Flipkart expands reach of grocery delivery service

Flipkart is expanding the reach of its new hyperlocal grocery delivery service Nearby by adding more locations across Bengaluru where the service will be available.

The company began testing the service in Bengaluru early last month to take on grocery delivery players such as Grofers, BigBasket, LocalBanya and PepperTap. Nearby was available at only seven locations in the city, but the list has sincegrown to 30 areas.

Customers can order groceries, personal care products, health and wellness products, baby care products, and household supplies any time between 10 am and 8 pm. Flipkart also offers free shipping on every order for a limited period.

Flipkart is not the only large e-commerce player that's vying to get into the hyperlocal grocery delivery space.

Taxi aggregator Ola has its Ola Store application while Paytm launched a similar service in Beta on the Play Store, but has since withdrawn the service.

As the logistics and delivery backend in large cities across India matures, more players are looking at solving the typically harder hyperlocal logistics problem.

The growth in the space is indicative that Indians are not only shopping for electronics and fashion online, but are even looking to buy small ticket FMCG items through their smartphones.