Tata Group-owned BigBasket’s move into offline retail is aimed at bridging the gap between offline and online experiences, as well as support its ambitious expansion plans amid rising competition in grocery retail, said data and analytics company GlobalData. The move comes at a time when consumers in India continue to opt for offline stores for their grocery needs. It will allow BigBasket – a digital-first retailer – to expand its customer base in the country, the report said. “The digitally-native grocer (BigBasket) intends to follow a channel-agnostic approach to improve its customer brand engagement, thus spurring higher conversion and engagement rates,” said Suneera Joseph, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData.
Even as shopping habits after the pandemic have accelerated online sales, consumers are now returning to offline shopping. GlobalData substantiated the trend with its Q4 2022 survey wherein 59 per cent respondents said their spending on food and drinks at supermarkets and large retail stores was very high compared to 55 per cent in Q3 2022. BigBasket forayed into offline retail space in 2021 with tech-driven, self-serviced outlets in Bengaluru, and piloted its large format supermarket model in Hyderabad in December 2022.
“With competition heating up, many direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands across retail, CPG, personal care, and cosmetics industries are increasingly venturing into the physical store space to increase their visibility and reach an untapped consumer base that continues to prefer a touch-and-feel shopping experience,” said Suneera Joseph. BigBasket, however, had specified that the SKUs it carries in the physical stores will be a tenth of its online stores, “signifying the importance of online sales despite its omnichannel focus”.
BigBasket is also considering filing for an IPO by 2025 after being valued at $3.2 billion, per a Bloomberg report. The online supermarket’s Chief Financial Office Vipul Parekh, had later in an interview, said that BigBasket is open to more fundraising before getting listed. BigBasket has raised $200 million during December 2022 from its primary investor Tata Digital. BigBasket competes against the likes of Amazon, Reliance and Flipkart in the online retail segment.
