India’s e-Commerce in Smaller Cities and Towns
When we think of online retail in India, we think of Amazon and Flipkart. Which is why I found this article by Manish Singh so informative: “ Flipkart and Amazon’s displacement is coming from two directions simultaneously.” The first of those are the urban “instant delivery” firms. Think Blinkit, Swiggy’s Instamart and Zepto. The second one are e-commerce sites aimed at the smaller cities and towns. “ Amazon and Flipkart now find themselves squeezed between two models they cannot easily replicate because their expensive infrastructure, designed for catalogue breadth and next-day delivery, proves ill-suited for either 10-minute deliveries in dense urban areas or ultra-low-price commerce in India’s interior.” I won’t spend much time on the instant delivery firms since we (in urban centers) are very familiar with their speed and convenience. I will talk more on the e-commerce sites for smaller cities and towns. Meesho is what few of us have ever used...