Why did Licious cross the road?

livemint.com:

Mint caught up with the 40-something culinary expert in a busy market in the city’s Mahadevapura locality, she was about to enter a shop selling poultry and mutton. Asked why she was buying meat in person when she could do it from the comfort of her home, Geetha shot back, “Why would I go online when I can get fresh meat from the shop near my house?" At a time when they have grown accustomed to placing orders online and getting all their needs delivered to the doorstep, the vast majority of India’s carnivores steadfastly continue to buy their meat and seafood at neighbourhood outlets.

Like Geetha, they have little interest in shopping for their animal protein online. And so, despite the emergence of direct-to-consumer (D2C) online retailers such as Licious, Freshtohome, Zappfresh and Meatigo over the last decade, the offline trade still has a stranglehold over India’s $31 billion (an industry estimate) meat and seafood market, commanding a share of nearly 99%.

To put that in perspective, the size of the online industry was a mere ₹2,500-3,000 crore, less than half a billion dollars, in 2023, according to Satish Meena, an independent e-commerce analyst and advisor at research platform Datum Intelligence. While no data is available on its breakup today, a 2021 study by consulting firm Redseer reported that seafood accounted for more than two-thirds—70%—of the overall market, followed by poultry at 16%, and mutton at 11%.

Pork and other items made up the rest. The composition is unlikely to have changed much in the last three years.