Grofers likely to enter horizontal e-com; plans to deliver anything including iPhones in 10 minutes

Online grocery delivery platform Grofers is getting ready to expand and become a full-fledged e-commerce company capable of delivering everything including mobile phones within 10 minutes of receiving an order.

Founder and chief executive officer Albinder Dhindsa shared his ambition for Grofers, established in December 2013, in a blogpost.

"Imagine if you can get anything delivered to you in less than 10 minutes. Milk for your morning chai. The perfect shade of lipstick for tonight’s party. Even an iPhone. Imagine the store that delivered these to you is owned by someone just like you – a community entrepreneur. Your neighbour. Your friend. Maybe even you. This is the Grofers vision," Dhindsa wrote in the blog on October 18.

Grofers plans to build community entrepreneurship by partnering with aspiring business women and men who will run so-called dark stores where inventory will be stored. Dark stores are traditional retail stores, including apparel and appliance outlets, that have been converted to centres that fulfil the orders of online customers. So far, Grofers has already partnered with 86 dark store owners in 13 cities and logged more than 1 million orders in the last three months after the launch of its instant delivery service.

Grofers didn't immediately respond to questions from Moneycontrol seeking clarifications sought on the proposed move. This story will be updated if and when the company responds.

Interestingly, Dhindsa spelled out his ambition within months of c0-founder Saurabh Kumar exiting Grofers and announcing plans to set up a quick commerce venture.  Kumar, who left Grofers in July, has set up a company called Warpli that will have products delivered to customers in just a "few hours if not minutes" of an order being placed. He has started hiring engineers and product managers and plans to launch the business in a couple of months.

Kumar remains a board member and stakeholder in Grofers.

Grofers currently delivers groceries and essential items including baby care, pet care and home decor items that are low-value products compared to smartphones that cost upwards of Rs 12,000.

According to a recent Redseer Consulting report, mobile phones contributed 46% of the overall gross merchandise value (GMV) clocked by e-commerce companies this year in the first week of their festive season sales.

Overall GMV of goods sold during the period was $4.6 billion and mobile phones constituted almost half this number.

E-commerce companies take around 2-5 days to deliver products across the country.

According to the Redseer report, India's e-commerce industry is estimated to clock $55 billion in sales during 2021 with the addition of 40 million new online shoppers.

At the same time, quick commerce, which is defined as delivery of items within 45 minutes, is expected to grow by 10-15 times in the next five years to become a $5 billion market by 2025.