Flipkart launches grocery delivery app Nearby

The country's largest e-commerce venture Flipkart has started delivering daily usage products through a new standalone app

Christened Nearby, the standalone app is currently operational for 14 locations across Bengaluru.

Nearby caters to categories such as branded food, groceries & staples, beverages, household supplies, personal care, health & wellness, baby-care and dairy & eggs.

Nearby does not have online payment option and it only accepts cash on delivery. A customer care agent said that Nearby would not charge any delivery fees, irrespective of the order quantity.

"Customer can place order for even a single product of minimum price and we deliver it without any delivery charge," the customer care agent said in an email response to a Techcircle.in query.

All major horizontal e-commerce players have evinced interest in the Indian online grocery space. Snapdeal has tied up with gourmet food retailer Godrej Nature's Basket to sell about 400 of its products online. Amazon is testing local deliveries with neighbourhood grocers as partners on its marketplace (starting with Bangalore). Recently, Paytm's parent company One97 Communication launched a new app named Zip to connect users to both local offline as well as online grocers.

In July, taxi aggregator Ola also plunged into the hyperlocal delivery space with Ola Store. However, Ola require a minimum order value of Rs 250 for free delivery.

New Delhi-based NGA Technologies Pvt Ltd, which operates autorickshaw-hailing app AUTOnCAB, acquired hyperlocal grocery delivery startup BigZop in September.

The online grocery and delivery market has been witnessing increased investor interest for the last few years. India is said to be the sixth largest grocery market in the world. According to a recent report by Ken Research, the online grocery space in the country will be worth $2.7 billion by 2019.

In August, online grocery retailer BigBasket.com, owned and operated by Bangalore-based SuperMarket Grocery Supplies Pvt Ltd, raised $50 million in a fresh round of funding led by existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners.

On the other hand, Bangalore-based ZopNow raised $10 million (Rs 61 crore) from Dragoneer Investment Group with participation from existing investors Accel Partners, Qualcomm Ventures and Times Internet in April.

Grofers, PepperTap and LocalBanya are the other players to have recently secured funding.

Indeed, some of the newer players have also received funding. In July, Ahmedabad-based e-grocery startup Myonsto.com secured Rs 2 crore in angel funding from Oswal Industries' director Jayant Bokadia. In August, Pune-based Bloomskart Retail Pvt Ltd, the firm behind online grocery e-commerce startup RainCan, raised seed funding from angel investor Ajeet Khurana and other unnamed investors.