At a time when urban consumers are increasingly turning to quick-commerce platforms for shopping, Apollo 24/7 is looking to scale up its 19-minute delivery and ramp up same-day deliveries services. The company began piloting 19-minute delivery a few months ago and currently offers it across four cities and expects to expand this service across 20 cities by the end of the year. It also has aggressive plans to expand its outlook network.
Apollo 24/7 is an omni-channel digital healthcare platform that offers medicine delivery, diagnostic tests, doctor consultation, health information and wellness plans.
“We began the pilot of 19-minute delivery about three quarters ago in Gurgaon. Currently, we are offering in Delhi-NCR region, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata. We are in early stages of piloting it in Chennai and Mumbai. We expect to offer instant delivery services in 20 cities by the end of the year,” said Madhivanan Balakrishnan, CEO, Apollo Healthco Ltd and Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Apollo Group.
With this expansion, the company expects 30-40 per cent of the online demand to shift to instant deliveries, he added.
Currently, the group operates over 6,500 outlets in more than 40 cities.
“Our same-day delivery rate pan-India currently stands at around 80-85 per cent, and we aim to increase it to 90 per cent soon. Over the next year, we expect the top 20 cities to offer a good combination of quick delivery and 90 per cent delivery within the same day,” he added.
Eyeing expansion
With a wider assortment, the platform hopes to garner consumer traction not only for medicines but also for other health and hygiene products.
The group also has plans to add 500-550 outlets over the next one year. “On an average, we expect to open one new Apollo Pharmacy every day in 2025. We will increase store density in high-demand Tier-2 and -3 cities and get an Apollo Pharmacy within 5 minutes of every household in the top cities. This will enable us to scale up quick commerce business further,” Balakrishnan added.
Unlike other quick commerce players, the company has not taken the dark-store route for instant deliveries but is leveraging on the network of Apollo Pharmacies. “ Keeping our outlets at the centre, we are building a holistic model that offers elements of diagnostics, e-pharmacy and consulting besides insurance for a more viable proposition,” he added.
