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Online marketplace Askme.com plans to venture into the sale of perishable grocery and pharmaceuticals with the launch of AskmeFresh.com and AskmeMeds.com.
The company, which already has a presence in the grocery segment, made a soft launch of perishable grocery sales in Delhi-NCR three months ago, and is now gearing up for a pan-India launch.
Askme has tied up with 35 sellers in NCR and is in the processing of signing in 200-250 sellers in 38 other cities over the next two months. The Gurgaon-based company seeks to make deliveries within four-six hours.
Ankit Jain, CEO, AskmeFresh.com and AskmeMeds.com, told BusinessLine the company is ready with the backend set-up to process orders placed on the platform. It is now selecting sellers.
“Since we are dealing with perishable commodities, we are taking extra efforts to ensure that quality products are delivered to customers. We also have an option for customers to reject a delivery if they are not satisfied,” he said.
Why is Askme venturing into the fruits and vegetables segment when others are hastily quitting the space?
Avoiding cash burn Jain said that unlike other players, Askme has long-standing relationships with sellers and would focus on the metros before venturing into smaller cities. In order to avoid cash burn, the company will not provide any deep discount and will reset prices on alternate days, he added.
Over the past two years, many online grocery ventures of prominent players such as Flipkart, Ola, Paytm, PepperTap, LocalBanya, Grocerywalk, RationHut and ShopVeg have faced trouble.
They find it difficult to grow business beyond a point as penetrating into tier II and III cities is a major challenge. Mumbai-based LocalBanya, which shut shop for tech and service upgrade last October, is yet to restart.
Pharmacy protests Jain is not particularly worried about brick-and-mortar pharmaceuticals protesting against online pharmacies, either. The company would not compete with the traditional pharmacy outlets, but provide them with an online platform, he pointed out.
“Various studies prove that brick-and-mortar shops have managed to grow their business multi-fold by tapping the online platform,” he said.
AskmeMeds will compete with start-ups such as Netmeds, Pluss, 1mg and mChemist.
Owned by Getit Infomedia, local search service AskMe.com currently runs multiple platforms such as AskmeBazaar, AskmePay, AskmeFurniture and AskmeGrocery.
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