Online eCommerce shopping is taking the world by storm with its quick delivery and now online grocery shopping has joined the race. Online grocery shopping played a vital role during the pandemic for many people. A huge scope of improvement was then realized in the arena of online grocery shopping and the companies are investing heavily to improve the user experience of the users. Interestingly, this trend is visible across the global market of online grocery shopping. For instance, DoorDash of New York has made it possible to deliver groceries in 15 minutes and the same trend is visible in India.
Quick Online Grocery Delivery
The consumer behavior has changed drastically during the Covid-19 pandemic and the grocery market has realized it and the same is now being worked on. Online grocery delivery is now heavily investing to improve itself due to tech-savvy consumers, social distancing and urbanization. According to a report by RedSeer Consulting, the e-groceries saw a growth of 75% in the lockdown. Even though the traditional model will continue to operate while bringing in new innovation.
Amazon made the concept of one-day delivery extremely popular by improving the logistic sector. Logistics companies like XpressBees are also working to support fast delivery to improve the user experience of the users and as a result, one and two-day delivery is possible by various eCommerce companies. The same trend is now followed by online grocery stores too.
InstaMart service provided by Swiggy makes grocery delivery within 15-30 minutes. Now, Grofers, which has rebranded itself as Blinkit, is now promising to its customers to supply them with their deliveries within ten minutes. On the other hand, Xpress Mart by Dunzo will deliver the grocery in 19 minutes and similarly, BB Express by BigBasket will deliver the grocery to the customers within 60 minutes. Even Amazon Fresh delivers the product to the customers within two hours and Flipkart Quick Service delivers the grocery to the customers in 90 minutes.
What Is Contributing To Improvement In Online Grocery?
RedSeer Management has estimated that the value of the online grocery market in 2021 is approximately $30 million and it will reach $5 billion in 2025. The factors which are contributing to improving the online grocery segment includes improved internet penetration, trust in online payments and the overall growth of the eCommerce sectors. In addition to that, Ankur Bansal, co-founder of Black Soil has commented that unplanned shopping and convenience shopping is also contributing largely to improving the online grocery sector.
How Quick Grocery Delivery Is Possible?
After Blinkit informed us that it will deliver the groceries to its customers within ten minutes, one might wonder how is it even possible without exploiting the workers. The same was clarified by Albinder Dhindsa, founder of Grofers that has been rebranded recently as Blinkit has explained the entire mechanism that makes it possible for them to deliver the grocery within ten minutes.
Blinkit has more than 60 plus stores in Delhi and 30 plus stores in Gurgaon. The partner stores of Blinkit are located within a range of two kilometers of the customers and the dense location of the stores makes it possible for the riders to deliver the products within 15 minutes to customers even if they drive at a speed of 10kmph and hence, the customers can sigh a relief by knowing the fact that the riders are not being exploited.
The Future Of Kirana Stores
Will the growth of online grocery shopping impact Kirana stores? The truth is yes, Kirana stores are already facing the heat of the rise of e-commerce and online grocery shopping by the customers. The advantage that the Kirana stores have is their relationship with the customers. It would be interesting to see whether the convenience of the customer will overrule the relationships that exist between Kirana stores and the customers.
However, the online grocery sector is also facing some serious problems as it is highly location-dependent. In addition to that, most of the grocery shopping runs on a low margin and if the delivery fee is not applied, the entire model becomes unsustainable to a large extent. Therefore, it is up to the customer preferences whether they prefer online grocery shopping or shopping from local Kirana stores. Kirana stores will continue to run on its popularity for the next few years but the trend of the same will be visible soon.