Walmart-owned Flipkart has launched its wholesale arm, Flipkart Wholesale. It is available as a smartphone application and currently sells apparel in three cities viz. Bengaluru, Gurugram and Delhi.
An official press release by Flipkart revealed, “Flipkart Wholesale is a one-stop solution for the retail ecosystem which will offer Indian businesses a wide selection of products at significant value, powered by technology and with an aim to grow their business. The platform is currently available for fashion retailers, especially footwear and apparel, in Gurugram, Delhi and Bengaluru, with plans to expand to Mumbai as well.”
Value and technology
Adarsh Menon, Senior Vice President and Head -Flipkart Wholesale, said: “Flipkart Wholesale is built on the core value proposition of bringing prosperity to Indian Kiranas and MSMEs by making their business easier using technology. With the strong capability within the group in B2B, we will focus on meeting the needs of kiranas and MSMEs by providing these small businesses a wide selection at significant value, powered by technology to make their lives easier. Whether in grocery, general merchandise or fashion, these businesses will have one-stop access to an extensive selection of products with attractive schemes and incentives, supplemented with data-driven recommendations for stock selection, delivered through a fast and reliable network to drive greater efficiencies.”
Flipkart Wholesale strives to provide its customers with:
- easy order tracking facility
- a wide range of Flipkart assured quality products
- simple and convenient order returns
- speedy product delivery directly to their shops
- aim to rope in over 300 strategic partners with over 2 lakh listings in 2 months
On-ground expertise meets B2B and B2C
“Flipkart Wholesale customers will also be able to leverage micro-market level B2B and B2C insights from the Flipkart ecosystem to better understand customer demands specific to their area so that they can buy and sell the right products. Flipkart Wholesale will draw on the strong merchandising experience of the Best Price team, its strong relationships with brands, deep DNA of servicing kiranas and 12+ years of experience in operating Best Price stores. This will provide invaluable insights and on-ground expertise to further develop and nurture a model that puts the needs of kiranas and MSMEs at the centre of Flipkart Wholesale’s business,” the company said.
Flipkart’s PhonePe set to enable digital payments
PhonePe is set to enable digital payments acceptance for over 25 million small merchants over the course of a year, including kirana store owners across 5,500 talukas, LiveMint reported. The company strives to hire 10,000 on-ground workers.
Flipkart-owned PhonePe at present has 11 million offline merchants on its platform as it looks to go deeper into tier 3 and 4 towns with this expansion. The Bengaluru-based firm will also provide offline merchants digital services like receipts and reconciliations through its ‘PhonePe for Business’ app.
“Kiranas and merchants across small villages and towns are striving to progress and prosper. We are really excited to partner with them in this journey and take digital payments to the last mile of India across every village and town,” said Vivek Lohcheb, vice president – offline business development, PhonePe.
Flipkart’s pre-existing logistics with kirana stores
In 2016, Flipkart’s logistics arm Ekart signed on to a network of 700 corner stores across 28 cities as part of its alternative delivery program. As part of the initiative, the company aimed at powering last-mile delivery using personnel at the corner stores in a radius of 500 to 800 metres.
Flipkart claimed that this would improve the success of the delivery attempts by 10%. That could translate into a significant number for Flipkart, which at that time delivered over 3 lakh shipments daily. Source: Officechai.com
“The current tie-up with small corner stores, photocopy centres, mobile stores and internet cafes gives us greater scalability to serve towns, which give small volumes of 25 to 30 orders per day and helps the corner stores augment their income at a small premium,” said Neeraj Aggarwal, vice-president of operations at Flipkart. He added that out of 14% of Ekart’s volumes that are routed through the alternative delivery model, half was directed to the corner stores in catchment areas.