Flipkart Wholesale, the digital B2B marketplace of Walmart-owned Flipkart Group, on August 19 said that it plans to grow its geographical footprint in India by more than three times and increase its presence to 2,700 cities by December 2021.
The company also expects its supplier base to grow by 58 percent in 2021. “E-commerce adoption by kiranas expected to almost triple in July-December 2021, signalling that the B2B ecosystem is opting for the digital channel as the preferred mode of purchase,” it said in a statement.
The Group recently rebranded its Best Price cash-and-carry business, which it acquired from Walmart India in 2020, to Flipkart Wholesale. Launched in September 2020, Flipkart Wholesale serves as an online B2B marketplace for retailers to make purchases across grocery and fashion categories.
The platform witnessed 17 percent growth in its kirana customer base between January and June 2021 compared to the same period last year. This was led by increased adoption of the digital channel by retailers and kiranas.
Adarsh Menon, Senior Vice President and Head of Flipkart Wholesale, said, “We launched Flipkart Wholesale with an aim to bring prosperity to the B2B retail ecosystem and solve local pain points of kiranas across the country. Despite challenges induced by the pandemic, we have seen a strong response from kiranas who are now realizing the benefits of digitization and warming up to e-commerce as the go-to means of purchase.”
Flipkart Wholesale projects a 33 percent growth in its kirana customer base in the period of July to December 2021, compared to the same period last year.
“E-commerce adoption by kiranas on Flipkart Wholesale doubled in January-June this year compared to last year. This is projected to see 180 percent growth in July to December 2021, as against the same period last year,” the company said.
The digital marketplace said that kiranas will continue to be the most important customer segment and will get access to product assortments at great prices, credit offers, payment options and end-to-end service via feet-on-street associates, app, and cash-and-carry stores.
On rebranding, the company said that the process will be seamless for kiranas and all Best Price touchpoints will now be Flipkart Wholesale making it an omnichannel B2B player.
Flipkart Wholesale currently serves over 1.5 million members across the country including kiranas, hotels, restaurants, cafeterias, offices and institutions. The Flipkart Group has a registered customer base of over 350 million users and offers over 150 million products across 80 plus categories.
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