Tata’s BigBasket Enters The Qcommerce Segment With BBNow

Tata-backed grocery delivery platform BigBasket has become the latest to join the bandwagon of instant delivery service with BBNow. With the launch of its 10-20-minutes grocery delivery service, BigBasket joins the qcommerce segment alongside the existing players such as Swiggy, Blinkit, Zepto and Dunzo.

BigBasket’s BBNow offers deliveries within a radius of 1.5-2.5-km with access to inventory comprising over 3,000 products across categories including ready-to-cook and eat, beverages, fresh fruits and vegetables, cleaning, beauty and hygiene and more.

BigBasket is rapidly scaling its qcommerce coverage, and BBNow comes alongside its already existing BBExpress service that offers deliveries within an hour, in a 6-km radius, with a choice of more than 8,000 products.

According to Hari Menon, cofounder and CEO at BigBasket, there is a huge consumer base who makes unplanned purchases, top-ups and impulse purchases, apart from consumers who plan and buy their monthly groceries from BigBasket. 

“For impulse and emergency purchases, the BBNow service with its 10-20-minute delivery window is a great option, and for unplanned buyers who are not in extreme haste, we have BBExpress delivery within an hour of order placement,” said Menon. 

“Our aim is to fulfil consumer needs in an ethical, sustainable, and reliable manner,” he added.

As per an Oct 2021 report, BBNow was planning to stock up top-selling essentials that add up to 2,000 stock keeping units (SKUs). 

Though BigBasket has not put a cap on the number of products to be delivered from BBNow and BBExpress, the typical order sizes on these qcommerce services average between 3-5 products and about INR 400, the company said in a press statement. 

BigBasket thinks that having complete control over supply chains and inventory is crucial to its success. Thus, instead of relying on third-party stores to deliver, the company has built its own network of dark stores.

BigBasket’s total operations have expanded to 40 cities in India, recording about 15 Mn customer orders per month.

However, the company joins the instant delivery segment at a time when the segment has attracted many to test the water. Yet, raising concern about the safety of the delivery executives has also been surfacing.

For example, when Grofers rebranded itself to BlinkIt and launched its 10-minute delivery programme, it received a lot of criticism alleging mistreatment and harassment of delivery partners. In another case, food delivery startup Zomato also had to face questions when it launched its 10-minute food delivery service.

Recently Anand Mahindra agreed to a tweet from Pramesh CS, director of Tata Memorial Hospital who called this 10-minute grocery delivery ‘inhuman’.

While on one hand Tata is putting money behind quick commerce with BBNow — integrated into Tata Neu app as well — on the other, it is also advising Indians to choose ‘slow commerce’ in its ads for Tata Cliq, its luxury shopping portal. And there lies the dichotomy. 

As per a recent Inc42 report, this dichotomy best explains the hedged bets of many of the players in this space, as they look to grab a piece of the massive opportunity — $5 Bn by 2025 in India.

Besides, as per a 2021 report estimate, the Indian egrocery market is estimated to touch $22 Bn by 2025, which was estimated to be at $3 Bn in 2021.

Of this $3 Bn market, BigBasket was the leader with a lion’s share of 37%, followed by Grofers (now BlinkIt), which had a 13% market share. The report said BigBasket’s market share was almost the same as the combined share of Amazon (15%), BlinkIt (13%) and Flipkart (11%).