As online shopping became the way of life for many people it

As online shopping became the way of life for many people, it was only a matter of time that we got the most basic necessity of our life i.e. groceries, delivered right at our doorstep. In just a couple of years since the addition of this category in online shopping, today there are half a dozen online stores bringing us vegetables, fruits, cereals, packed foods, dairy products, meat and all other kitchen essentials at our fingertips.

In October 2015, Flipkart launched its own grocery delivery arm, ‘Nearby’, only to shut it down in February the following year. The company claimed that Flipkart Nearby was piloted in select areas of Bengaluru as a test for understanding efficiencies and operations of the hyper local business. On the other hand, Amazon their largest competitor has ventured into the online grocery space with a full-fledged grocery service ‘Amazon Now’ and is expected to invest more in the sector.

1. How two giants have a different view of the same market?

2. Analyse the impact of 5Cs in this sector - the customers, company, competition, collaborators and context.

3. Who would you go with Flipkart for shutting Nearby or Amazon Now for investing further in the sector? Do you find this market lucrative or not? Support your answers with reasons.

Solution

1. Flipkart and Amazon the two giants in the ecommerce industry tried to penetrate the online grocery industry which was starting to get popular in recent times. Flipkart launched its venture Flipkart Nearby and Amazon launched the Amazon Now the objective was same that is to provide door step grocery to household consumers and the turn around time is very less. Flipkart Nearby failed and had to be closed within 3 months from its start but its competitor amazon is still doing good and has a physical presence in the market today. The basic difference is the approach towards the business between flipkart and amazon, flipkart considered it as an experiment and there was no promotion or advertisement regarding the same which actually was unable to attract consumers and hence the failure but amazon is aware of the role it has to play in order to sustain in the market and acted accordingly.

2. The particular sector of ecommerce depends a lot on the 5Cs like any other business and if we look at each of them, then:

3. In order to invest further I would like to go with Amazon Now for investing further in the sector because this is the future and the avenues of business has to be explored in order to sustain and remain to be big or else competitors will not let this opportunity go easily.

There is no doubt in the fact that the market is lucrative because if we look at the trend of business regarding ecommerce we will see that it started with a particular product and now it is dealing with almost everything, therefore if the business strategies and plans are successfully and effectively applied then the profit is huge.