Udaan to pilot B2C grocery delivery; to expand to more than 1000 cities

B2B trade unicorn Udaan is piloting a direct-to-consumer (D2C) grocery delivery project in various cities with social commerce as its core business model. Sources privy to the development said that upon the completion of the pilot project, Udaan, which has had a fair share of success with its existing B2B model, will expand its grocery delivery footprint to 1000 cities across India. The start-up, as per sources, will leverage its current logistics and brick-and-mortar network strength to provide more ammunition to the grocery delivery services.

“This would be a community-based model with Udaan tying up with public communities across Indian cities on the lines of China’s social-commerce start-up, Pinduoduo, which has significantly transformed the e-commerce industry in China and made great transitions from offline to online through group purchases,” sources told BusinessToday.In

This would essentially translate into buyers constituting a group to purchase a bulk of groceries from the suppliers using Udaan’s platform through which both the buyers/ suppliers can avail discounts as well as increased profits, respectively.

Currently, social commerce segment in India is highly underpenetrated with the likes of Meesho and niche players who have forayed into apparels, home appliances etc. Grocery delivery, on the other hand, presents a unique opportunity awaiting disruption which could also grow with the advent of social commerce in this category.

An Udaan spokesperson declined to officially comment when BT reached out to them over the new development.

Unlike the conventional Amazon, Flipkart e-commerce models, where the seller-buyer connect is amiss, social commerce has a proposition of being more interactive and personal in nature, with affordability as a key factor.

According to a recent Bain & Company report, social commerce in India (in terms of gross merchandise value) was estimated at $2 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $16-20 billion by 2025 and $60-70 billion by 2030. Share of social commerce in India’s e-commerce market ($38 billion in 2020) is expected to increase from the existing 1-2 per cent to 4-5 per cent of the projected $140 billion market by 2025.

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