Flipkart to sell grocery items

Flipkart is poised to begin selling groceries from the second half of this year, sources said, entering a line of business which is crowded but also regarded as an attractive one for online retailers. The Indian grocery market is believed to become one of the most sought after sectors in future, after apparel and electronics. The sector is dominated by local retail shops, yet its online approach has already been explored by  Indian startups  such as Localbanya, BigBasket, Aaramshop and AtMyDoorsteps. 

According to  this is one of the steps of expansion which will be taken by Flipkart in very near future. The retailer is following its major competitors in the grocery sector, as Amazon and Snapdeal are a step ahead already. Amazon is piloting its ‘Kirana’ initiative in Bangalore, which assures delivery in 2-4 hours, and Snapdeal tied up with gourmet food retailer Godrej Nature’s Basket in January to sell about 400 of its products online, with orders delivered the next day. 

The service, most likely to be launched as an in-house offering rather than through an acquisition, will put the Bengaluru firm in direct competition with specialist portals such as Big-Basket, ZopNow and Local Baniya as grocery retail emerges as the latest front in the battle for leadership in India's fast-growing online retail industry. When it launches a grocery retail service, Flipkart will be following in the wake of rivals Amazon and Snapdeal, which have a head start in the segment. Last week, Amazon India said it is launching an express delivery platform in partnership with mom-and-pop stores, calling it Kirana Now. 
However, some packaged foods and beverages have been available on the Amazon India portal since October 2014. Snapdeal tied up with gourmet food retailer Godrej Nature's Basket in January to sell about 400 of its products online, with orders delivered the next day. The Delhibased company does not, as yet, offer on-demand grocery. Experts are of the view that online grocery will become one of the top three most attractive segments for online retailers, after electronics and apparel. "It (grocery) is too large a space for someone to miss," said Arvind Singhal, chairman of retail advisory firm Technopak. "In the next six months, we will see online vertical players, horizontal players as well as offline players coming online to sell groceries," he predicted. The India Brand Equity Foundation estimates that food and grocery accounted for 69% of India's $490-billion (Rs 300-lakh crore) retail sector in 2013, followed by apparel at 8%.