Online grocery shopping is quickly gaining popularity among Indians. India’s online grocery retail market is all set to touch $10.5 billion by 2023, according to the recent Redseer report. BigBasket is a company that holds a big share in the fast-growing market.
About BigBasket:
BigBasket delivers cooking essentials like ghee, rice, and more, aggregating a total of more than 40,000 items, along with other household products ranging from bread to laundry detergents for the customers. The company delivers all of the products to their doorstep. The goal of the company is to avoid traffic in the supermarket by enabling the ease of online shopping.
To search for new opportunities, the company has launched 3 new businesses such as BB Daily, BB Instant, and BB Beauty.
- BB Daily is a subscription-based service that enables customers to order milk and fresh groceries. The customers have to place the order before 10 pm, and they get the goods ultimately the next day between 5 am – 7 am.
- BB Instant is an Unmanned vending machine that is mostly available in corporate offices, apartment buildings, and tech parks in tier 1 cities.
- BB Beauty helps users to order beauty products and personal care products online.
- BigBasket now launched the Fresho store which is a technology-driven and self-service store for the customers. It serves as an offline retail store of BigBasket that has already opened in Bhuvaneshwar Nagar in Bangalore.
How BigBasket started?
In India, Mr.Hari Menon, Mr.Vipul Parekh, Mr.Abinay Choudhari, Mr.V.S.Sushakar, and Mr.V.S.Ramesh founded one of the first online businesses called Fabmart.com in the year 1999. In 2001, they started online groceries as a part of Fabmart.com. Fabmart.com did extremely well in the early stage. They started a real retail chain of grocery supermarkets called “Fabmall” in India. Finally, it was sold in 2006 and renamed “Adhitya Birla Groups” by many customers. But, In 2011, the founder never gave up and started an online grocery store, BigBasket.com.
How BigBasket works?
BigBasket’s private label business is operated at a lower price and a higher margin. The company offers a lower price for fruits and vegetables. They also provide idli/Dosa batter on their online platform which doesn’t have more competition.
- In the inventory model, the company buys products from suppliers such as P&G, HUL, mills, farmers, etc, and stores the products in the warehouses, then supplies them to the customers on order. BigBasket connects with local farmers and suppliers, in case of the perishable goods. They get goods from them as per order and supply them to the customers.
- In the hyper-local model, to deliver products, BigBasket tie-ups with more than 2000 grocery shops across India within one hour from the neighborhood.
BigBasket operating model is based on its private-label commodities to increase profit and turn profitable. BigBasket doesn’t have the correct roadmap for working. BigBasket is based on a multi-city and multi-vendor model. It collaborates with strong domain knowledge of grocery retailing business together with the technology’s smart use. And it also provides an app for those who like to do shopping online through the mobile app.
BigBasket is also a step ahead in the physical grocery space, which is expected to be a revenue generator soon for the company, with the opening of its physical store, Fresho.
Startup challenges of BigBasket:
Since the resistance level is high, getting the customers to try the service first is one of the main challenges of any startup in India. Despite all factors in the market such as competitors, local vendors, and buying habits, retaining these customers was a challenge there for BigBasket too. Also, it was one of a kind of startup related to groceries, it took time for the customers to place trust in a brand like BigBasket and start using its services.
BBNow:
BigBasket is planning to launch its quick commerce product called BBNow, which is temporarily released by February 2022. The aim is to deliver grocery products to the customers in 18-20 minutes within hyperlocal geography. BBNow is estimated to stock up the best-selling essentials, which include around 2,000 stock keep units(SKUs). The app will utilize BigBasket’s existing dark stores network which is currently prospering across metropolitan cities, a source close to the company stated.
Highlights of BigBasket:
- It has a presence in over 26 cities in India.
- Serves over 125 million customers all around the country.
- It partnered with Alibaba-the Chinese brand.
- BigBasket was thrust into the offline retail segment with Fresho, a technology-driven self-service store that the company launched in Bangalore in November 2021.
- It was allowed by the west Bengal government to supply alcohol along with Amazon in the state.
Future Plans of BigBasket:
BigBasket has strong plans of keeping its post as the biggest grocery delivery platform in India. So, the plan is to set up warehouses in all the 26 operating cities of India to shorten the delivery time to 3 hours. The plan is to increase 60,000 SKUs and double the farmer base to 5,000, by 2022. Moreover, the plan also adds to expanding BigBasket’s private label range by using Alibaba’s muscle to source and import a range of commodities to six times that of large-format supermarkets.
Conclusion:
BigBasket has proven to be the best start-ups and one of the favorite marketplaces. It has become the best online grocery marketplaces, with its majestic and slow and steady approach. It is the essence of trust, wellness and care for all its customers.
