Flipkart now looking to sell the smartphones with the 15k small convenience stores. It is already piloting this first initiative in the Telangana. With this scheme, Flipkart delivers the smartphones to the stores who also, in turn, deliver them to the users.
After Reliance Stores, came up with its hybrid online-offline model to foray into the segment of the e-commerce, now Walmart owned Flipkart is also looking to follow some of the same strategies and use the convenience stores for expanding its entire business.
Flipkart as of now is piloting a project in the Telangana where it has already partnered with around 800 stores to sell around the smartphones with the help of Flipkart app. Under this scheme, Flipkart delivers the smartphones to the stores from where the orders were placed. The Kirana stores then directly deliver the products to the customers thus even earning a retailer margin.
Flipkart is aiming to make a push via sales of other products with these stores and is also planning to use them as the last mile delivery agents.
The developments come in at a time when the e-commerce space in India is also undergoing several changes owing to the draft e-commerce policy and changes in the guidelines of the FDI.
Source: Flipkart
