Flipkart to re-foray into grocery segment and revamp its furniture store

Unlike Brick and Mortar stores, online marketplace gives one more options for expanding product portfolios. Building on the factor and also to beat its arch-rival, Amazon, India's biggest e-commerce company Flipkart is planning to move into the groceries space and make a renewed push in the online furniture business.

In an interview with Reuters, Flipkart’s CEO Binny Bansal said that building a profitable grocery business could be tough but surely isn’t impossible. The company is planning to start experimenting with grocery space from next year and will scale-up operations over the coming three years.

"There's definitely room to build a profitable grocery business, but it's hard. That doesn't mean it's not possible, but it's hard," Bansal told Reuters in an interview on Sunday. Flipkart had earlier experimented with grocery sales via its hyperlocal delivery app Flipkart Nearby which shut down in February this year.

The move is obviously aimed at Amazon that has already begun to pilot grocery sales in select Indian cities. Then there is BigBasket, that has already built a decent enough customer-base and is doing extremely good in metros.

Binny also said that fashion will remain Flipkart's best-selling category for the next few years, but he sees online groceries as having the potential to grow as big as fashion and electronics in the next six to eight years.

Interestingly, the company also plans to re-launch its furniture store in the coming months with a ramped up selection and experience, said Binny Bansal.

It is a surprising move because the established players in the segment — Pepperfry and Urban Ladder, are now setting up their own brick-and-mortar stores for growing the business.

Bansal also threw some light on Flipkart’s plans on going public saying they will consider it in two to four years.

He said Flipkart, which is backed by Tiger Global Management and Accel Partners among others, has cash reserves to last up to three years and that the company looks to raise money when the funds are available rather than when they are needed most.