Flipkart is entering the product repair, maintenance and installation services space with the launch of Jeeves, the e-commerce platform said on Thursday.

The Walmart-owned company said the services will be available for all home products across categories like mobiles, appliances, tablets, laptops, furniture, consumer electronics, among others, irrespective of where they were purchased from.

With the foray, Flipkart’s Jeeves will directly compete with the likes of Tiger Global-backed Urban Company, which was founded in 2014. The appliance repair category is UC’s third-biggest department, accounting for about 20-30% of the company’s revenue of about Rs 510 crore in financial year (FY) 2022.  

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UC, on an average, earns about 21-23% from each order it services. The take rate would be broadly similar even for Flipkart, analysts estimated.

“There was a great need for customers, they wanted a trusted one-stop platform for all their home appliances’ repair and maintenance after purchasing a product,” Nipun Sharma, CEO, Jeeves, told FE.

Of the 400 cities that Jeeves is operational in, it will operate exclusive stores and staffers in 21 of them while collaborating with over 1,000 service partners, including brands in the rest. In total, Jeeves boasts of about 9,000 engineers and around 300 walk-in service centres across the country.

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Jeeves will also offer doorstep mobile repair services in five cities. At the beginning of the year, Flipkart had also acquired Yaantra, a re-commerce platform that services mobile phones and buys and sells pre-used phones that provide similar services. Yaantra competes directly with Amazon-backed Cashify. Jeeves, in total, will provide 18 services currently and plans to branch out to other categories over the coming months as well.

Asked if Jeeves was positioning itself differently from competitors, Nipun Sharma, CEO, Jeeves, said “We’re not focusing on premium positioning. We always thought the first uptake will be from customers in metro and Tier 1 cities but we’re pleasantly surprised from the response in smaller towns because that is where the customer has absolutely no option and that’s a huge opportunity for Flipkart to access customers.”

Sharma said the repair and installation space was highly unorganised, with only about 10% of the market being catered to by established players. Flipkart had bought stake in Jeeves in 2014.