According to a LocalCircles poll, about 66% of Indian families prefer buying fresh fruits and vegetables from traditional local markets owing to quality concerns and the high pricing of online items.
While an additional 19% of customers purchase vegetables from local vendors, indicating a significant preference for conventional channels, just 7% use online purchasing systems.
“Issues of quality, high prices, difficult returns, and grievance redressal, limited selection are impacting growth of this (online) sector per the survey,” the community social media platform said on Friday. “While some consumers are using these apps to get fast deliveries of a handful of fruits and veggies, most are now buying them from their local market and stores. The value pricing and discounts that were made available by these platforms early on have reduced or gone away thereby leading to prices that are 1.5-2 times of the local markets.“
The poll, which was conducted between September 1 and November 20, garnered over 24,000 answers from customers in 297 districts throughout India.
Despite the convenience of online platforms and applications that bring fresh fruits and veggies to your door, many customers have raised concerns and complaints about quality and returns.
“Quality of fruits and vegetables delivered via online platforms was always average and the return-refund process mostly painful, according to consumers”, said Sachin Taparia, founder, of LocalCircles. “However, due to competitive prices and good discounts, most tended to ignore these shortcomings. With discounts reducing and the risk of COVID minimal, many consumers are now buying a majority of their fresh supplies from the local market, buying only incidentals or topping up via online grocery apps“, Taparia said.
Following the pandemic-related constraints, many customers resorted to online delivery services. As a consequence, the broad acceptance of online grocery increased. However, with the reintroduction of offline shopping, people have returned to a variety of outlets to purchase fresh food.
services like Big Basket, Amazon Fresh, and Jio Mart, as well as subscription services like Big Basket Daily, Big Basket Currently, Milk Basket, and rapid delivery platforms like Swiggy, are currently popular among customers in most metros.
“Despite many platforms delivering fresh produce at doorstep, consumers are fast moving away from buying fruits and vegetables online, largely due to reduced discounts and value and the quality of produce staying average at best,” the survey revealed.
