Get Your Grocery Delivered Within Three Hours
Get Your Grocery Delivered Within Three Hours

With its current operations in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Navi Mumbai, ZopNow.com, the e-grocer company helps customers in their grocery purchases via their website, or mobile applications. Mukesh Singh, Founder and CEO of ZopNow.com, says that the marked USP of the company is their ability to deliver within 3-hours and more importantly, free of cost, irrespective of the order size.

Do you think India has opened up to buying grocery online? 

Absolutely. The average Indian consumer has a harrowing experience when it comes to doing regular shopping - poor roads, crazy traffic, parking hassles, long checkout queues etc. And grocery shopping is seen as a very humdrum everyday thing, there is not much of gratification or feel-good after buying staples, cleaning stuff etc. 

Consequently, consumers are very open to buying groceries online. Right now, as a space, e-groceries are at the 'early adopter' part of the growth curve - and there is huge potential for the market to keep on growing significantly.

What do you have to say about perishable food items and how do you make sure they reach the customers fresh and undamaged.

Perishable food items are hard to transport. But a combination of ZopNow's unique 3-hour delivery promise, and technologically superior packaging and storage mechanisms, in-transit, ensure that customers get the perishable items delivered to them nice and fresh. 

Name the cities where you deliver and what role does technology play in operations?

Currently, we deliver in Bengaluru, Navi Mumbai and Thane, Pune and Hyderabad, with plans to expand to 2-3 new cities in the first half of the year.

Technology is the fulcrum for efficient and delightful operations. Operations is responsible for a delightful customer experience, and technology empowers operations to provide a delightful experience - delivery in 3 hours, personalised recommendations for customers, packaging in eco-friendly manner based on the ordered items.

Last but not the least, the modularised ZopNow technology platform helps with super-fast integration with Hypercity stores in different cities, helping us launch in new cities at a very fast pace. Proof of that lies in the fact that we have gone from 1 to 4 cities in the space of less than 3 months. 

What has been the response like, do you think the eCommerce platform is giving you good returns?

Yes. And the penetration is only going to increase, so the returns will only increase.

How would you compare an online grocery store with an offline one, how are they different?

I think the biggest difference is in the amount of time both experiences need, and the degree of convenience that a customer experiences at an online store. At an online grocery store, thanks to personalised history and analytics based on consumer usage data, customers can find what they need really fast. And then the customer doesn’t have to wait in checkout queues or carry heavy bags - one-click ordering, and then wait for the order to be delivered in the chosen slot.

Do you get more traffic during weekdays than weekends?

Weekends are always busier than weekdays but with the convenience of online grocery, weekday shopping is also picking up very steadily. 

What was the rationale behind starting your retail store online?

Groceries are a large, continuous consumption market. And the current experience of buying groceries leaves a lot of open spaces for a better experience which an online store is well positioned to solve. Thanks to data and technology, online stores can make the shopping experience more convenient, hassle-free and friendly. 

Future plans.

We are looking to expand to ten cities in India by the end of 2015, and improve the customer experience at our store by leaps and bounds, and also a provide a away better mobile shopping experience.

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