CityMall

CityMall offers "the price and choice of a supermarket, but the convenience of a local Kirana store" to underserved small-town consumers.

Unlike quick-commerce rivals, CityMall "doesn't charge any handling or delivery fees" and delivers within a day rather than promising minutes-level delivery.

Positioned as an "Online Shop for Grocery, LifeStyle, Electronics, Fashion, Kitchen & More at Best Price" with cash-on-delivery and free delivery.

CityMall targets the 200-300 million new-to-internet users living in India's smaller cities, towns and villages (tier 2, 3 and 4 markets).

Budget-focused grocery customers earning roughly ₹15,000 to ₹80,000 a month ($170-$910) across small towns.

Community leaders aggregate orders from local communities via the app, with next-day delivery and customer collection options, building trust with new-to-internet shoppers through a familiar neighborhood face.

CityMall offers community leaders a storefront on an app and on WhatsApp, building what it calls "India's largest chain of virtual stores on WhatsApp."

Roughly 20,000 community leaders aggregate orders from local communities via the app, across 8 cities as of March 2021, with next-day delivery and customer collection options.

CityMall deploys capital toward "hiring, technology and building its own logistics network, including warehouses and hubs" to serve tier II and III towns.

The company builds a network of Community Leaders to aggregate hyperlocal demand and act as its sales, marketing and last-mile delivery force in small towns.

CityMall's community-networking commerce app and WhatsApp storefronts give community leaders access to a catalog of over 1,800K SKUs for their customers.

CityMall has built its own logistics network including warehouses and hubs, and partners with owners of trucks and small fleets of tempos and commercial vehicles to move goods into small towns.

CityMall has raised $165 million to date across funding rounds, including a $47 million Series D led by Accel at a $320 million valuation.

CityMall buys goods directly from suppliers and is building private labels and partnerships with manufacturers to offer goods at lower prices.

Local micro-entrepreneurs act as "Community Leaders" who run virtual storefronts, aggregate neighborhood orders and handle last-mile logistics on CityMall's behalf.

Revenue from product sales accounted for 91.62% of total operating revenue at Rs 391.5 crore in FY24, rising to nearly 96% of operating revenue at Rs 512 crore in FY25.

The remaining share of operating revenue (Rs 35.8 crore in FY24) came from logistics and marketing services.

Procurement of products is CityMall's largest cost line, rising 20.4% year-on-year to Rs 390 crore in FY24.

Employee benefit expenses grew 7.7% to Rs 91 crore in FY24.

Transportation costs were CityMall's fastest-growing major expense line, jumping 45.5% to Rs 56 crore in FY24.

Total expenses rose 17.7% to Rs 615.2 crore in FY24 from Rs 522.7 crore in FY23; CityMall spent Rs 1.44 to earn each rupee of operating revenue.