Flipkart partners Vishal Mega Mart for home delivery of essentials

Walmart-owned Flipkart on Tuesday said it has partnered with retail store chain, Vishal Mega Mart for home delivery of essential items in 26 cities in the country, including Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Kolkata.

Under the partnership, consumers will be able to order products from over 365 Vishal Mega Mart stores and get them delivered at their doorstep by Flipkart, a statement said.

As part of the alliance, a Vishal Mega Mart Essentials store has been created on Flipkart's platform. Consumers can order essential products like flour, rice, oil, pulses, beverages and other items from various brands as well as Vishal's own labels.

"The products will be available as per the Government guidelines across all zones. Once a consumer places an order through the Flipkart app, the delivery executives or Wishmasters will collect the products from the nearest Vishal store and deliver it at the customer's doorstep safely," it added.

This will help consumers stay indoors and maintain social distancing in the backdrop of the ongoing battle against COVID-19 in the country, the statement said.

Consumers across 26 cities including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi-NCR, Patna, Guwahati, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Jaipur and Bareilly can avail this service. This will be further scaled to over 240 cities in the next four weeks, the statement said.

"Our teams are working relentlessly to understand the requirements of each region and forging strategic tie-ups to meet the same. 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," Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart Group, said.

Backed by Flipkart's robust technology platform, this partnership will help consumers to have the real-time visibility of essentials available in their area and while also helping with timely doorstep deliveries, he added.

"We are excited about working with Flipkart, now our customers can visit our over 365 stores or order essentials from Vishal easily on Flipkart and have them delivered at their doorstep, in a safe and hygienic manner," Vishal Mega Mart CEO and MD Gunender Kapur said.

In April, Flipkart had joined hands with retail chain store Spencers to run a pilot for hyperlocal delivery of groceries and essentials in Hyderabad.

In wake of the nationwide lockdown (that started on March 25), many people have turned to e-commerce platforms to place orders for essential goods, including food and grocery, to stay away from crowds and to practice social distancing.

Many large retail outlets have also been forced to allow less number of people to be present inside store premises to ensure there is adequate distance between them.

In the first two phases of the lockdown, e-commerce companies were allowed to sell only essential items like grocery, healthcare and pharmaceutical products. In the third phase (May 4-17), these platforms were allowed to sell all items in orange and green zones, but only essential items were allowed to be shipped in red zones, which included top e-commerce hubs like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad.

From Monday, e-commerce platforms like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal have resumed full operations - selling both essential and non-essential products - across the country (except containment zones).