Flipkart's roots in Tier-II, -III cities will help qcom rollout: Biswas

We want to build a daily essentials platform and create a habit amongst customers to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, perishable items, etc., from Minutes, says Biswas

Flipkart Minutes, the quick commerce arm of ecommerce giant Flipkart, completed its first year this month. Despite being a late entrant to the field, the platform claims 50 million unique visitors, doubling every two months. In a video interaction with Udisha Srivastav, Kabeer Biswas, vice-president, Flipkart Minutes, talks about the company’s growth, its foray into Tier-II and Tier-III cities, and how it aims to differentiate in a competitive market. Edited excerpts:

 

 Flipkart Minutes completed a year this month. How has the journey been?

 

The past year has been phenomenal. In a year, Flipkart Minutes has become the fastest-growing quick commerce platform in the country. We have about 50 million unique visitors, and we are doubling every 60 days. It’s heartening to see that we have been able to expand the market in several pockets where there are Flipkart strongholds, and where quick commerce was not a well-known business initially.

 

How is Flipkart Minutes differentiating itself in a competitive quick-commerce market?

 

We want to build a platform for daily essentials and create a habit among customers to buy fresh fruit, vegetables, perishable items, etc from us. The two things we are delivering customers are great value and a large selection of items. We are seeing how these differentiation factors are playing out and how we are seeing repeats. Nearly 60 per cent of users place a repeat order within 14 days on the platform, which is healthy.

 

There are about five things  you need to build a quick commerce business —one, a large set of customers; second, making sure that the supply chain for daily essentials exists and that customers buy frequently; third, expanding the supply chain to dense locations, which means smaller dark stores and last-mile delivery. The fourth is the ability to sell because selling only low-value products is not enough, and the last one is advertising. At Flipkart three of these five have been sorted. There are a lot of customers, we already sell a lot of high ASP products and the advertising business is fairly robust. 

 

How many dark stores do you have, and in how many cities are you present? What’s the year-end target?

 

We are coming in close to about 400 stores in 19 cities. And we plan to put together a plan for 800 stores after the Big Billion Day sale. 

 

How many stock-keeping units (SKUs) do you have, and what goes behind their selection?

 

The platform offers close to 30,000 SKUs all over India. But selection is as much an art as it is a science. It is fast-moving. If something is not selling, you’ll know in two weeks. We also have to make sure to keep trying new things.

 

What’s the road map for expansion in Tier-II and Tier-III cities?

 

We are expanding the market and demand is coming largely from Flipkart strongholds. Given that Flipkart has deep roots in Tier-II and -III cities, we will see a similar kind of pattern playing out in quick commerce rollout. That’s the strength of getting built on top of an ecommerce business. For Minutes, non-metro cities like Ambala, Guwahati, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kanpur, and Patna are emerging as key demand drivers.

 

What’s your average order value (AOV)? What’s the mix of grocery and non-grocery items?

 

Our AOV continues to be the highest in the market. We can’t get into the specifics. 

 

What are your strategies to acquire new customers?

 

Give customers a reason to tell each other about the platform. We are focusing on different categories and making sure that we create a value play because it helps people to tell each other about the platform. The second one is creating awareness. We have done a couple of campaigns recently, and over the next three to four months, when there is seasonality, there will be a lot more focus on telling customers about our offers. The idea is to be able to create a lot of occasions during this period and become part of a customer’s life. We are all doing a focused job on awareness, activation, and selection, and making sure that we delight customers each time they transact with us. It is an important part of the year and converts a lot of infrequent buyers.