In India, e-commerce companies have resumed their operations including the delivery of non-essentials. So, in order to pave way for home delivery of essentials in fastest and safest mode amid coronavirus crisis, Walmart-owned Flipkart on May 19, 2020, announced its partnership with an offline retail store chain Vishal Mega Mart in 26 cities in the country including Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Further, it will be scaled to over 240 cities in upcoming weeks.
Flipkart, India’s leading e-commerce marketplace, aims to boost its scope of offerings in the pandemic situation. Hence, this is the second such partnership of it. Earlier, Flipkart has tied up with retail store company, Spencer Retail on April 9, 2020.
According to the press release, consumers can order essentials from more than 365 Vishal Mega Mart stores and that will be delivered by Flipkart at consumers’ doorstep. Delivery will be done as per the government’s guidelines i.e. service will be available across all zone except containment zones.
As part of this partnership, Flipkart has created a ‘Vishal Mega Mart Essentials’ store its app so that consumers can order a wide assortment of essentials like flour, rice, oil, pulses, beverages and other items from various brands as well as Vishal’s own brands.
On the tie-up, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart Group, commented “Flipkart, as a committed corporate citizen, is constantly innovating to help fulfil consumers’ needs in these unprecedented times. Our teams are working relentlessly to understand the requirements of each region and forging strategic tie-ups to meet the same.”
He also added, “As part of this, our ability to work with the modern retail stores across cities will give consumers access to relevant products while enabling doorstep delivery of groceries and essentials. Backed by our robust technology platform, this will help consumers to have the real-time visibility of essentials available in their area and while also helping with timely doorstep deliveries.”
On this initiative, Gunender Kapur, CEO and MD of Vishal Mega Mart, commented, “In these difficult times, we are ensuring that we reach our customers with essentials through all possible channels. We are excited about working with Flipkart, now our customers can visit our 365+ stores or order essentials from Vishal easily on Flipkart and have them delivered at their doorstep, in a safe and hygienic manner.”
