Over the last two months, both BigBasket, an online grocer, and Flipkart, a leading ecommerce platform, have streamlined their delivery processes. This move comes as they face heightened competition from quick commerce firms like Blinkit and Zepto, and as consumer demand for fast delivery continues to rise, extending even to non-metro areas.
In January, Tata Digital-owned BigBasket unveiled its rebranding of the slotted delivery service as “Supersaver,” promising to deliver products in under two hours. This revamped service allows users to pick a slot for their groceries to be delivered.
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Walmart-owned Flipkart has also introduced same-day delivery of products across multiple categories in 20 cities, at no extra charge.
Hari Menon, the co-founder and chief executive of BigBasket, disclosed that the company has replaced all its delivery vans with bikes and now conducts all deliveries from its dark stores.
Additionally, it redesigned its carrying baskets to enhance capacity and eliminated the ‘bays’ utilized for loading vans in its dark stores to accommodate more stock keeping items (SKUs).
Menon stated that the dark stores are now capable of serving over 30,000 SKUs, a significant increase from the previous 10,000.
“Our cost hasn’t shot up, as the blended cost of running a fleet of vans and bikes is higher than the cost of running a fleet of just bikes,” he said. “Removing the van bays means we haven’t spent on expanding dark store size. However, there is a slightly higher picking cost (the cost of employing people who pack and manage dark stores).”
According to Hemant Badri, senior vice president and head of supply chain at Flipkart, the ecommerce giant has implemented “meticulous” planning and utilized technology extensively to introduce same-day delivery services in 20 cities.
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“Our teams have spent months of planning to ensure that orders are fulfilled from the nearest fulfilment centre, minimising transit times and enhancing the overall efficiency of the delivery process with equal delivery efficiency in the metro and non-metro cities,” he said.
The faster delivery timelines are also being extended to tier-2 markets, catering to a substantial consumer base for companies like Flipkart and BigBasket, driven by the growing demand for quicker delivery services.
“Even if they (tier 2 consumers) haven’t experienced quick commerce, the aspirations of buyers in small towns are at the same level as their metro counterparts,” said Ashish Dhir, senior director of consumer and retail at consulting firm 1Lattice.
Improved services by ecommerce firms could also give them an advantage over offline stores in tier-2 and beyond, he said. “The customer in these towns also aspires to access a much wider and updated range of products, which will be much more capital and time intensive for offline players to provide, across categories like apparel and electronics,” Dhir said.
Menon, who oversees the quick commerce service BB Now, mentioned that BigBasket plans to reduce the Supersaver delivery time to one hour. Additionally, the service will be expanded from the existing 45 cities to cover all 70 cities where the company operates.
The aim is to provide BigBasket’s discounted prices within a delivery timeframe similar to that of quick commerce. However, this strategy could potentially lead to cannibalization, he acknowledged.
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BigBasket observed that deliveries made by van had an average order value (AOV) of INR 1,500, whereas the combined fleet of vans and bikes had an AOV of INR 1,250. Menon noted that despite the transition to a bike-only fleet, they have successfully maintained this crucial blended AOV level.
It was reported last week that Flipkart is gearing up to introduce a quick-commerce service within the coming months.
On March 4th, it was reported that Zepto and Blinkit are partnering with brands to incorporate various categories such as fashion, beauty, electronics, toys, and home and kitchen products.
When Flipkart launched same-day delivery in 20 cities, it announced that the service would encompass categories such as mobile phones, fashion, beauty products, lifestyle items, books, home appliances, and electronics.