Flipkart launches wholesale e-commerce service in India

Flipkart launched an online wholesale service in India for small businesses on Wednesday.

The company, owned by Walmart intends to compete with Amazon in an increasingly stressful and competitive market in the country.

Officially called “Flipkart Wholesale”, the feature is also available as a smartphone application. As of now, it sells apparels in Delhi, Gurugram, and Bengaluru.

The company intends to grow this network further, with a slated expansion into 20 more cities in India. Additionally, the company intends to offer groceries through this wholesale model by the end of 2020, as per the company’s statement.

Also read: Flipkart buys parent Walmart's Indian wholesale business

Over the next two months, the company will attempt to list 200,000 products on the wholesale portal. This will include patronage from 50 brands and 250 local manufactures over the next few days.

In July, Flipkart had acquired the wholesale business of Walmart, its parent company in India.

Flipkart faces competition from Amazon and the locally brewed JioMart, which is supported by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani.

Also read: Reliance launches JioMart online grocery service; challenges Amazon, Flipkart

The companies have been attempting to capture the local mom and pop stores, which are largely considered the Indian economy’s backbone.

Reliance Industries, under Ambani raised more than $20 billion this year, including contributions from Facebook and Google for its digital subsidiary. This will benefit JioMart.

Since 2009, Walmart has been running Best Price wholesale cash-and-carry stores in India. In 2018, it bought a controlling stake in Flipkart for $16 billion.