Confirming rumors, Walmart-owned e-commerce platform Flipkart has today launched its 90-minute hyperlocal delivery service in Bengaluru. Dubbed Flipkart Quick, the service aims to deliver products across categories such as grocery, dairy & meat, mobiles, electronics accessories, stationery items, and home accessories.
Customers can either choose to order products within the next 90 minutes or use Flipkart Quick to book a 2-hour slot somewhere between 6 AM to midnight. The delivery charge starts at Rs.29.
Flipkart Quick will start its operations in select areas of Bengaluru including Whitefield, Panathur, HSR Layout, BTM Layout, Banashankari, KR Puram, and Indiranagar. The company has plans to expand to six other cities over the next few months.
Flipkart claims to have moved away from its traditional PIN code model in favor of its ‘latitude and longitude approach’ for deliveries. This move, Flipkart says, will help them narrow down the location with increased precision, which in turn will result in faster delivery times.
To begin with, Flipkart will make use of its hubs for sourcing the products. However, the company has plans to expand its network to neighborhood local stores. “Today, with Flipkart Quick – our Hyperlocal capability, we have the potential to bring together the whole network of neighbourhood Kirana stores onto our platform with just a click,” said Sandeep Karwa, Vice-President, Flipkart in a statement.
Notably, this is not the first time Flipkart is attempting to enter the hyperlocal scene. The company ran a pilot test for a grocery delivery app called ‘Nearby’ in October 2015 and eventually ended up discontinuing the efforts in February 2016.
