Flipkart Wholesale, the digital B2B marketplace of India’s homegrown Flipkart Group, on Monday announced the expansion of its operations across seven cities in Bihar with an aim to offer local fashion retailers a safe and seamless platform to buy apparel and footwear with doorstep delivery.

The Flipkart Wholesale app will now be available for fashion retailers in Patna, Purnea, Katihar, Munger, Madhubani, Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur, with the expansion to other cities in Bihar planned in the coming months.

With this launch, Flipkart Wholesale digital platform will also give a boost to MSME fashion suppliers and artisans in the region through pan-India supply chain integration and help keep their businesses operational by offering a lively marketplace for them to sell their products, a company statement said.

Santosh Kumal Mall, IAS, Secretary, IT, Government of Bihar, said, “We congratulate Flipkart Wholesale for entering Bihar in the first year of its operations. We hope that the B2B platform boosts the livelihood of local fashion retailers in our state through a safe, digital means to buy quality merchandise.”

Adarsh Menon, Senior Vice President and Head – Flipkart Wholesale, said, “Bihar is an important state for us, and we are excited about growing our footprint here. At Flipkart Wholesale, our key goal is enabling the digital transformation of kiranas and MSMEs using locally developed technology and strong supply-chain capabilities. We are confident that this technology-driven platform in Bihar will help local businesses create new livelihood opportunities, boost the local economy, and build a more resilient retail ecosystem.”

Fashion retailers in Bihar, who are not able to travel to fashion hubs for sourcing products post the outbreak of COVID-19, can come on board the Flipkart Wholesale app, for a wide selection of men’s wear, women’s wear, kidswear and footwear from hundreds of sellers across all the fashion mandis of India such as Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Kanpur, Delhi, Surat, Agra, Tirupur, among others.

Since its launch with the fashion category in September last year, Flipkart Wholesale has expanded to over 3,000 pin codes, engaged with hundreds of resellers and enabled over 7 lakh listings for footwear, accessories and clothing for retailers.

Flipkart Wholesale customers have access to an easy credit facility to manage cash flow, a wide range of Flipkart assured quality products, simple order returns and speedy product delivery directly to their shops with an easy order tracking facility. They can also leverage micro-market level B2B and B2C insights from the Flipkart ecosystem to better understand customer demands specific to their area so that they can buy and sell the right products.