Zomato aims to compete with e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart, thus adding more brand products across new categories through Blinkit, the Economics Time (ET) reported on Monday. Zomato is building its own supply chain to directly source branded products and manage stock, as per the Economic Times report.
Zomato’s Strategy
Zomato has “had a conversation with individual brand owners for various categories to shock up inventory. This is being seen as a potentially long time growth driver,” the source said. The company does not plan to own the inventory directly but instead manages the flow of products for D2C brands like marketplaces.
More Supply Chain Control
Deepinder Goyal led the firm had brought a stake in Shiprocket in 2021 and currently holds 6.6 percent of the logistics provider. Shiprocket works with many D2C brands at present but has not agreed to merge with Zomato.
As the discussion between Zomato and Shiprocket continues, Zomato has leased one warehouse each in New Delhi and Mumbai to support Blinkit’s e-commerce push. Along with food delivery, Zomato also operates in business-to-business (B2B) grocery supply with Hyperpure and an event ticketing vertical called Zomaland.
Aims for Quicker E-commerce
Lately, with slowing business, analysts consider Blankit as Zomato’s step toward growth.
“New-age D2C brands in categories like home needs, small electronics, beauty, and personal care are looking at quick commerce as a growing channel for sales. Blinkit has a strong footing there,” an industry watcher reported to ET. He added that Zomato wants to set up a backend structure to directly work with brands and help them sell on Blinkit, which will give the company control over its supply chain.
Blinkit has been selling both occasional items such as flowers, and stuffed toys, and featured high-value goods such as smartphones. Adding more categories, especially in the D2C space will help Blinkit to grow its average order value.
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