Flipkart is currently testing their new service: f Qck, which will mark their entry into the red hot hyperlocal vertical within ecommerce niche.
As per media reports, Flipkart’s new service f Qck will enable delivery of orders within hours. Testing phase is currently on, wherein they are tying up with local kirana stores for order delivery. To execute speedy deliveries, Flipkart is partnering with RoadRunnr, which is a hyperlocal on-demand delivery service.
Parcelled, a startup which enables online courier service may also partner with Flipkart to ensure speedy delivery during the rush of festival season.
With f Qck, Flipkart has now positioned themselves directly against Amazon’s similar hyperlocal centric service Kirana Now.
The nascent hyperlocal vertical in India is much sought after as of now, as more than $140 million of investments have poured into this sector in the last 7 months. Ripples were felt across this niche, when Amazon decided to jump into it, with Kirana Now service in March this year. Ensuring deliveries within 2-3 hours, Amazon tied up with local kirana stores for order fulfillment.
Last year, Amazon experimented with a new hyperlocal model: Kirana Store delivery points, wherein customers can order their products online and pick them up from nearest kirana stores.
Flipkart’s Tryst With Hyper Local
In the last few months, Flipkart has made clear that they will no longer ignore this segment, which was earlier thought of a miniature model of ecommerce business. With players such as Grofers and PepperTap quickly making inroads into this vertical, the big boys of ecommerce industry has no option but to jump into the fray.
Binny Bansal, co-founder and COO at Flipkart, said last month, “We are doing a ton of stuff (with hyperlocal). We are serious about it. Hyperlocal needs to be done in the right way.”
We had reported earlier that Flipkart is ramping up their in-house logistics division eKart to ensure speedy deliver of orders. Earlier in the year, reports emerged that Flipkart is finalizing a 3-hour delivery mechanism for staying ahead of it’s competitors.
Interestingly, specialized logistics firms such as GoJavas, Ecom Express and Delhivery have yet to find the perfect, unbroken hyperlocal delivery system, mainly because they are into large scale logistics platform, using hub and spoke model which demands volume based consistent orders.
After doing their research, Flipkart must have realized that hyperlocal on-demand delivery is not an easy job afterall.
Maybe this is the reason they have teamed up RoadRunnr, local kirana stores and other on-demand delivery partners for serious business.