\"Survey: Local Markets Preferred for Produce as Discounts Decline on E-Com Platforms\"

HYDERABAD: Many consumers are moving away from buying fruits and vegetables online and are preferring local stores and markets.This has been the trend in the last 10 months and more are likely to do so in the coming months. This is attributable to reducing discounts and quality of produce staying average at best, said a survey by LocalCircles, a community social media platform.

The survey received over 24,000 responses from household consumers in 297 districts of India. Of these, about 66% said they bought fruits and vegetables from the local or weekly markets near their homes. Only 7 per cent indicated they bought them online channels. About 19 per cent got them from vendors coming to their area and about five per cent said they bought them from organized retail outlets.

On the issues buying online, about 73 per cent of the surveyed complained of low quality of fruits and vegetables. About 56 per cent complained of high prices and 51 per cent indicated a difficulty with returns and grievance redressal. However, 12% said the online system worked well and they did not have any issues.

“Due to competitive prices and good discounts, many customers ignored the shortcomings related to quality. With discounts reducing, many consumers are now buying the majority of their fresh supplies from the local market. They are using online grocery apps for incidental buying or top-ups,” said Sachin Taparia, founder, LocalCircles.

The products now are priced 1.5-2X of the local markets. “If these platforms want a sizable share of the fresh produce spends of the households, they should find new ways to reduce the supply chain costs” he said in a release.