Flipkart launches its first women-driven grocery center in Coimbatore

Homegrown e-commerce marketplace Flipkart today announced the launch of its grocery services in Coimbatore and the opening of its first fulfillment center (FC) in the region to meet the growing demand for groceries online.

The establishment of this facility also strengthens Flipkart's supply chain in South India and will generate thousands of direct and indirect job and entrepreneurship opportunities, the company said in a statement.

Moreover, the newly constructed facility covers an area of more than 1.2 lakh square feet, will provide direct employment to nearly 1,200 people while encouraging local entrepreneurship. In the beginning, only a portion of the facility will be used, for which over 500 people will be hired.

It will be Flipkart's only facility that is almost entirely run by women, who make up 90 percent of the overall workforce. Flipkart has launched an initiative Vividhta to encourage more women to enter the workforce.

The startup has also set up a creche at the centre, will provide transportation and meals to all of its employees in order for them to work effectively.

Speaking on the development, Neeraj Mittal, Principal Secretary, IT, Government of Tamil Nadu said, “Flipkart’s newlyopened facility in Coimbatore will drive economic growth for the local ecosystem while digitallyupskilling the employees. The IT department will continue to provide support to emerging IT based businesses and create conductive policies for their growth.”

The new fulfilment centre (FC) will expand Flipkart's ability to serve more customers, including millions of first-time e-commerce customers from the South.

It provides consumers with access to multiple languages in order to provide a native language experience. Surprisingly, more than 52 percent of Flipkart customers are from tier-II and higher cities, demonstrating the growing popularity of e-commerce services.

Commenting on the launch of the new fulfilment center, Rajneesh Kumar, Senior
Vice-President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Flipkart, said, “Grocery is among the
fastest-growing categories within e-commerce and as the country’s homegrown e-commerce
marketplace, we are at the forefront of meeting customers’ essential requirements at their
doorsteps in a safe and hygienic manner."

"Coimbatore, while being an economic center also offers a strategic location to serve nearby regions efficiently and the opening of our first grocery warehouse in the city serves as a testament to that. It has also been possible with the constant support of the state government and its conducive policies which will help generate more job opportunities while ensuring safe delivery of essentials for consumers. This will also significantly boost sourcing opportunities for small & medium farmers in the State in addition to supporting the food processing sector.”, he added.

It will be Flipkart's second grocery location in Tamil Nadu, following Chennai, and its ninth in the South.

According to Smrithi Ravichandran, Vice President-Grocery at Flipkart, customer consumption patterns have evolved significantly over the years, with the pandemic hastening this shift toward organised channels of sourcing essentials, particularly e-commerce.

“Flipkart has played a pivotal role in bringing the convenience of online commerce to the doorstep of customers across the country with tier-2 towns taking the lead,” said Ravichandran. “We are elated to launch our grocery services in Coimbatore in the next few weeks with the opening of our first fulfilment centre which will cater to the essential needs of customers from the region,” said Ravichandran. “Flipkart has leveraged its partnership on-ground and is working with its marketplace sellers, MSMEs and brand partners, to ensure timely availability of essential products for consumers.”

Flipkart has 8 Fulfilment Centers in Tamil Nadu, totaling 1.5 million square feet, as well as nearly 150 delivery hubs. The Flipkart group has directly employed over 52,000 people in the state. In addition, the company has a cutting-edge data centre in Chennai to support its robust e-commerce operations.

Over the last few years, the South region has emerged as one of the fastest-growing e-commerce regions in the country due to lakhs of new customers, sellers, and kirana partners turning to e-commerce to meet their needs while taking advantage of the entrepreneurship opportunities it provides.

Flipkart said that the company is making e-commerce more accessible to customers by making the multi-language option available.

Also Read:

• Flipkart opens 2.2 lakh sq. ft. warehouse in West Bengal
• Flipkart launches ”Back to College” Project
• Flipkart-owned Myntra rolls out Family Support Policy

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