Grofers converting grocery shops into brand stores; Flipkart to roll out SuperCoins: Reports

Grofers India Pvt. Ltd is converting many grocery stores into its own branded outlets as the online grocery delivery company looks to broaden its distribution and push own labels to earn better margins, said media reports.

According to a report in The Economic Times, “Grofers has changed nearly 100 such kirana and supermarket outlets to Grofers discount stores in the Delhi-NCR region where it will manage back-end sourcing, inventory management and technology support on a revenue sharing model.”

Grofers, founded by Albinder Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar, began operations in 2014.

Grofers has been expanding its own range of brands over the last year. The groceries platform says that it has over 800 products across categories spanning staples, FMCG, personal hygiene products and furniture among others.

The company says that it harnesses its in-house technology platform to manage its network of over 5,000 partner stores that enable the company to function its supply chain.

Earlier this month, the company forayed into the milk business with the launch of its milk brand, G-Fresh Milk. Available in two different variants (Toned and Double Toned), G-Fresh Milk is sourced from dairy manufacturer Schreiber Dynamix.

Last month, Grofers raised over $200 million in a funding round led by SoftBank. Tiger Global Management and Sequoia Capital also participated in the round.

Earlier this year, it said that it pared its losses for the financial year ended 31 March 2018.

The groceries aggregator had revamped its business strategy and operation processes in 2016 by shifting from a marketplace model to an inventory-led business. It scrapped its app-only model and launched a website to expand its retail reach.

MyGlamm raises funding
Mumbai-based beauty and makeup products brand MyGlamm has raised Rs 100 crore ($14.47 million) in a funding round led by US-based marquee investor Bessemer Venture Partners, multiple media reports said.

The round has also seen participation from French cosmetics giant L’Occitane and public markets investor the Mankekar family, The Times of India and Inc42 reported. 

According to the reports, the deal would value MyGlamm at Rs 500 crore.

Media queries sent to the founder of MyGlamm did not elicit a response till the time of publishing this report.

Founded by Darpan Sanghvi, MyGlamm sells beauty and makeup kits on its website as well as by partnering with offline retail stores such as Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop. 

The company last raised Rs 35 crore from L’Occitane in March 2017, when it used to be an on-demand beauty services provider, LiveMint said. 

Prior to that, it had raised in April 2016, where Asia-focused private equity investor Tano Capital had also participated.

Flipkart to roll out reward system

Homegrown e-commerce platform Flipkart has launched a first-of-its-kind multi-brand rewards ecosystem, SuperCoins, which is to be rolled out by early July, said several media reports.

SuperCoins will work as rewards ecosystem for not only shopping on Flipkart, but also across more than 100 partner brands including Zomato, OYO, UrbanClap, PhonePe and MakeMyTrip, the reports added.

Last year in August, Walmart-owned Flipkart launched its subscription service, Flipkart Plus, to reward customers by giving them access to exclusive deals and free one-day deliveries.

The company, last month, launched its fifth offline store under its grocery offering, Supermart, in Mumbai.

Flipkart had launched a grocery service on its Nearby app in 2015, only to pull the plug on it five months later. It relaunched its grocery service under brand name Supermart in August 2017.

Earlier this month, US-based Walmart Inc. said it plans to deploy cash and cash equivalents worth $1.2 billion (Rs 8,337 crore at current exchange rate) for funding the operations of its Bengaluru-based e-commerce platform Flipkart.

Walmart had acquired Flipkart for $16 billion last year, hotting up the battle with Amazon for the Indian e-commerce market.

Oyo warns legal action against vested groups

Hospitality firm OYO Hotels and Homes has threatened to take legal action against vested interest groups for trying to disrupt its business, said several media reports.

The company, which on Wednesday got a shot in the arm with the Delhi High Court restraining various hoteliers welfare associations from issuing any notices or boycotting and banning OYO, also said it will invest Rs 200 crore to expand its business in Haryana, the reports added.

Further media reports state that OYO's partner hotel owners were unhappy with the company over several issues such as alleged disregard to agreed floor prices, deep discounting, non-transparent charges and one-sided enforcement of contracts.

Meanwhile, Oyo recently said it plans to plough $100 million into its Oyo Jiudian, its Chinese operations, as part of a short term investment plan.

Softbank-backed Oyo , which entered China in 2017,  claimed that it has expanded its presence to more 337 cities and five lakh rooms, which is managed by 10,000 full-time employees besides generating over two lakh jobs.

The company has also committed to invest up to $300 million in the US to expand its presence in the country.

OYO has been on an expansion spree and is currently present in 500 cities across nine countries: India, China, Malaysia, Nepal, the UK, the UAE, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the US. It currently operates over 13,000 franchised or leased hotels and over 6,000 homes as part of its chain. In India, OYO is present in over 180 cities with more than 8,700 properties.

This year in April, San Francisco-based home-sharing marketplace Airbnb made an investment of $75 million in OYO at a valuation of $4.3 billion.