On Thursday, Flipkart stated that it would soon start a pilot of hyperlocal groceries and other essentials in Hyderabad in a tie-up with Spencers that will see retailers make use of their fleets to enhance the delivery of groceries and other essentials.
Customers will now be able to order essentials from the “Spencers store” on the Flipkart app starting this month. Flipkart will host combo-packs that will help club several essential items that consumers can order. The app delivery executives will be collecting orders from certain groups of Spencers’ stores in Hyderabad and deliver them to consumers.
“This hyperlocal approach is in line with ecosystem collaborations Flipkart is making to serve consumers in the best possible way during this unprecedented crisis,” the company stated in a press release on Thursday.
Spencers has two hundred supermarket and hypermarket format stores across India.
“We are pleased to launch this pilot with Spencers Retail to collaborate and meet the needs of consumers who are contributing to the fight against COVID-19 by staying home. We have built a robust tech-backed platform to offer consumers real-time insights on essentials available in their area, and we will ensure timely doorstep deliveries,” the Group CEO, Flipkart, Kaylan Krishnamurthy stated in a statement.
“In such times, building an ecosystem of partnerships will transition us to truly become an Omni-channel business. In this tough environment, Spencers’ partnership with Flipkart provides another platform to a larger set of consumers to seamlessly access our range of essentials that may want to use other reputed platforms and marketplaces apart from our own Spencers App to buy during the lockdown,” Devendra Chawla, the managing director and CEO of Spencers Retail, stated.
If this pilot performs well, Flipkart and Spencers Retail could do the same in other cities across India.
The Flipkart & Spencers’ partnership comes after a few other online grocery retailers, food aggregators, fast-moving consumer goods companies, and cab services companies made forged tie-ups in an attempt to help service last-mile delivery of essential goods.
Since the start of a three-week lockdown in India, the movement of goods has been seriously affected; this is especially true as retailers and companies are struggling to make sure there is the availability of essentials across the country due to the shortage in manpower plus initial curbs on the movement of vehicles.
Consequently, several industry players such as Zomato, ITC, Marico, Domino’s, Grofers, and BigBasket have been forging tie-ups to ensure efficient delivery of essential goods across the country.