Online marketplace AskmeBazaar is launching AskmeFresh, a fresh food delivery marketplace and Askme-Meds, an online health marketplace, to take on established online players in the grocery and pharmacy space.

Through these initiatives, which will go live in the next three months across 38 cities, a customer can order daily essential food items from local retailers and store chains, and medicines from local chemists.

The Gurgaon-based company plans to deliver in 4-6 hours. While AskmeFresh will be competing with the likes of Amazon-Now, BigBasket and PepperTap, Askme-Meds will compete with startups such as Pluss, 1mg and mChemist. The move comes at a time when the online grocery market in India seems to have hit a bump.

Flipkart, Ola and Paytm shut their grocery service, while, Grofers and Peppertap closed their operations in nine and 10 cities, respectively. “Being in grocery business for the last three years, we have perfected our model and have taken a conscious decision to enter now,” said Ankit Jain, CEO of AskmeGrocery. Last year, the company had acquired BestAtLowest, a grocery portal, for an undisclosed amount and integrated it into AskmeGrocery.

Source: The Economic Times