Coronavirus: Flipkart, Tata Consumer Products Partner For Supply Of Essentials Tata's distributors will list as marketplace sellers on the e-commerce company's platform and consumers would be able to buy different combo packs of essential products.

At a time when India is reeling under the effects of the ongoing Coronavirus-enforced lockdown, e-commerce giant Flipkart and Tata Consumer Products have formed a pact to get essentials delivered to customers.

Tata's distributors will list as marketplace sellers on the e-commerce company's platform – a first – and consumers would be able to buy different combo packs of essential products such as beverages (tea and coffee) and foods (spices, pulses, and nutri mixes).

Walmart-owned Flipkart will fulfill the orders by picking up the essentials from Tata's distributors and delivering them using its own network of delivery executives.

"Our partnership with Tata Consumer Products is a testament to our joint ambition and responsibility to serve the nation during these trying times," said Flipkart Group chief executive officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy, in a statement.

The companies said that the partnership was already operational in Bengaluru, and that they plan to expand it to Mumbai and Delhi in the coming week and Tier II towns going forward.

"We are glad to be able to leverage each other's strengths in order to make sure essential products reach the consumers who need them," said Sunil D'Souza, managing director and CEO at Tata Consumer Products.

Other Partnerships

This pact comes on the heels of several others where companies have tweaked their business models in order to solve supply chain disruptions.

On Tuesday, food products company Britannia Industries said it had launched a service with hyperlocal e-commerce start-up Dunzo for the delivery of all its products, wherein, customers can avail products such as biscuits, cakes and dairy whiteners through the Dunzo app in under an hour of ordering.

Last week, consumer goods giant Marico announced a partnership with Swiggy and Zomato and introduced Saffola Store on the foodtech platforms to allow customers to order essentials such as cooking oil and oats.

Other such partnerships include ITC Limited utilizing the last-mile infrastructure of pizza chain Domino's for delivering products such as flour and salt, and bike taxi operator Rapido delivering for the likes of Big Bazaar, BigBasket and Spencer's.