Udaan, a B2B e-commerce platform, plans to expand its rural market presence through Project Vistaar. In the next 10 to 12 months, the company intends to expand its reach to 10,000 towns and villages. Udaan is opening micro warehouses at each district headquarters and offering one-day delivery to retailers. These micro warehouses range in size from 7,000 to 10,000 square feet and are significantly smaller than a typical Udaan warehouse, which is 50,000 to 80,000 square feet in size.
According to Vinay Shrivastava,Head of FMCG, Udaan, “Project Vistaar is Udaan’s foray into rural India, the company’s initiative has set out to service every market with a population of 3,000 or less. With this project, we aim to make our services and products available in underserved markets in rural India where retailers lack direct access to FMCG products and have to travel to Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns.”
Ever since the implementation of a minimum order value of Rs.499 as a pilot project, Udaan has seen a 40 per cent increase in monthly transacting buyers and an increase in average order value and has partnered with leading FMCG brands to help them grow their businesses. Additionally, this has helped it maintain a thriving e-commerce business, with 20 new vendors joining daily.
In the past four quarters, the company has raised a total of US $ 400 million. It has taken steps to increase its margins and decrease its cash outflow by 60 per cent. Last month, it also restructured its budget and laid off 350 employees.
