, Indore, and Surat. During these shifts, women carry out all the activities, except loading and unloading, which includes primary and secondary sorting, data-entry operation, packaging and hub supervision, and more. Additionally, we have introduced an enablement program called ‘Evolve’ that aims to create an Integrated Pipeline for women employees that includes building an empowering mindset, capability development, and coaching programs,” she explained.

“We have heavily invested to better our commitment towards safety, by providing self-defense training sessions, improved infrastructure to ensure availability of basic facilities for female staff across all fulfillment centers, mother hubs for inclusivity and to make them feel welcomed, and sensitivity training for men and periodic employee briefing sessions to ensure a healthy and open work environment for women entering the workforce. Introduction of POSH policies along with access to basic benefits like meals at facilities, pickup and drop services, 24/7 ambulance service with other stringent employee policies have resulted in better retention rate, gradually supporting the growth of women employees working with us,” she further added.

The launch of Flipkart’s Grocery fulfillment centers in Guwahati (April 2022) and Coimbatore (June 2021) also known as the pink facility, is another step towards empowering women as these centers are managed almost entirely by women. 

As we get closer to the festive season, the penetration and robustness of our supply chain become even more crucial. It is therefore paying close attention to every aspect, including infrastructure, hiring, technology, sustainability, diversity, and so on. Currently, it delivers over 100 million shipments per month across the nation resulting in employment generation for thousands of MSMEs, and local talents.

“To provide customers with a seamless shopping experience, we leverage our strong home-grown technology, to build a more sustainable e-commerce environment that is inclusive and empowering,” she said.

Betting Big on Technology

We are progressing towards an era where e-grocery services are becoming the new normal owing to the increased preference for contactless shopping, especially after the pandemic. Hence it becomes imperative for brands to continually evolve and at the same time keep their ears to the ground to understand the performance of their existing tech innovations. 

“Over the last two years, we have introduced multiple capabilities to ensure an unmatched experience for our customers on the platform. Apart from this, the introduction of various automation and innovative processes that we have deployed at our facilities provides a huge impetus toward our effort of making the shopping experience seamless and convenient for consumers. One such automation is the Automated Storage Retrieval System (AS/RS) which we have introduced at our grocery fulfillment centers to make the whole process of sorting, assembling, and packaging more efficient. As part of the stringent quality control procedure the sorting is 100 percent automated to ensure only quality products are delivered to the customers,” she said. 

Penetrating Deeper into Bharat

The demand from Tier-II and Tier-III has been equally encouraging as the demand from metros for Flipkart. 

“There have been three integral engines of growth in the Tier-II and Tier-III markets to give us a competitive edge as we continue to penetrate deeper into the real Bharat. 

-    Robust Infrastructure - We are consistently upscaling our operations to meet the growing consumer demand. In the past two years, we have established 23 fulfillment centers in the country, the recent one being in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. In fact, over the past 6 months, we have launched6 new grocery fulfillment centers in different cities. Through our strong supply chain and infrastructure capabilities, we have been able to deliver over 90 lakhs grocery orders in the last 3 months. This not only helps in fulfilling the grocery needs of consumers at the convenience of their homes but also generates thousands of direct and indirect jobs in the states thereby, uplifting the local economies. 

-    Technology - Providing the workforce with superior machinery backed by technology becomes inevitable in expediting operations to meet the growing demands. The introduction of various automation and innovative processes that we have deployed at our facilities provides a huge impetus toward our effort of making the shopping experience seamless and convenient for consumers. One such automation is the Automated Storage Retrieval System (AS/RS) which we have introduced at our grocery fulfillment centers to make the whole process of sorting, assembling, and packaging more efficient. As part of the stringent quality control procedure, the sorting is 100 percent automated to ensure only quality products are delivered to the customers.  

-    Strategic Partnerships - Our consistent effort in partnering with local vendors, leading retailers, and FPOs in bringing an expansive and finest regional selection of fresh produce has been an integral driving force. These partnerships have helped Flipkart Grocery in offering over 7,000 best quality products and national brands to its consumers,” she explained.

Flipkart Grocery's offering is differentiated by on-time delivery backed by a robust supply chain, availability of a wide variety of products, and a native, intuitive shopping experience.

Future Plans

Leveraging the power of technology and e-commerce, it plans to continue to remain focused on ensuring a high-quality selection of staples and household items are made available to consumers in the most convenient and easily accessible manner. 

“We remain committed to bringing a seamless shopping experience to consumers all over the country, as we strengthen our selection, investments in FPOs and fresh produce, and scale up our supply chain. Through consistent expansion of our grocery operations and growing presence in the smallest part of India, we will ensure the entire ecosystem including consumers, farmers, employees, local as well as the overall national economic benefits and we are able to bring positive difference into their lives,” she concluded.