Flipkart Challenges JioMart With ‘Dark Stores’ For Superfast Delivery: How Will It Work?

Flipkart is aggressively growing its food and grocery warehousing capacity by introducing various ‘dark stores’ or outlets in various Indian cities that will be used only for deliveries to the nearby locations.

Read on to find out more…

‘Flipkart Quick’ and ‘Dark Stores’ Connection!

Last week, Flipkart announced the launch of ‘Flipkart Quick’ in various parts of Bengaluru.

This feature will let the consumers book a two-hour prior to the delivery from a wide range of 2,000 products like grocery, fresh items and smartphones, among other electronic items.

The ‘dark stores’ concept by Flipkart are simply small storage spaces of around 3000-4000 sq ft in metro cities to be only used as delivery-outlets.

These dark stores will help the ‘Flipkart Quick’ initiative by delivering the orders within a short span of time to the customers.

The ‘dark stores’ initiative aims to expand the Bengaluru-based company’s spread to Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata among other cities, two persons familiar with the matter said.

This move of rolling out delivery-specific warehouses seems to be an initiative to compete with  the Reliance JioMart. 

The company when connecting with local kiranas is also creating an independent network of storage facilities in many cities across the country.

“For example, in Delhi city, they are looking to have about a dozen such small storage facilities to begin with. The fast moving goods will be frequently supplied to such small storages from the fulfilment centres outside of the city,” one of the two people mentioned above said. 

Flipkart Working Closely With Vendors!

We covered a while ago how the COVID-19 pandemic has proved to be a boon for the e-commerce industry at a global scale and also in India and also how it is likely to expand in the coming years.  

Flipkart has also asked its Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sellers to expand their own warehouse facilities and introduced the ‘Flipkart Alpha Lite’ programme.

Through this programme Flipkart will provide the vendors technology and equip them to function there warehouses as Flipkart’s warehousing.

As a result, many online FMCG sellers are increasing their own storage capacities in various cities.

For instance, Nova Enterprises sells FMCG on both Amazon and Flipkart. The Mumbai-based company said its business is already touching a level it only sees during Diwali, the festive season that accounts for a quarter of Nova’s business. Last week, Nova expanded its warehousing capacity to about 20,000 sq ft in Kolkata due to increased demand. 

A Flipkart spokesperson said the company continues to make investments to enhance their capabilities to deliver value for sellers and consumers. The spokesperson said in an emailed response, “With regard to our hyperlocal capabilities, we will be expanding to six additional cities in the coming months with a focus on a 90-minute delivery model for a handpicked assortment of products.”