Flipkart Wholesale plans to more than triple footprint by December

Aims to serve kiranas in close to 2,700 cities in India, enabling digital dividends for lakhs of small businesses

Hyderabad: Flipkart Wholesale, the digital B2B marketplace of Flipkart Group, plans to more than triple its geographical footprint in India to close to 2,700 cities, with an aim to make business easier and bring growth to lakhs of small businesses and kiranas across the country.

Launched in September 2020, Flipkart Wholesale has witnessed growth in the first half of 2021 driven by the adoption of e-commerce by retailers and kiranas. E-commerce adoption by kiranas on Flipkart Wholesale doubled in January-June this year compared to last year. This is projected to see 180 per cent growth in July-December 2021, as against the same period last year.

Flipkart Wholesale has also seen a surge in suppliers that have come onboard on the digital B2B marketplace. The supplier base is expected to grow 58 per cent in 2021, which will further boost the local business ecosystem as well as livelihoods. The company recently rebranded its Best Price cash-and-carry business, which it acquired from Walmart India in 2020.

Adarsh Menon, senior vice president and head, 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 realising the benefits of digitisation and warming up to e-commerce as the go-to means of purchase. We will continue to leverage the technology strengths from the Flipkart group and enhance livelihoods and local supplier ecosystems across the country,” Menon added.

Flipkart Wholesale witnessed 17 per cent growth in its kirana customer base in January-June 2021 compared to the same period last year; reinstating the trust Kiranas have shown towards the platform. The kirana customer base is projected to further grow by 33 per cent in July-December 2021, compared to the same period last year.

Flipkart Wholesale serves over 1.5 million members across the country, which include kiranas, HoReCa (hotels, restaurants and cafeterias) and O&I (offices and institutions).