Online supermarkets have risen in popularity immensely in the last couple of years. More and more people are resorting to buying items online, due to the reduced prices and improved quality of products, leading to the growth of online supermarkets.
E-commerce isn’t a new industry. It originated in the early 2000’s, and at that time, many companies tried to venture into this sector. Online supermarkets and online grocery shops were being set up everywhere, but we don’t know anything about most of them today. The reason is that the Internet bubble burst at that exact same time, and most of these new companies were completely wiped out. However, the interest in online supermarkets has once again risen, mainly because of the successful online stores and e-commerce markets recently.
To be honest, most Indians still shop their groceries by going to the local markets. For example, in 2010, only .015% of entire grocery sales came from the online markets. One of the main reasons is that the average Internet speed in India was quite slow at that time, but that has improved significantly currently. As a result, during the next 6 years, the growth has been exponential, especially in the cosmopolitan cities of India such as Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai.
What makes this niche even more difficult to flourish as compared to online electronics and books is the fact that grocery is one of the lowest margin businesses. When you are competing with local markets, you have to offer lower prices which means your profits will be much less. Also, discounts during special events is used by most online stores, where most products are almost sold at manufacturing price, meaning there is hardly any profit.
Online supermarkets rely on mass sale to make profit, and that is why, there are few online supermarkets in Chennai. The Chennai Kart is one of the leading stores, and their positive reviews show that customer satisfaction is always their top priority.
