Indian online grocery market can exceed Rs 22,500 cr sales in 2020: Sanjiv Goenka

The Indian online grocery market could exceed sales of about Rs 22,500 crore in 2020, a substantial 76 percent jump over the previous year, Spencer’s Retail Chairman Sanjiv Goenka said.
According to a PTI report; The preference for online delivery of products became more visible following the COVID-19 outbreak, he added.
Spencer’s Retail, part of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka (RPSG) Group, had acquired online supermarket and grocery store Nature’s Basket in July 2019.
Consumers opted to buy essentials and other products from home in a bigger way than they had done in the past, he said.
“The result is that India’s online grocery market could exceed US$ 3 billion in sales in 2020, a substantial 76 percent increase over the previous year following a demand spike for the home delivery of fresh produce,” Goenka said in his address to shareholders in the company’s Annual Report for 2019-20.
With increased access to smartphones and low data costs, shoppers now prefer an omnichannel shopping experience, he added.
Spencers Retail is attractively positioned to capitalise on the omnichannel opportunity, he said.
“The company did not just respond to this sectoral inflexion point with a relevant mobile application and home delivery; it invested in enhancing proximity to consumers through phone call-based delivery, Chatbots and WhatsApp-driven product delivery using its stores as hubs,” Goenka was quoted by PTI as saying.
Besides, the retail chain collaborated with Uber and other delivery partners for product supply, strengthening its last-mile capability.
According to Spencer’s Retail CEO Devendra Chawla, the company’s online business experienced a milestone in FY20 where it not only consistently scaled the number of monthly active users but also positively turned around its unit-level economics.
“Our unit-level economics grew 45 percent with a substantial increase of 125 percent in our registered customer base. On the overall, the number of orders grew 175 percent, which helped us significantly moderate delivery costs,” he said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company operated 90 per cent of its stores across the country
“We will accelerate our transformation and deepen our relevance,” said Goenka. “We believe that our competitiveness will be derived from omnichannel consumer access, judicious store rollout, distinctive positioning in the minds of our consumers, a balance of lifestyle and essential products, a shift towards nonfood & apparel in the product mix.”
Headquartered in Kolkata, Spencer’s Retail operates 191 stores (including Nature’s Basket) of various formats in 42 cities.
Spencer’s Retail posted a revenue of Rs 2,373.29 crore in FY 2019-20.