Director, Nature’s Feast, Tejaswini Kharade tells Tania Roy that there are several challenges of selling grocery online, but this greener alternative has a lot of scope for growth
Online shopping is increasingly catching the fancy of buyers because of the huge discounts most web stores offer. If you are an avid online shopper, here’s some good news. Nature’s Feast (http://naturesfeast.net/), an e-commerce portal headquartered in Connaught Place, Bund Garden Road, Pune, offers fruits and vegetables at economical prices, which is almost 25 per cent lower than your next door retail store. To upscale its product assortment, Nature’s Feast has partnered with leading multinationals and large Indian players, and has also networked with more than 300 farmers to source fresh and good quality vegetables and food products.
More than 7,000 people have registered with Nature’s Feast, which has serviced many homes in Pune. It is planning to expand its ‘same day delivery service’ across 30 Indian cities. It is also coming up with a mobile app, which will help customers place orders through their smart phones. Director, Nature’s Feast, and an MBA in Finance, Mumbai University, Tejaswini Kharade, shares more details about the e grocery portal. Excerpts:
What kind of products do you offer and where are your services available?
We offer all daily essentials like grocery, food produce, food grains, FMCG products, bakery and an exhaustive organic range of vegetables, fruits, everyday cereals like rice, wheat, bajra, jowar, bajra, dals, spices, edible oils, ghee, tea, dry fruits, healthy foods, etc. Mangoes are the flavour of the season, so right now, we are home delivering Ratnagiri and Kesar Alphonso mangoes at Rs 499 (free home delivery in Pune and Mumbai, and across India and the globe for which delivery charges are applicable).
Everyday grocery and vegetables delivery exists currently in Pune. By paying a membership fee of Rs 2,999, you can avail the Express Delivery Services for same day delivery unlimited times throughout the year. We deliver within 8 to 48 hours, but the delivery time depends on the items in the cart and the time when you place your order. If you are a working couple, you can choose from the 7 to 9 am, 8 to 10 pm or 9 to 11 pm slots as per your convenience.
Nature’s Feast provides a greener alternative over traditional grocery shopping. How?
We bring products directly from company to customer, thereby cutting down a lot of energy consumption like lighting, air-conditioning at supermarkets. Also, efficient home-delivery system reduces the number of cars on roads.
The number of e-commerce shoppers is increasingly growing, but how eager are Indian consumers about online grocery shopping, especially when most people want to touch, see, feel and smell the vegetables, fruits, grains, etc they buy?
Nature’s Feast India is building a virtual space for a market which has just opened up to the concept of online grocery shopping minus the touch and feel factor! The challenges are huge, but there is a lot of scope for growth because:
63 per cent of online grocery shoppers are men who are generally more impatient and quick in shopping for everyday essentials.
Nearly 40 per cent of Indian consumers want to go online for the convenience and wide choices this medium offers.
In the Rs 2,700 crore e-tailing market, food and grocery is negligible as of now, with electronics, lifestyle, books etc dominating the products retail. Hence there is a lot of scope to develop a loyal customer base and expand the online grocery market.
What is your return and refund policy?
We accept returns up to 4 days from the date customer receive order. Our return policy does not cover perishable items like mangoes, vegetables, fruits, meat and opened grocery food items, etc.
Farmers’ gain
In order to improve supply chain and ensuring low wastage, Nature’s Feast has tied up with the Indian Farmers’ Association. “With our infrastructure and distribution strength, our supply chain operations help minimise wastage of fresh fruits and vegetables, rice, wheat crop thereby maximising pay for the farmers’ produce,” says Tejaswani.
Nature’s Feast also implements various initiatives like contract farming, crop planning and management for farmers, and career guidance for farmers’ children.
“Every farmer dreams of giving his son/ daughter good education. We provide career guidance to farmers’ children, especially the underprivileged girl child. We make the children aware of various career paths, educational facilities and government schemes. If all things fall in place, we aim to create a school for the children of our associate farmers,” says Tejaswani and adds that Nature’s Feast has decided to contribute five per cent of gross mango sales towards drought relief work in Maharashtra.