Ola, the ride-hailing startup, has started handling a fast delivery service for product like groceries, pet care products, and personal care products in Bengaluru, marking its entry into the Quick commerce market. The aim of this startup is to deliver products within 15 minutes or less.
According to a report by PTI, the cab service unicorn is presently running a pilot of its ‘Ola Store’ in an exceedingly few key parts of town, with plans to extend to different cities within the following months.
The new service is accessible via the Ola app, however it’s solely offered to a restricted variety of customers. Customers will order from a variety of around 2,000 merchandise, which can be delivered via Ola’s “strategically” settled dark stores.
A dark store could be a facility where an e-commerce operator will fulfill orders received online. This is often the IPO-bound startup’s second foray into the extremely competitive quick commerce sector, that is presently dominated by tech startups like Swiggy’s Instamart, Grofers, Dunzo, and has seen new competitors like the conventional supermarket chain Big Bazaar.
In recent months, the thought of fast commerce has gained traction especially in India, with each company exploring solutions to reduce delivery timelines. Dunzo, a Bengaluru-based hyperlocal delivery service, has launched “Dunzo Daily,” that guarantees to deliver essential things within nineteen minutes. The startup is currently working on opening 250 dark stores around the country so as to expand its footprint in 700 neighborhoods.
Swiggy, another food delivery startup, has invaded the market with its Instamart offering. The startup claims to deliver groceries within 15-30 minutes, whereas Grofers, a supermarket delivery platform, has conjointly introduced 10-minute grocery delivery across 10 cities, including with Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi, among others.
According to estimates from research firm Redseer, the Quick commerce market, where delivery takes but less than an hour, is presently valued at $0.3 billion and is anticipated to grow to $5 billion in four years. whereas Ola and its rival Uber didn’t failed to discover similar services 5 to 6 years ago, sources accustomed to the event expressed that Ola’s new strategy to the market won’t be restricted to groceries alone.
Mumbai-based Zepto, earlier had raised $60 million in an exceeding Series A round led by Nexus, Glade Brook Capital, and Y-Combinator amongst others. The firm was founded this year by a 19-year-old Stanford University dropouts Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, claims to deliver groceries within ten minutes. The firm is presently operating in Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Gurugram.
It is noted that Softbank-backed Ola’s entry into the Quick market sector comes simply months when the firm launched Ola Cars, its used automobile marketplace, a sector that’s dominated by different new-age brands like Cars24 and Droom.
