The Indian ecommerce industry has witnessed the rising popularity of on-demand delivery and hyperlocal start-ups in the last one year. No wonder, big ecommerce players such as Flipkart, Paytm and Snapdeal want to get a head-start before such it’s too late.
These online biggies are mapping out plans to enter hyperlocal delivery scene, either by investing in existing start-ups or starting their own services.
As per this Livemint report, Flipkart has launched its own online ordering app known as ‘Nearby’. It is designed to deliver groceries, electronics, clothes and few other categories. The app is currently in the trial phase and is being tested in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
In June this year, co-founder and CEO of Flipkart, Binny Bansal had said, “We are doing a ton of stuff (with hyperlocal). We are serious about it. Hyperlocal needs to be done in the right way.” A month later the news about the company looking to launch a hyper-local business, ‘f Qck’ got out too.
Paytm plans to operate its marketplace and payment businesses independently and within its mobile platform, they plan to offer on-demand products and services, akin to Alibaba.
Divulging more details about this move, a Paytm spokesperson said, “We at Paytm believe that the truest commerce platform will build a platform bringing millions of merchants to consumers on the mobile. Offline to online (o2o) is core to our strategy and we have built successful models for high-value large home appliances. And latest is in smartphone category in which we are in the process of starting same-day, four-hour delivery in 100 cities. We also building other o2o categories like bus tickets, cinema tickets and deals.”
While Flipkart and Paytm are looking to start their own services, Snapdeal plans to venture in hyperlocal ecommerce by investing and acquiring existing players. Although, launching their own service isn’t ruled out either.
With established ecommerce players entering the hyperlocal space, will the existing start-ups suffer? Not if the investors continue to pour money and the companies maintain focus on their business goals. Also, the market is huge and highly scattered. There is still space for many more as India is a very diverse country, where even two neighbouring cities have dissimilar demands.
As for merger and acquisitions, that’s inevitable according to Rutvik Doshi, Director – Inventus Capital Partners. He rightly said, “Consolidation will happen irrespective of the fact that large e-commerce companies are entering the space. But they might not be a serious threat to the smaller players in the market given it is not their primary business. When companies have a lot of cash, they experiment. There is no need for them to rush into it right now when their primary business is still growing.”
Editor team is specialized in introducing the marketplace content targeting the Indian online sellers. They plan and coordinate to bring the appealing content for the small businesses on how to partner with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart and strategies for improving their online business.
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