City warms up to grocery portals

Registration on grocery portals goes up by 40 per cent as people prefer hassle free online shopping to visiting supermarket

Visiting a kirana store or a su permarket to shop for grocer ies has become a passé. Now, people are turning to online grocery portals to get their groceries home delivered. According to sources, the enrolment to these portals has gone up by 40 per cent, a testimony to the fact that given a choice people would prefer hassle free shopping from the convenience of their homes. In the past one year, four new grocery portals have started operations in the city, with more national websites eyeing customers here.

According to TrendMart.in, which claims to be the first local online grocery store, 30 per cent of Amdavadis are now buying groceries online. Kanish Patel, 20-years-old engineering student who along with his friend Jitesh Potkar started the portal a year back has already received more than 600 registered regular customers. He said, “The overall online grocery business has surged by more than 40 per cent.“

Elaborating on the type of clientele, Patel said, “In the beginning, only people from the elite strata of society would order through online portals.But now, even the middle class and working class people have started using the portals. Elderly people prefer shopping online for groceries due to the convenience. It saves the time and physical labour.“

With growing trust of customers, the business size of the online kirana stores is rising in leaps and bounds. Sahil Dalal, 25-year-old founder of myonsto.com, stated that just within a month of starting their service in the city, they have received more than 150 orders, which are increasing every day.

Sources said that in the coming years, there will be a spike in investments and the online portals would provide employment to thousands in the city.

“Generally, people place their first order for a smaller amount. This gradually increases with every order. We also cater to a lot of foreign citizens living in the city. Their cart size goes upto Rs 4,000 on an average,“ said Dalal. These websites provide products staring from vegetables, fruits, grocery, body care products, snacks, frozen food and others. “People tend to purchase vegetables, fruits and grocery in smaller quantities. But when it comes to grains, sugar etc, they purchase in bulk,“ said Shanil Soni, one of the founders of Cushvie.com.

Even national websites are getting enough hits from the city. Amazon.in which started gourmet and specialty foods store in October last year receives 30 per cent of their sales in Guja rat from Ahmedabad. “A large percentage of sales in Gujarat also come from districts like Kutch, Valsad, Anand, Jamnagar etc. The large share from smaller districts in Gujarat shows that there is latent demand,“ said Samir Kumar, director, category management, Amazon India.

In addition to that, an online fish store-SeaToHome.com will start delivering their service in the city by the end of this year.