Hemant Badri, senior vice president (VP) and supply chain head of Flipkart, has been given additional responsibility to lead the quick commerce business, as per a MoneyControl report.
The company intends to launch its Quick Commerce platform in July, as per an Economic Times report. With a focus on quick commerce platforms where items are delivered within thirty minutes, Flipkart has been trying to prepare itself for the segment. As per TechCrunch, a spokesperson from FlipKart said that the company is “committed to meeting evolving customer expectations and delivering excellence in value, selection, and speed, with more initiatives expected on this front in the coming months.”
Quick commerce platforms focus extensively on darkstores (retail outlets or distribution facilities). However, as per Moneycontrol, Flipkart has decided to extensively focus on tying up with kirana stores.
Badri has been with Flipkart for a little over three years. Prior to this, he had been working with Unilever for eleven years. Meanwhile, Flipkart and Zepto were in talks recently for a potential deal, as reported by the Economic Times. However, talks between the two e-commerce platforms failed as Flipkart wanted to have a majority stake in the start-up, as per the report. Flipkart was also in talks with Dunzo, but the talks faltered.
Meanwhile, Flipkart also entered the unified payments interface (UPI) space in March. The company already registered more than 5 million transactions that were worth Rs 200 crore, as per a Moneycontrol report. The company has also been focusing on giving several rewards and cashbacks to those using UPI.
While launching the UPI facility, the company’s main intent was to not be a third-party payment app and focus on the in-house UPI requirement. As CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy told Moneycontrol in an interview, “We are not trying to be the largest payments company in India. Again, I have no such ambition or don't even have the bandwidth or appetite to do anything close to that.”
