In India, customers were used to the idea of purchasing markets in shops. BigBasket.com, India's first online grocery retailer was set to break this mindset. Customers were signing up at a competitive rate based on word-of-mouth. With the commitment to provide a top quality merchandise array at competitive costs, BigBasket successfully supplied last mile delivery to customers across Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai. While conventional brick and mortar grocery store retailers were fighting, BigBasket became the first on-line grocery retailer to report a breakeven in March 2014 in one of the cities where it operated.
Brick and mortar grocery retailers had began focusing on a hybrid model and analysts believed that hybrid models had more profit potential than pure on-line market retailers. Regardless of this, BigBasket had arranged financing from venture capitalists, receiving the highest-ever amount of Series A capital among the internet retail sector in India. BigBasket leveraged advanced, customer-centric policies that not only fostered customer self-confidence but in addition enhanced overall profit margins. Was the breakeven a short term phenomenon for BigBasket or would it reach similar performance in other cities? Would on-line grocery store retailing be rewarding in the long term? Arpita Agnihotri is associated with IBS, Hyderabad. Saurabh Bhattacharya is affiliated with IBS Hyderabad.
This is just an excerpt. This case is about STRATEGY & EXECUTION
PUBLICATION DATE: June 30, 2015 PRODUCT #: W15263-HCB-ENG
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