Flipkart to enter food delivery in coming weeks; CEO says no plans for quick commerce acquisitions

Walmart-owned Flipkart is set to enter the online food delivery market in the coming weeks, with an initial pilot in a single city before a wider rollout, Chief Executive Officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy said.

In an interview with Moneycontrol, Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said the company will initially test the offering before deciding on a wider rollout.

"We will launch food delivery in the next few weeks. We may end up launching it in just a single city, test the value proposition, take feedback, and work on it," Krishnamurthy said.

"Once we find it to be a very good fit for the Indian customer, we'll start scaling it," he added.

He said the service would use a combination of Flipkart's main app and a separate interface.

Pointing to the company's approach to its quick commerce platform Minutes, the top executive said Flipkart would prioritise getting the product right before pursuing aggressive expansion.

"Even when we first launched Minutes, we took some time. We came to the market, we took some time, and then when we thought that we had a valid proposition for the Indian customer, we rapidly scaled it. That's the way we think about it here also," he said.

Krishnamurthy said Flipkart intends to differentiate itself through innovation and value beyond just pricing.

"When we launch a product, we launch a product because we believe we actually can somewhat innovate and bring something new to the table," he said.

The move pits Flipkart against established food delivery platforms such as Eternal-owned Zomato and Swiggy.

Following the comments, shares of Swiggy fell as much as 5.55% in early trade, while Eternal declined nearly 3%.

He expressed satisfaction with the performance of Flipkart Minutes, saying the nearly two-year-old quick commerce business has been well received by customers and continues to scale rapidly.

"We feel we are lucky in many ways that the customer has adopted the product and has accepted the value proposition that we are able to offer, and it's scaling very well," he said.

He also downplayed the importance of viewing quick commerce as a standalone business.

"I don't focus on something called 'quick commerce'. We think about quick commerce as we think about sarees and kurtis, which is a very big category for our marketplace. It's one of the customer segments, and we are catering to that. But that's not the bigger frame for us," Krishnamurthy said.

Asked whether the quick commerce industry can sustain six or seven players over the long term, he said, "I am not sure there is enough merit in the market for 6-7 players."

However, he ruled out any acquisition-led consolidation by Flipkart.

"Are we looking right now at any consolidation? No, we are not," he said.