Launch grocery on Flipkart.

I will answer this as a product strategy question:

Step 1 : Clarify qn:

1) What type of groceries would you sell e.g. produce, dry groceries, meat& fish, baked goods etc.

2) Is this being designed for a specific platform?

3) Do we have to keep a specific geo and region in mind?

Step 2- Describe the company:

Flipkart is one of the largest etailers in India. With Walmart owning 81% of stake, Flipkart has a strong dna of departmental good sales with a strong supply as well as distribution chain. Currently bigbasket is the market leader in online groceries and flipcart wants to break into that space

Strengths-  Financial muscle to invest, can accept losses in short run, supply chain already set up for departmental goods

Weakness- Existing competitor in a strong position

Oppurtunities- Bigbasket has lot of negative reviews w.r.t to customer experiences. Flipkart on the other hand has a hallow effect from the positive feedback received on the department stories

Threats- Amazon is expanding into food business in India and given its financial muscle and supply chain capabilities can become a strong contendor to any market entrant

Step 3- List strategic choices

1) Focus on one segment of the food industry e.g. vegetables, fruits, meat and fish, dairy or baked goods

2) Rather than being a grocery platform, become a market place where customers can select a grocery vendor and flipkart become a counterparty for delivery gaurantee and payment gaurantee

3) Become a license purchaser at APMC thereby only supplying at wholesale rates to restaurant and commercial food producers e.g. like Metro which only sells to stores in India

4) Become a distributor for a larger box store e.g. Amazon had a become a distributor for Big Bazaar

5) Full fledged grocery platform, own supply chain and distribution channel

Step 4- Evaluate strategic choices

Thus the strategy should be start off as a distributor for a large grocery store and use this experience to set up a full fledged grocery platform that requires experience and high investment

Step 5- Features/Solutions

1) Shift focus from grocery to menu choice. Allow the user to plan the menu for the week and point out the ingriedients required, this becomes the foundation for buying groceries also keeping in mind the preferences of the individuals. This will make Flipkart a food company vs a grocery company

2) Budget is an important parameter while buying food.  The app should allow the user to enter the monthly budget and show the utilization over the past week on various types of purchases e.g meat, processed food, produce etc.

3) Indian customers are price sensitive, app should allow me to compare prices of the same item in other grocery shops say using market price discovery

4) The app should allow me to split my payment against immediate payment or deferred payment

5) The app should recommend  a particular dish or item based on my past preference or flavor of the season

6) The app should know important dates e.g. birthday, anniversary and recommend special dishes

7) The app can have video testimonials about chefs about a food item or a recipe

Step 6- Prioritization of solutions

a) Priority 1- High Impact/ Medium-High implementation cost

1) The app should allow me to plan the menu for the week and point out the ingriedients required, this will be the foundation for buying groceries also keeping in mind the preferences of the individuals

2) The app should also the user to enter the monthly budget and show the utilization over the past week on various types of purchases e.g meat, processed food, produce etc.

4) The app should allow me to split my payment against immediate payment or deferred payment 

b) Priority 2- Medium Impact/ Medium-High implementation cost

3) My app should show me the prices of the same item in other grocery shops say using ibota interface

c) Priority 3- Low Impact/ Medium-High implementation cost

5) The app should recommend  a particular dish or item based on my past preference or flavor of the season

6) The app should know important dates e.g. birthday, anniversary and recommend special dishes

7) The app can have video testimonials about chefs about a food item or a recipe