Udaan’s Price Company to enter T.N.

The company will now foray into Tamil Nadu starting with Chennai, and in the next three months aims to expand operations to 20-30 cities in State

Buoyed by response from markets such as Karnataka and Telangana, Price Company, the community grocery e-commerce (CGE) arm of B2B firm Udaan, is now entering Tamil Nadu with an aim to cover all Southern States in the next three months.

“We started with a pilot launch in five cities across South Karnataka and already are working with more than 5,000 retailers across the State,” Ankit Agarwal, business head, Price Company, told The Hindu. “Over the last two months, we have also launched our operations in Telangana…and are witnessing around 100% growth in orders week-on-week.”

He added that the company will now foray into Tamil Nadu starting with Chennai, and in the next three months aims to expand operations to 20-30 cities in State, as well as cover remaining States in South India by the end of March 2022.

CGE works and builds on the relationships of existing small retailers and community leaders with consumers. These retailers and leaders procure a range of products from companies such as Udaan and sell to their existing network of customers.

“The CGE model is still evolving in India, and we expect wide acceptance and adoption of this new model. The pandemic has further accelerated digital adoption in small towns, thanks to the broadband revolution and affordable smartphones,” Mr. Agarwal said, adding that Price Company aims to be a ‘one stop shop’ for every family’s daily needs and since a lot of these products will be sourced locally, these will provide better income opportunities to local farmers and millers.

“Overall, Price Company aims to scale its operations to over 1,500 towns and cities and onboard between 3.5-5 million retailers by December 2022,” he said.

Asked about growing competition in this space, Mr. Agarwal said Udaan was uniquely positioned in the e-commerce market due to its scale and capabilities built over the last five years. “We have built a robust e-commerce ecosystem entailing over 3 million retailers and 25-30,000 sellers across over 1,000 cities covering more than 12,000 pin codes, 200 warehouses… delivering over 8,000 – 9,000 tons of products every day. This scale of capability building takes time and is a prerequisite to succeed in the B2B space. This gives us an edge over the competition.”

Source: Read Full Article