BigBasket.com (Innovative Retail Concepts Private Limited) is Indias largest online food and grocery store.

With over 10,000 products and over a 1000 brands in our catalogue you will find everything you are looking for. Right from fresh Fruits and Vegetables, Rice and Dals, Spices and Seasonings to Packaged products, Beverages, Personal care products, Meats we have it all. Choose from a wide range of options in every category, exclusively handpicked to help you find the best quality available at the lowest prices. Select a time slot for delivery and your order will be delivered right to your doorstep, anywhere in Bangalore, Mumbai & Hyderabad. You can pay online using your debit / credit card or by cash / sodexo on delivery. We guarantee on time delivery, and the best quality! Happy Shopping!

Bigbasket.com allows you to walk away from the drudgery of grocery shopping and welcome an easy relaxed way of browsing and shopping for groceries. Discover new products and shop for all your food and grocery needs from the comfort of your home or office. No more getting stuck in traffic jams, paying for parking, standing in long queues and carrying heavy bags get everything you need, when you need, right at your doorstep. Food shopping online is now easy as every product on your monthly shopping list, is now available online at BigBasket.com, Indias best online grocery store. How do I order??

1. Browse bigbasket.com for products or use the search feature.

2. Add items to your shopping basket

3. Choose a convienient time slot for your delivery.

4. Select a suitable payment option. (cash, sodexo, credit card) and your products will be home delivered as per your order.

Currently operating in the cities of Mumbai, banglore and Hyderabad.

Like Hemrajani, VS Sudhakar and five other friends launched online retail website Fabmart in 1999. Though a few early adopters used the service, they were ahead of the curve and could not move the mass market in terms of volumes. The dotcom bubble burst worsened the scene. "We underestimated the situation," says Sudhakar, who was the first chief executive at India's first internet services company Planetasia.com. He kept the online business on backburner but continued running it in a small way and put all the energies on physical retail chain of grocery stores under the brand name of Fabmall, which merged with another grocery retail chain Trinethra. Seven years later, the chain was acquired by the Aditya Birla Group after the venture reached to 200 stores across Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. Last year, Sudhakar returned to his

original idea of selling grocery onlinea $1-billion opportunity following a casual conversation with serial entrepreneur Krishnan Ganesh. He launched online grocery store BigBasket.com in December last year along with Fabmart co-founders Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, VS Ramesh and Abhinay Choudhari. Ganesh also became an angel investor in the firm. Within a few months of the launch, ChrysCapital co-founder Raj Kondur, who had invested $4 million in Fabmart, dialled in Sudhakar again. Kondur, who had joined Ascent Capital, led a first round funding of $10 million in BigBasket, three months after the startup was launched. BigBasket now delivers food items such as fruits, vegetables, bakery, dairy products, frozen foods and toiletries to over 15,000 customers in Bangalore. The startup's network, which relies on a fleet of Omni vans to deliver products, aims to expand the service to cities such as Hyderabad and Mumbai by the end of this year. BANGALORE/MUMBAI: India's "enterprising couple" K Ganesh and Meena Ganesh, who last year sold their venture education services firm TutorVista to Pearson Group for Rs. 577 crore, has lined up a slew of e-commerce investments. The duo will unfurl their co-promoter stakes in four different ecommerce start-ups in the coming weeks, including an e-grocer BigBasket.com, which is first off the block. Ganesh and Meena will join hands with the country's e-commerce pioneers who floated FabMart.com the poster boys of first generation dotcom boom a decade ago to promote BigBasket for e-tailing of groceries, staples, fruits, vegetables and other perishables. India's second brush with e-commerce has not had any big online grocery play till now, with the leading store chains like Big Bazaar and Reliance Fresh not making significant digital moves. The duo's other investments will include online jewellery store Bluestone, book store BookAdda and a trip planning and travel sharing site Must See India. Most of these are 'platform deals' where the two would work with professional entrepreneurs to roll up e-commerce engines. Earlier, Meena spearheaded global retailer Tesco's plans to for a tech hub in India in 2004. Global venture capitalists have invested $1 billion in the domestic digital consumer story as the number of internet consumers could double from the current 120 million within three years. Ganesh said: "I am quite bullish on e-grocery online. London-based pure-play online grocer Ocado became hugely successful and it went public sometime ago. Tesco.com reports $3-billion revenues from online grocery sales. I have been observing this space sometime now." He declined to comment on the other e-commerce investments at present. FabMart and FabMall (a physical store chain sold to Aditya Birla) co-founders V S Sudhakar, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh and V S Ramesh are the other promoters of the venture. They have also rolled up a small egrocery firm, shopasyoulike, set up by IIM-A alumnus Abhinav Chaudhari some 20 months ago. Sudhakar, a partner, said, "To start, our services are launched in Bangalore, with 50 delivery vans and six warehouses. We will enter four more cities this year and would have covered 20 cities in the next couple of years."

BigBasket will be raising $6 million from venture capitalists to ramp up warehousing, cold chain and logistics facilities. "The success of this business model lies in the effective marrying of technology, internet, domain knowledge and logistics," Ganesh added. Grocery e-tailing is a complex business unlike selling books. On average, Amazon sells 1.6 SKUs (stock keeping units) of books while the figure is 12 SKUs in grocery sales. It is about handling high volume, uneven packages like say a 100gm pack of chilly power, half a dozen eggs, 25 kilo of sona masuri rice or a litre of cooking oil. BigBasket is offering delivery of orders within six hours. The domestic online grocery market has a few smaller players, and BigBasket's differentiator may be the 'scale with speed' plans. Ganesh and Meena are working on similar ramp-ups for their other e-commerce investments. The online jewellery store, for instance, has already received a funding commitment from a Silicon Valley investor. Their two other investments BookAdda and Must See India will be entering a market where there are already well-entrenched rivals.

Connaught Place, bang in the heart of Delhi, isnt normally the kind of place where youd expect an online grocer to set up shop. Real estate is prohibitively expensive, traffic and parking can be maddening and its far away from Gurgaons dense and rich urban jungle. Yet, that is where Aaramshop, one of the fastest growing online grocers currently is headquartered. It can afford to do so because, unlike most of its peers, it has no need for large warehouses, call centres to take orders, engineers or logistics staff. It has just 12 employees. Yet, it home delivers grocery orders in over 25 cities. In comparison, BigBasket, that serves just Bangalore city, has over 120 employees, three distribution hubs and 25 delivery vans. Aaramshops secret: It does not source, stock or deliver any or the products ordered by customers. Instead, it acts as the internet face for any neighbourhood grocery store (kiranas) that signs up with it. Customers who log in to Aaramshop must select the kirana store nearest to them before ordering any products. Within seconds, Aaramshop relays the order via SMS and email to the kirana. And within hours the kirana delivers the order, with the customer paying in cash. The average order size a kirana gets through Aaramshop is around Rs. 570, says Singh, compared to Rs. 100 when customers were directly calling them up. Margins arent the only aspect that makes grocery e-commerce so tough to pull off: Customers expect 24hour delivery. That entails maintaining your own warehouses, significant inventory, and delivery vehicles and staff. A centralised Amazon or Flipkart-style warehouse using third-party couriers is out of the question. Add perishables like fruits, vegetables or meats into the equation and the supply chain costs and risks increase exponentially. Finally, the scale of FMCG distribution and the high service levels of the neighbourhood kirana (who will often home-deliver even one or two items at no extra charge) set impossibly high benchmarks to beat.

hese factors forced Singh to give conventional wisdom a go-by when it comes to revenue. Instead of charging a commission from either its customers or the kirana stores, he charges FMCG brands for running promotions and marketing campaigns on its website. Singh believes FMCG companies dont have the last mile connect with their customers in spite of being the largest ad spenders in the country. Aaramshop is the platform that he sells to them as the solution. Which is why in just our eighth month of business were close to breakeven, he says. BEEN THERE, HEARD THAT BigBaskets is a more conventional approach in the sense that it relies on its own warehouses. Yet, its strategy is disruptive: It includes multiple warehouses and inventory; a wide range of over 6,000 stockkeeping units (SKUs) including fruits, vegetables and meats; and plans to expand to five cities in the first year and 12 in the second. Weve been hearing the kirana argument back since we were starting our chain of supermarkets, says VS Sudhakar, 52, co-founder of BigBasket. Sudhakar was one of the co-founders of Fabmart.com, arguably Indias first e-commerce website (it currently operates as Indiaplaza.com), back in 1999. When Fabmart fell victim to the dotcom crash, he started a chain of supermarkets in Bangalore under the Fabmall brand in 2002. Those got sold in 2004 to Hyderabad-based Trinethra Super Retail in 2004, which subsequently got acquired by the Aditya Birla group in 2007 and became part of its More chain. Having tilted at Indias dysfunctional retail realities for well over a decade, Sudhakar certainly isnt a greenhorn. Tell me, if most Indians love to buy from kirana stores, why would modern retail take off? he asks. He has a point. According to the latest data from global information and measurement company Nielsen, in just over a decade modern retail chains have captured from kiranas nearly a third of the market share in home, personal care and food products in 17 of the biggest urban markets. Besides, says Sudhakar, Im not replacing the kirana, but the need to go to a supermarket! Head to head with modern retailers, I figure we can save 10 percent in costs because things like rent, utilities, staff and shrinkage simply dont exist at the last mile for us. And compared to their 3 percent net [profit] margins, I think we can get to 6-7 percent, he says. By virtue of the location and experience of its founders, and given the citys comfort with modern retail, BigBasket currently operates only in Bangalore. Isnt that too small a potential market? Apparently not. Because BigBasket maintains that the monthly grocery spends in the city range from Rs. 400-500 crore, of which modern retail accounts for nearly Rs. 150 crore. Even assuming BigBaskets target is only the latter, thats an annual market of nearly Rs. 1,800 crore. Armed with oodles of venture funding, experience and derring-do, BigBasket is leaving no stones unturned in its race to capitalise on what it sees as the last great frontier in the Indian e-commerce story. Customers can order either via the web or phone. Orders are then automatically fulfilled either from its own inventory or via partners.

Currently BigBasket stocks most provisions (which it cleans and packages under its own brand) while most fruits and vegetables are sourced twice daily from wholesale mandis or Safal, and FMCGs from Metro Cash & Carry. It claims to be shipping nearly 400 orders a day with an average order ranging between Rs. 1,000-1,100. Its a model that will evolve as volumes grow. Over time we will increase the number of vendors for both fruits and vegetables and FMCG products such that any time an ordered item should be available from vendor A, B or C and our technology will automatically route it appropriately, says Sudhakar. Orders are delivered either the same day or at worst, the day after. The person delivering the order is equipped with a tablet PC on which he enters a unique code that is SMS-ed to customers, in order to track delivery times. The tablet also lets him map routes or take instant feedback. Even with all of this, Sudhakar says BigBasket is aiming to break even in Bangalore within 12 months when his daily order volume hits 1,000. HOLY GRAIL TO HOLY SMOKE In many ways grocery is the Holy Grail of online commercea category where significant amounts of money are spent in every household, week after week, buying the same set of products. Most consumers have no desire to waste their time driving to a store, walking through aisles and standing in crowded checkout counters. In theory its a category ripe for digital disruption. Yet multiple failed experiments in country after country over the last decade have proved that theory is near impossible to implement. To begin with, profitability must be built into the DNA of an online grocer right from day 1. For, while a website can sell books or mobile phones at a slight loss in the hope of winning a customer over the long run, in groceries the razor-thin margins rule that option out. Over a period of time, profitability must cover three milestones: At the unit (order) level, at the customer level and the business level. There arent too many synergies a firm will get by spreading to multiple cities, unlike say, a Flipkart that can service literally the entire country from a few centrally located warehouses. In fact, early and aggressive expansion is exactly what destroyed firms like Webvan. Business models need to be proven and profits need to be generated at a city, or even a locality level. Another sure-fire way to crash and burn is spending too much on acquiring new customersusually the biggest cost element for an online grocer. The way to avoid this is to resist the urge to splurge on generic TV or web advertising and instead run targeted local advertising on, say, radio and below-the-line promotions within specific areas. Judiciously choosing which products to stock themselves and which ones to purchase after consumer orders, is another critical area. Unsold inventory is a slow and sure poison that can kill even mature businesses. Being technology-driven businesses, there is also the tendency to overestimate its abilities and hence, overspend. One of Webvans most vivid acts before going belly up was to place a $1 billion order to build a warehouse!

The final tripping point is the cost of delivering orders. Thanks to the low benchmarks set by kirana stores and other e-commerce websites for home delivery, online grocers have to deliver large and heavy orders for free or at best, Rs. 20-30. Where the cookie crumbles is the cost of logistics which makes sense only when scaled up over, say, a five year period. The margins in this category are so low that you literally run out of money the moment youve travelled 5 kilometres to deliver an order, says Future Groups Mall. Fingers burnt and lessons learned, Mall now believes the only model that will work in India is a network of physical stores integrated through a centralised online order booking system. He says Future Group will have such an operation shortly. Then there are risks beyond anyones control: If one madman gets funded by a mad VC and plays the discounting game, that might derail the entire sector for two-three years. Thankfully there dont seem to be any such madmen around. As for Ascent, the company it has chosen to fund is run by a bunch of battle-hardened retail veterans and a canny entrepreneur with a Midas touch. In two years we want to be Rs. 100 crore in revenue. How many e-commerce companies have done that in India? asks Sudhakar.

BigBasket Groceries at your Doorstep

We are only a generation ahead of those who had to walk miles to get their basic amenities. Growing Internet usage, online shoppers and Younger population might have prompted few business minds to see this as a big opportunity. As a result, many start-ups rushed in but could not expand into a larger scale and eventually failed.

Sensing the market space, Bigbasket was born as a brainchild of entrepreneurs by VS Sudhakar, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh and VS Ramesh. The profiles of these people (they had set up Indias first ecommerce site FabMart.com in 1999, and then established the Fabmall-Trinethra chain of more than 200 grocery supermarket stores in southern India) invited venture capitalists and Ascent Capital was more than to be happy to invest $10 million. Making headlines all over the country of being the first online grocery retailer to get funded by an institution, it had quickly established itself as the e-grocery company with its own logistics service currently operating only in Bangalore. BigBasket offers over 6,000 products in all categories and claims to have 32 orders with average billing of Rs.1200. The company has 50 delivery vans and six warehouses. The e-grocer just launched operations in Bangalore and plans to expand to the top five metros by the year end. It had already set up plans for Hyderabad. Targeting the right people: It is important for any organization to know its customers and its target audience. Bangalore consists of 63.2% of people less than 28 years old. With demanding MNC jobs and Post Graduate courses, they do not want to go out shopping. They want comfort in an affordable manner. Talking of the MNC jobs, we have families that consist of working husbands and wives. Elder people find it hard to stand in long queues of supermarkets. Though, this segment is relatively on the small scale, says its CEO Mr.Hari Menon. Pricing and Delivery: It had affordable pricing compared to that of prevailing supermarkets and hypermarkets. You can place the order and it will be delivered in two slots the following day. They operate in four slots:

S1 7am to 9am S2 11am to 1pm S3 3pm to 5pm S4 7pm to 10 pm

They check their orders at 6 AM and 1 PM every day. Orders placed until then are fit into the slots according to the customers convenient time. They have 3 Hubs in Yashwanthpur, Bannerghatta Road and Whitefield from where the orders are displaced to the customers. All these facts said and done, BigBasket boasts of something more; the employees are more dedicated and are passionate about the organization. Exceeding their expectations within two quarters, BigBasket is set for bigger heights operating in untapped market. And also with an early mover advantage and an experienced top management team, BigBasket has the potential to be the NEXT BIG THING in the fast growing e-commerce industry.

Bigbasket.com has ranked #33,351 in the world according to Alexa website ranking. Bigbasket.com has Google pagerank #3. The estimated website net worth based on it's traffic value and online website advertisement revenue alone is around $72,232. Bigbasket.com receives 32,983 pageviews per day and generates nearly $98.95 in daily ad revenue. Bigbasket.com has recently shown a 3.24% in growth in the traffic rank. The average page load time is 1 seconds, which is faster than 62% of sites around the world. Bigbasket.com haswebsite backlinks from #163 website. Bigbasket.com has a popular site score rating of 2 out of 5 Stars. Bigbasket.com appears to be hosted in Singapore. Bigbasket.com hosted on linode.com.

Delivery Information
BigBasket.com's delivery systems are uniquely designed to provide you the abiliy to select a convenient time to receive your purchases either during the day or night. You can pre-book your delivery slot during check-out and be assured that the goods will be delivered as per your booked slot. To maintain the freshness and quality of frozen, chilled & fresh food we have equipped our delivery van's with multi temperature reefer units and cold storage devices which maintains frozen and chilled range temperatures.

Delivery slot:
BigBasket.com provides a unique service and promise of delivering the goods in 2-3 hour window based on the delivery slot selected by you. This ensures certainty and aids in planned purchase of your household needs and eliminates long waits staying at home without knowing the exact time of delivery or even missing your delivery. You can choose to receive your order the same day in the 4:30 pm to 7 pm or 7:30 pm to 10 pm slot or on any day upto 6 days from the date of placing the order. Currently we offer 4 delivery slots in a day; 7 am to 9:30 am, 10 am to 12:30 am, 4:30 pm to 7 pm & 7:30 pm to 10 pm. You can check the availability and book your delivery slot at the time of checking out. For your convenience we make deliveries on all 7 days in a week and 365 days a year with no holidays!

Order Cutoff time:

In order to facilitate timely picking and delivery of all orders we follow a cutoff time for each delivery slot. To be able to pick a delivery slot the order needs to be placed before the cut-off time for that particular delivery slot. The cut-off times for delivery slots are given below:

Delivery Slot 7 am - 9:30 am

10 am - 12:30 pm

Cut off time

1 pm the previous day

1 pm the previous day 6 am the same day 6 am the same day

4:30 pm - 7 pm 7:30 pm - 10 pm

For e.g. Customers placing orders after the cut-off time of 6 am on any day would not be able to book for delivery the same day in the 7-9:30 pm slot.

Delivery Charges:
We levy very nominal charges for the delivery of the orders and the delivery charge is based on the order value as per the table below:

Order value

Delivery charges

Rs. 1000 and more Free Delivery Upto Rs. 1000 Rs. 20 (Rs. 25 in Mumbai)

Rammurthy's trip ended nearly twenty minutes later at the doorsteps of a customer-mother of a three-year-old who hates to spend the little spare time she gets during weekends at the supermarket. During the drive, the 28-year-old management graduate , who now handles a small team for online retailer Bigbasket.com, started explaining how his company manages to keep near-zero inventory and fulfils hundreds of orders everyday. Online food and grocery retailing, fairly mature in the West and showing lot of potential in growth markets like China, has not been able to capture the fancy of Indian shoppers yet. Things, however, may be changing as a new generation of wellfunded online firms -Bigbasket.com is a key example -- are using simple end-to-end technology solutions to offer deep discounts on grocery items, predict customer behaviour and keep a tight leash on expenses. With technology playing a key role, they are trying to make a dent in the estimated $343billon food and grocery market in India. For example, these firms use a supplychain technology that allow customers to place orders through multiple channels and later predict what a customer is likely to order.

Combined with applications that track everything from the time an order is placed to delivery and devices that help during procurement, technology is helping these firms to make a compelling and convenient offer to the tech-savvy shopper. For these online retailers, the most important tech application is the ability to predict customer behaviour which lets them reduce inventory and thereby, cut costs. For instance, while a traditional retailer might have to stock his monthly offtake of atta at least three weeks in advance , an online retailer ends up stocking it for less than two days. "That is mostly analytics," says Ambuj Jhunjhunwala, the founder of Mygrahak.com which sells food and grocery online in Delhi. Predicting customer needs helps them to plan in advance and procure based on needs. Need-based procurement works ideally well with perishable goods like food not to talk about saving expenses on storage space, which is a large part of expenditure for a traditional retailer. Analytics also involves knowing the customer better which helps retailers to make tailor-made offers for customers and increase sales. Online retailers can also eliminate a large part of their frontline staff because customers usually help themselves. Typically, large format brickand-mortar stores spend much of their attention to figure out customer behaviour on the shopping floor and arrange goods so that they catch customer attention. This can now be automated as the platform generates enough data about individual preferences. "You have complete control over knowing what your customer is buying and great level of predictability. The stickiness of forecasting can go up as you use technology to predict," says Anand Ramanathan, Associate Director at KPMG. Shoppers, whose experience of buying grocery online has been good, tend to very loyal. For example, Asha Liju, a clinical research professional from Bangalore buys her grocery online. This is the second time I'm buying online because its simple and saves me nearly 10 kilometres of travel," she says. Here again, technology plays a key role. Grocery buying is mostly a repetitive task something technology is known to do well. For instance, when a shopper logs into the account, a history of previously bought items makes it easier to pick instead of going through the motion all over again. "At each step, simple technology is helping us save time and money," says Abhinay Choudhary, co-founder of Bigbasket.com. Bigbasket.com, which now has 100 people on its rolls, will supply anything from milk products to fresh fruits among 7,000 other items at your doorstep at competitive prices within a few hours of placing an e-order. "Our delivery vans even have cold storage facilities. This is very new but if we do it right, it will be big," says Choudhary. His earlier venture was shopasyoulike, a similar food and grocery store catering to residents in Whitefield, Bangalore. 25-year-old Jhunjhunwala's Mygrahak.com now claims that they process nearly 15,000 orders a month. "The average order size is Rs 1,250- Rs 1,300.

Last June, when the e-commerce sentiment in India was high, five individuals decided to make a dash for it. Their proposition, though, wasnt fashion or white goods, but groceries: a category four of them had ambitiously attempted in 1999 when they co-founded Indias first online store FabMart.com, much ahead of market readiness. However, this time when Hari Menon (50), Vipul Parekh (48), VS Ramesh (55), and VS Sudhakar (51), the team behind erstwhile FabMart.com (now Indiaplaza.in) reunited to launch an egrocery store, they knew the opportunity and timing was ripe for success. Bengaluru-based BigBasket.com launched in December 2011 after raking in a fifth founding team member Abhinay Choudhari (41) and his 12-month-old startup ShopasULike.com, also an e-grocery store running as a pilot in Whitefield, Bengaluru. We got a platform, processes, a team of 20, and some supplier relationships, Menon, CEO and Head-Merchandising, BigBasket.com says explaining the partnership, which didnt involve any exchange of money. By February 2012, they raised Rs. 50 crore ($10 million) from PE fund Ascent Capital, sufficient for threefour years and to take business to Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad. This is an atypical investment for us. We are looking at this as organized retail rather than e-commerce, Raj Kondur, Partner, PE fund Ascent Capital says. Stocking up In six-odd months since inception, business at the e-store has grown quite fast, thanks to the vast experience and deep domain knowledge of the founders. It currently services 400 orders a day (Bengaluru only), backed by an inventory of 7,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) split across 129 categories. At an operational level, it works on a hub and spoke model. The firms own warehouse to stock products will be operational from August 2012, by which time it hopes to have 10,000 SKUs. Till now, the startup has been sourcing goods daily which are sent to its three sorting centers in Whitefield, Yeshwantpur and Bannerghatta that together cover all four zones in the city. Here, orders are segregated to be delivered to customers in company-owned vehicles. We buy FMCG products from Metro cash and carry, fruits and vegetables are sourced from Safal and our own suppliers in Hoskote. For staples too, which we stock, weve set up our own supply chain, says Menon. In case of unavailability, BigBasket.com buys directly from the market. We want to work on getting fill rates right at the moment, he says. Post-August 2012, BigBasket.com will go deeper into the supply-chain as it starts sourcing directly from companies and mills. This will change margin dynamics, affirms Kondur. For the long term, the firm plans to increase warehouse space to 30,000 square feet capable of stocking 15,000 SKUs. This is a complex category and execution-intensive, requiring both retail and technology experience, a combination thats hard to find. This team has 100 years of experience between founders, says K Ganesh, serial entrepreneur and co-promoter BigBasket.com. Double challenge So far, Menon says, they are challenged on two fronts. The first and most pressing is to get fill rates right, which currently stand at 90-95 percent for BigBasket.com. Consumers are expecting to get a 100 percent fill rate and that puts pressure on us. People buy online for convenience and even if one item is short, they dont mind purchasing everything offline, he highlights. Second is the problem of suggesting alternatives for stock-outs and at present, BigBasket.coms platform doesnt have the intelligence to do so. For the time being, its tackling the issue by mentally preparing

customers before delivery. Not surprisingly, the company has invested heavily in technology, especially for back-end logistics. A routing software helps them divide the number of orders serviced by each van, which are fitted with GPRS systems to monitor movement in real-time. Delivery boys carry tablets where customers punch in PIN numbers to confirm receipt of order, says Choudhari, Head, Customer Experience. Theres no minimum order value and they charge Rs. 20 as delivery charges for orders up to Rs. 1,000. Anything above this is delivered free. Customers have the option of four time slots for delivery. We hope to touch 1,000 orders a day by November 2012, Menon says. Customer demographics For 36-year-old Amrita Paul, her first tryst with online shopping was on ShopasULike.com, in end-2010, and she has continued as a customer even after it rebranded as BigBasket.com. Ive encountered stockouts only twice and the teams always been quick to suggest alternatives or take an order for the next day. They take great care in selection of vegetables and fruits, which arrive well-packed, says a satisfied Paul. Adds Harmeet Kaur who shops weekly: They specially sourced a particular brand of ketchup I requested for.Broadly, its customer demographics are reasonably affluent, dual working households that purchase anywhere between Rs. 1,000-5,000 worth of groceries every month. Theres no great market for us in tier II or III cities yet, affirms Choudhari. In Bengaluru, were finding it difficult to break the market in categories like staples, where traditional households prefer going to kirana stores they have a longstanding relationship with, Menon admits. While its marketing efforts have been minimal, the firm has been working around doling out free products, like rice, with the aim of converting such customers. The startup is also targeting B2B clients and has already acquired five thus far. Now keen to expand its footprint further, BigBasket.com has picked Navi Mumbai and Hyderabad as new markets to enter, initially, and has already appointed respective heads to oversee operations. We chose one big city and one small in the south. Bengalurus model can be copy-pasted in Hyderabad or Chennai as these markets are similar. Mumbai and Delhi are tough animals, Menon notes. Ganesh foresees challenges in last mile delivery as they scale to other cities, but Menon is optimistic given their investment in technology, a big differentiator, in addition to the founders deep understanding of the domain. When I go to 3,000 orders a day, I need to build processes supported by technology to fulfil the demand, he says.

E-grocery store BigBasket.com, currently operating in Bangalore, intends to expand its footprint to Mumbai and Hyderabad by October this year. It has further expansion plans and by March 2013, BigBasket will also cater to customers in Delhi and Chennai. Talking exclusively to Techcircle.in, co-founder Hari Menon said, The e-store model, as well as the related systems and processes, will be the same as the Bangalore one. But once we start operating in other cities, we will have city-specific SKUs, apart from common SKUs.

Right now, BigBasket has about 8,000 SKUs, but in the coming 5-6 months, the e-store will have 15,000 SKUs. We will still focus on grocery, food, non-food and other FMCG products. But there will be more items in the household category, such as dinnerware, kitchenware and more, said Menon. Interestingly, the entire last-mile delivery is owned by BigBasket, which has its own fleet of 30 delivery vans. Currently, all the goods are stocked in a Bangalore-based warehouse and depending upon orders, these are transported to the nearest hub. The company has three hubs, in Whitefield, Bannerghatta and Yashwantpur, to cover the entire city. When it starts its operations in Mumbai, BigBasket will have a registered office and a warehouse in the city, as well as four hubs in Vasi, Goregaon, Mulund and Bandra. In Hyderabad, too, it will have a warehouse and an office besides three hubs located in Shivapalli, Boyanapalli and Kukatpally. Once the company starts its operations in these cities, it will have 20 delivery vans in Mumbai and 15 in Hyderabad. With an average order value of Rs 1,200-Rs 1,250, BigBasket claims to have 450 orders per day. In March 2012, BigBasket raised $10 million in its first round of funding from private equity firm Ascent Capital. The transaction is believed to be the first institutional investment in an online grocery retailer and the largest Series A round in an e-tailing firm in India. Prior to that funding, serial entrepreneur couple K. Ganesh and Meena Ganesh (who sold TutorVista to Pearson last year) also invested in BigBasket. The company is utilising the money for expanding to other cities, enhancing technology, hiring new talents and scaling up marketing activities. Currently a team of 150, BigBasket will hire more people to increase its strength to 500 by the end of 2012. We will be doing city-specific marketing as we are not operating nationally. We will focus on belowthe-line (BTL) activities in malls and apartments besides poster and banner campaigns, radio ads and some print ads in local newspapers, added Menon. However, in September 2011, they got together to launch the grocery e-tailing business BigBasket.com, roping in TutorVistas K. Ganesh and Meena Ganesh as angel investors. The firm has also raised $10 million from Ascent Capital, which marks the first institutional investment in this space and the largest series A round of funding in an e-commerce firm.

BigBasket.com plans to add products like organic foods, pesticide-free fruits and vegetables, exotic cheese and frozen foods to its inventory, and also wants to feature international brands. The company will also introduce private labels across categories, which will help it spread brand awareness and increase margins. BigBasket.com plans to scale profitably and sees margins improving as it moves across the value chain. At the peak level, when you are buying directly from companies, this category will run at a margin of 20-23 per cent, said co-founder and CEO Hari Menon in an interview with VCCircle. Till recently, Menon was the CEO of IndiaSkills, a joint venture between Manipal Education and UKs City & Guilds. Here are the excerpts: What has changed since you started Fabmall in 1999? One fundamental change is how users have adapted to the Internet as a medium for shopping. The fear associated with online shopping has reduced considerably and in this category, a lot of sales happen through cash on delivery (COD) and Sodexho coupons. Also, people today are much more focused on profitability. Earlier, they focused more on topline and market valuation, driven by an exit perspective. Scaling profitably is critical, though, and thats how a player approaches a business today, as compared to 1999. Plus, we are a lot more networked now, being in this business for the past 8-9 years. How are you sourcing products across categories? Right now, we are dealing in four broad categories. First is staples (rice, dal, spices, etc.) and within a month of starting operations, we have moved to private label. We currently source these from the mandis to one of our suppliers who cleans and packages those. From mandis, we will move further down the supply chain to the mills, and that is how your margins keep rising. One category, which will be a big differentiator for BigBasket.com, is fruits and vegetables. But it will be very difficult to crack. We have a farm-to-home concept where we intend to get the produce directly from the farms, without the intermediaries. Typically, the produce stays at least 24 hours in a store when you see it deteriorating. Right now, we are working with Safal but over a period of time, we will build our network of farming bodies and that will help us ship directly to buyers. Another growing category is frozen meat and dairy products. Then there is FMCG foods and nonfoods (toiletries and personal care). Right now, we deal with the distributors in these categories, but over the time, we will move up the value chain. Currently, we are working closely with Metro Cash & Carry. But once we start building our volume, we will approach these players directly. In fact, we will start approaching the top 8-10 suppliers within the next 6-8 months.

We will also introduce private labels in categories like jams and pickles, but that will be one year down the line. But what about the delivery model? The entire last mile is owned by BigBasket.com. We have our own fleet of 50 vans, which are being commissioned for delivery. We follow a hub-and-spoke model where all the goods are bought and stocked in a warehouse (it will be built as the company moves into direct purchase in the next 6-8 months). The warehouse will then supply to the hubs. We have three in Bangalore in Whitefield, Kanakpura and Yashwantpur and they cover the entire city. From there, the delivery executives (called customer experience managers) deliver the goods in four time slots 7 am-9 am, 11 am-1:30 pm, 3 pm-5 pm and 7 pm-10 pm. The funding we have raised will help us expand into four other cities by December 2012. In the next few months, we will crack the Bangalore model so that we can replicate it in other cities (which are yet to be decided). How is the traction on the site? Whats your average billing? We have launched the site on December 5; so its been a little over three months. At present, we average a little over 300 orders a day and the average value per order is around Rs 1,200, compared to Rs 300-400 for a physical store. This is because customers come to us for monthly purchase, which is a very sticky category. Customers visit us at least twice a month and we expect that to increase with the rise of fruits and vegetables sales. As per the last count we have had, about 3,500 customers have shopped here at least once. You said that when you started Fabmall, you looked at it as a retail business. Do you feel the same about BigBasket.com? This is a business which is much more retail and physical than any other e-commerce business because we have to operate warehouses, maintain hubs and a supply chain, and will eventually deal with more than 250 vendors and carry 7,000 SKUs (stock-keeping units). So if you dont have the retail ingrained and think that you just need e-commerce and technology, youll be dead. You need to understand supply chain really well to run this business. How long a runway does the series A round give you? This round should last us for three years. The whole concept is to scale up profitably. We want to expand to new cities and thats why the capital is required. From an operational perspective, we dont need much capital.

More than half a dozen start-ups have launched online grocery stores in recent months. Working people, happy to have rice, sugar and even organic pepper delivered to their doorstep, may wonder why no one thought of it sooner. But egroceries are a tricky business. The success of online book and gadget retailers is little reason to assume that this sudden smorgasbord will fare well.
Says V S Sudhakar, cofounder, bigbasket.com, "we do not keep any inventory. All orders received before 6:00 am are procured by 9:00 am and delivered by 3:30 pm. To retain freshness of vegetables and fruits we buy directly from the mandi (wholesale market) and that helps us keep prices competitive." Besides, "bigbasket's dump or wastage is low, as only what is ordered online is procured and that helps keeps costs under control," says Sudhakar.

Localbanya.com
It's a question that's been asked many times before - what is it about the local kirana store that makes it almost impossible to replace or replicate online? Many an entrepreneur, both in the West and in India, has tried to crack this conundrum but crashed and burnt. Retailing groceries is the Holy Grail of e-commerce with good reason - margins are miniscule, logistics is a potential nightmare and, worst of all, stocking and/or delivering a basket of perishable goods to customers, sourced from different places, ASAP. And if the fill rate is not 100 per cent - if the basket is not full - customers usually switch back to making their purchases offline. Rowing against the tide, a trio of friends has taken the plunge with what they believe is a business model that will work this time around. Thus, Mumbai's first online grocery store,www.localbanya.com was launched by Karan Mehrotra, Amit Naik and Rashi Choudhary in May 2012. Aimed at young working professionals who have no time to spare, let alone shop for groceries, Local Banya is especially popular among individuals aged between 25 and 40. The Opportunity "I had been thinking of this venture for a long time, and the success of e-commerce sites like Flipkart and Bookmyshow encouraged me further," says Mehrotra, adding that he expects his portal to break even by March-April 2013. Mehrotra, a computer engineer, was willy-nilly involved with commerce early on, thanks to his family business which included distribution for Hindustan Lever and catering services to BPOs. It was only a matter of time before he roped in Amit Naik, a friend and classmate from engineering college; and Rashi Choudhary, who has an MBA in Service Management. The three of them seed-funded their venture with close to Rs 70 lakh, which they raised from personal savings. "Even before we began, we had generated some interest in investor circles but decided against it as we wanted to keep the controls with ourselves," reveals Mehrotra. The Revenue Model Here's the really tricky part - surviving in a failed market. After extensive market research, Local Banya decided against an inventory-based model, nor would it invest in delivery vehicles. "Instead, we decided we would hold a very small inventory and forge tie-ups with wholesalers and cash-and-carry partners

across the city. This brought down our capital investment by 70 per cent as we did not have to spend on warehousing or setting up a retail outlet. Our only major cost to begin with was our server," reveals Mehrotra. Today, Local Banya has just-in-time partners for fresh fruits and vegetables, and 100 strategic tie-ups with retailers across the city. They also partner with offline retailers such as Breadkraft, Bagelwala and Shor Sharaba, which are niche stores. Local Banya has a different revenue-sharing deal with each retailing partner, depending on brand and category. The e-grocer currently offers 4,500 products and intends to take its product suite to 10,500 by March 2013. As for delivery and dispatch, it has 14 delivery boys and four vehicles that are outsourced. It operates out of only warehouse in the western suburb of Goregaon, where dispatch takes place twice a day. Delivery to customers takes place in five time slots, between 9 am and midnight. The Edge Local Banya offers, not just bargain prices but spectacular deals and discounts such as onions and potatoes for Rs 3 a kg. It also enjoys a distinct price advantage even over discounted retail supermarts such as D-Mart and Big Bazaar, as it does not spend on stocking or retailing inventory. So it passes on this price advantage to customers. The other edge over the competition is Local Banya's strong customer service orientation. "Unlike other places, where operations drive customer service, we have customer-service driving operations. We have a core focus team that operates under Rashi. The team knows every last detail of the products being sold and also takes care of data management," adds Mehrotra. He draws attention to a section on the portal that asks for suggestions on products or perishable food items that are hard to find. "Once we had a customer putting in a request for kafir mint leaves. We managed to find it for him and now he is one of our loyal customers!" beams Mehrotra. Naik, an ace engineer at the helm of all technology operations at Local Banya, is another big asset. Under his captaincy, processes are rapidly improving and the initial hiccups of excessive dependence on wholesalers and cash-and-carry partners have disappeared. Today, the start-up has systems in place to carry out live mapping of inventory and on-time delivery is 97 per cent. Why Others Failed Webvan in the US was a basket case and has, in fact, become a case study for failure in the e-grocery space. This start-up used a capital-intensive, inventory-based model, spent $1.2 billion on fully automated warehouses, and invested oodles in delivery vans so they could deliver online orders 24x7. The venture shut down less than two years. In the physical domain, India has had its share of failed grocery store formats like Sangam Direct, which was bought by Wadhwan Retail in 2010. It was a doomed marriage as the Wadhvan Retail grocery outlets, christened Spinach, shut down very soon. Success Stories? In the virtual domain, the Bangalore-based BigBasket.com launched in December 2011 and has made brave strides. Using a combination of a marketplace-cum-inventory based model, the portal has expanded to Mumbai and Hyderabad. Delhi's Aaramshop.com uses an altogether different model, not to mention some really smart thinking. The portal simply offers kirana stores a Web platform to sell their products online, somewhat like a a virtual superstore. Thus, with only 12 employees, this e-grocer operates in 25 cities across India. No sourcing, no stocking, no delivering! The Road Ahead Grateful to have got this far, Local Banya is making plans and projections for the new year. On the cards are four more warehouse-cum-distribution centres, in Bhandup, Govandi, Parel and Borivali, by March 2013. There are no plans to expand their team of 14 delivery boys, who deliver 75-80 orders every weekday.

Local Banya also plans to expand operations to other cities in the next 12 months, and is is already talking to venture capitalists and other investors. But, in the e-grocery business, 12 months could be a lifetime. So New Year wishlist notwithstanding, the start-up is keeping an eye firmly focused on your grocery list - a full basket of fresh produce delivered to your door, and delivered right now!

Challenges and competitors

There is, of course, room for growth. According to consultancy firm Technopak Advisors, food and groceries account for $343 billion (Rs 15.44 trillion; one trillion equals 100,000 crore), or 68 per cent, of the $505-billion Indian retail market. Within this category, the organised food and grocery market, estimated at $12 billion, is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 30 per cent in the next five years. That might explain why 26-year-old Ambuj Jhunjhunwala, who started online supermarket MyGrahak in 2010, wears a confident smile. The entrepreneur, whose family promotes 6Ten, a 300-store retail chain, is unfazed that he has three rivals in the National Capital Region alone (see Grocers Galore, page 72). "The market has room for everyone," says Ajay Mittal, Director, Ascent Capital. His company recently invested $10 million in BigBasket, the only egrocery venture to attract funding. "If people can buy highly touch-andfeel products like shoes or apparel online, why not grocery," asks Vaibhav Goel, founder of three-month-old FamilyKart, which delivers around 20 orders a day in and around Delhi. E-grocers enjoy some advantages over regular supermarkets. They save on costs such as rent, store staff, and managing store inventory in addition to warehouse inventory. Two years ago, 6Ten closed 25 stores that were not doing well. More recently, Future Group's Big Bazaar and the More chain, operated by Aditya Birla Retail, also shut several stores that had turned unviable. "Delivery costs account for 60 per cent of what we would incur on rentals, so we save 40 per cent," says Hari Menon, cofounder of Bangalore-based BigBasket. One reason why no e-grocery startup other than BigBasket has managed to raise money is that margins are wafer-thin. "At a gross margin of 12 to 15 per cent, profitability cannot be more than two per cent," says Gaurav Saraf, Director of Epiphany Ventures, a venture capital firm. The gross margin on fast-moving consumer goods is as low as 14 per cent. On

fruit and vegetables, it is around 16 per cent but shelf life is shorter. This is why many sites, including MyGrahak and FamilyKart, stay away from fresh produce. BigBasket, however, says it has no problem. "Fruit and vegetables are procured only on order, except for those with a longer shelf life, such as potatoes and onions," says Menon. "This reduces loss of stock by three to four per cent." One of the biggest rivals of e-grocers is the local kirana store, which offers home delivery in many cities, often within an hour. But Ascent Capital's Mittal says kirana shops lack the cost advantages to offer customers the best price, and cannot stock a wide range of products. BigBasket tries to consolidate orders in a locality and reach the customer in eight to 24 hours. But is that enough? Manohar Mason, Managing Director of Pentagon Communications, a marketing and consulting firm, doesn't think so. He says: "People can wait for books, but not groceries." E-grocers are more likely to get repeat purchases than online retailers of other products. BigBasket says 65 per cent of its 3,000 customers are repeat buyers. But this also means egrocers must be on their toes. "If you can satisfy a busy customer, you're in for a huge opportunity," says Mason. Many investors doubt whether e-grocers can scale up. "This category cannot rely on a hub-and-spoke model, unlike apparel or electronics," says Mukul Singhal, Vice President of SAIF Partners, a venture capital firm. A book or an iPod can be sent by air across the country more easily than a 10 kg package of groceries. "To reach Rs 100 crore in revenue, you must be present across the country," says Epiphany Ventures's Saraf. "Supply chain challenges are different in Bangalore and Gurgaon. You cannot replicate your model." So, while Jhunjhunwala expects MyGrahak to turn profitable by end-2012, he has no expansion plans. Goel of FamilyKart says scaling up in other cities makes sense only after it has fully penetrated the area it currently operates in. But it is debatable whether volumes alone can make a venture profitable. Started in 2007, Britain's biggest e-grocer, Ocado, executes more than 9,000 orders a day, but struggles to make a profit. California-based Webvan started in 1999 and went bankrupt in 2001. It delivered fresh produce in 26 cities, but ran aground partly because it could not keep its promise of delivery in 30 minutes. TRICKY BUSINESS Margins as low as 2% Supply chain hard to replicate Many items are perishable Scaling up is diffi cult Competition from big retail

To boost margins, Indian e-grocers concentrate on monthly rather than daily purchases. A second strategy is to sell products with higher margins. Margins on pet food, for instance, can go up to 30 per cent. "The contribution of such items to sales is over six per cent, and

we plan to raise it to 15 per cent," says Jhunjhunwala, whose monthly sales turnover averaged more than Rs 1 crore a month in the past year. A third strategy is to sell inhouse brands, which improves margins by 20 to 25 per cent on staples. "We sell 7,000 SKUs, of which 300 are our own branded staples," says Menon of BigBasket. SKU or stockkeeping unit is the retail term for product identification code. E-grocers get fewer deliveries returned than other online sellers - two to three per cent. The overall retail average is over 10 per cent. Most returns are because the customer was not available to receive the package. Chennai-based e-grocer Veggibazaar, which sells fresh produce, asks customers to indicate where orders can be delivered if they are not available - with a neighbour, maybe, or the security staff. Perhaps the biggest threat to egrocers is giants such as the Future Group, which is testing a hybrid model to sell groceries online and in brick-and-mortar stores. Kashyap Deora, President of FutureBazaar. com, the group's online arm, which started selling groceries online in January, says: "We are doing pilots in 30 stores in Mumbai to check the feasibility of shipping online orders from the stores." Saraf of Epiphany Ventures cites the success of British retailer Tesco, which operates offline and online. "It suggests that a hybrid model works best for grocery," he says. "A startup can't compete on procurement with a Reliance Retail, which has the entire supply chain mapped out." Sourcing efficiencies allow big retailers to offer discounts. BigBasket's Menon is undaunted. "Once we have volumes, we'll try to move up the supply chain," he says. But BigBasket is the only e-grocer with funding. Its rivals will not be able to expand unless they attract investment. Newcomers such as FamilyKart are aware the clock is ticking. "We have a small window of opportunity," says Goel. "In a year we will have to be at a level where we can survive even if the big guns enter."

Competition and challenges Groceries, FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) are moving online in this second wave of internet. During first wave of internet era (1995-2001), there was a WebVan, which closed down within 2

years, not without burning $ 1-2B of investors money. Post 2002, eGrocery made recovery in other parts of world and there were successful model like Tesco in UK. 2012 saw a bunch of eGroceries coming to serve us in different parts of India. While ShopVeg closeddown 2-3 months back, it has not deterred existing players like LocalBanya, BigBazar andFarmFreshFrenzy to continue to expand coverage area and SKUs. Aaramshop also has presence in South Mumbai

BigBasket enters
BigBasket boasts of exemplary 2nd time entrepreneur husband-wife duo K.Ganesh and Meena Ganesh at the helm of affairs. This January they announced a big ticket investment $10M [Medianama news] as well from Ascent Capital. Their model of directly procuring fresh vegetables and grains from farmers and put it to our doorstep symbolized a great step forward. So, I was delighted, when I heard their radio ads announcing their advent. They also have special launch offer for 1st 1000 customers 10% off for first year. I went on to witness them do deliveries in Chandivali. They have 7000 SKUs(Source signup email) right now and serve entire Mumbai. Delivery man carries a Micromax mobile running Android OS. There is a built-in enterprise program, in which I was able to view my order. Then, I entered PIN number assigned to my account over there to confirm receiving the order. It is really an excellent example of smartphone usage in enterprise space, as I had tried to look at in an earlier post.

Heres the comparison table of existing players. Lets see how the new entrant stands.
Social Time of Phone Media delivery order also Presence

eGrocery LocalBanya

Inventory

Area Coverage

SKUs

Own + Mumbai marketplace South + model Suburbs

3000 (Will Next day No. Phone *** be 20000 delivery only for (Average) in March reschedule

except Thane and Navi Mumbai 2013 Marketplace model 774 shops in Mumbai (Dec 2012) (Zero inventory) South Mumbai 10000 Inventory of 11 shops (as of Dec 2012)+ Mumbai and Warehouse suburbs

810-8844400

aaramshop (http://www.aaramshop.com/)

Same day No

**** (Good)

BigBazaarhttp://www.bigbazaa r.com/

8000

3 days

Yes, 0922222-1947 ***(Average)

FreshFarmFrenzyhttp://freshfa rmfrenzy.com/

Unknown

Chandivali, Powai, Andheri (E),MIDC, JVLR, Ghatkopar(W) , Vikroli(W), Kanjurmarg (W) Unknown 1 day

Yes, 8080 2222

First the pros.

Shopping for groceries is highly convenient. I just can't be more happier about the time it saves for us. Cash on delivery - the payment method I prefer for products like vegetables/fruits where product quality cannot be guaranteed Friendly return policy - no questions asked. I have returned vegetables and dairy products a couple of times when I wasn't happy about the quality. Such occasions were very few, though Delivery guarantee - when I fix a time slot, they deliver promptly. Once when it was delayed by 30 minutes, they returned 10% of the order amount Vegetables are fruits are very fresh. Bread and Dairy products are always within the expiry date. Coming to the product very easy-to-use, no clutter, no ads organized catalog of products. Initially, navigation was a bit clumsier and one could get lost in the individual product description page and wouldn't be easy to get back to the category page. They seem to have fixed it now, with the breadcrumb display. Time slot that I have blocked used to get released earlier. Now they have fixed this problem and I can hold onto a slot for 5 minutes. Notifications are perfect. I get an email and an SMS as soon as I place an order. When the order is to be delivered on a particular day, I get a SMS notification again which is useful

Being an early customer, I get a 10% discount on the order value. That's a good savings for me. Now, the cons.

When I place an order for a certain list of items, I expect all the items to be delivered. Many times, there were 2-3 items that were either unavailable or weren't delivered. If I need to visit a physical store to buy these items, then the whole purpose of ordering from an online store gets lost The other irritating issue is the quantity. I'm not sure if the delivery guy (or the person who packs the items) even looks at the quantity of an item ordered. If I order 2 packs of a certain item, he delivers only one. Because of these issues, I always go for cash-on-delivery so I don't have to pay for items that were not delivered Search box - doesn't give me the items I search for, though the items are available when you navigate through the menu. For instance, search for Coconut. Product names do not support multiple languages As I mentioned earlier, I get an SMS on the day of delivery but the SMS doesn't contain the amount that I need to pay. It would be good to get this data so I can keep the cash ready My Shopping List - I find this feature to be totally useless. It is a huge list of items that I have ordered since my first order with no categories or any form of organization. It can be categorized based on the same tab structure or based on my frequency of purchase Good-to-have feature - An event can be added to my calendar if I have scheduled a delivery on a specific time slot. Ability to edit my order placed - Would be good to add/modify a few items to an existing order. There can be a cut-off time before which an order can be edited Order status - orders which have been delivered weeks ago still show as "Ready to ship". What's the purpose of this status then? Last but not the least - the plastic trays they use for packing vegetables and fruits look trendy and neat but also a serious concern to our environment. I would be more than happy to return those trays if they can reuse them.

What are the modes of payment?

You can pay for your order on BigBasket.com using the following modes of payment: a. Cash on delivery b. Credit and debit cards (VISA / Mastercard / American Express) c. Sodexo passes on delivery (only for food items)

Are there any other charges or taxes in addition to the price shown? Is VAT added to the invoice?

The VAT is included in the MRP of products. There are no additional taxes added by Bigbasket to your order. The prices you see on our product pages are the prices you pay. There is a delivery charge of Rs. 20 (Bangalore & Hyderabad) Rs. 25 (Mumbai) on orders below Rs. 1000.

When will I receive my order?

Once you are done selecting your products and click on checkout you will be prompted to select delivery slot. Your order will be delivered to you on the day and slot selected by you. If we are unable to deliver

the order during the specified time duration (this sometimes happens due to unforeseen situations) we will credit 10% of your order value to your BigBasket account.

How are the fruits and vegetables packaged?

Fresh fruits and vegetables are hand picked, hand cleaned and hand packed in reusable plastic trays covered with cling. We ensure hygienic and careful handling of all our products.

Delivery is free for orders above Rs. 1000. For any orders below that we charge Rs. 20 (Bangalore & Hyderabad) Rs. 25 (Mumbai) as a delivery fee.

How can I track delivery of my order?

You will be intimated via sms and email at every stage of your order processing, right from order confirmation till the dispatch.

What is the minimum order for delivery?

There is no minimum order for delivery but we charge a nominal delivery charge of Rs20 (Bangalore & Hyderabad) and Rs25 (Mumbai) for orders below Rs1000 in value.
What is a cut-off time and what are the corresponding cut-off timing for each slot?

Cut off time is the time after which the order gets processed for delivery. After this time you will not be able to modify or cancel your order. Cut off time for same day delivery is 6am and cut off time for next day delivery is 1 pm.

Can I add products after the cut off time for a slot?

No, you will not be able to make any changes to your order after the cut off time for your selected slot. However, if you do not wish to buy a product you may return it at the time of delivery and the amount will be credited to your BigBasket account.

When and how can I cancel an order?

You can cancel an order before the cut off time of your slot (1 pm for evening slots and 6 am for morning slots) by contacting our customer support team.

What do I do if an item is defective (broken, leaking, expired)?

We have a no questions asked return policy. In case you are not satisfied with a product received you can return it to the delivery personnel at time of delivery or you can contact our customer support team and we will do the needful.

I am a corporate/ business. Can I place orders with bigbasket.com?

Yes, we do bulk supply of products at special prices to institutions such as schools, restaurants and corporates. Please contact as at corporate@bigbasket.com to know more.

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Services overview
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Eligibility
Services of BigBasket.com would be available to only select geographies in India. Persons who are "incompetent to contract" within the meaning of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 including un-discharged insolvents etc. are not eligible to use the Site. If you are a minor i.e. under the age of 18 years but at least 13 years of age you may use this Website only under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to be bound by these Terms of Use. If your age is below that of 18 years your parents or legal guardians can transact on behalf of you if they are registered users. You are prohibited from purchasing any material which is for adult consumption the sale or purchase of which to/by minors are strictly prohibited.

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BigBasket.com grants you a limited license to access and make personal use of this site and not to download (other than page caching) or modify it, or any portion of it, except with express written consent of BigBasket.com. This license does not include any resale or commercial use of this site or its contents; any collection and use of any product listings, descriptions, or prices; any derivative use of this site or its contents; any downloading or copying of account information for the benefit of another merchant; or any use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools. This site or any portion of this site may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, visited, or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose without express written consent of BigBasket.com. You may not frame or utilize framing techniques to enclose any trademark, logo, or other proprietary information (including images, text, page layout, or form) of BigBasket.com and our affiliates without express written consent. You may not use any meta tags or any other "hidden text" utilizing BigBasket.com's name or trademarks without the express written consent of BigBasket.com. Any unauthorized use terminates the permission or license granted by BigBasket.com.

Account & Registration Obligations

All shoppers would have to register and login for placing orders on BigBasket.com. After registration you may decide to shop by becoming a member or as a non-member. You have to keep your account and registration details current and correct. If you relocate to a new complex where BigBasket.com does not provides its services then you should inform us by writing to customerservice@bigbasket.com. We will make necessary amendments to your customer status and refund unused membership fee if any.

Pricing
All the products listed on BigBasket.com will be sold at MRP unless otherwise specified. The prices mentioned at the time of ordering are the indicative prices and the applicable prices will be the actual prices on the date of the delivery. Although prices of most of the products do not fluctuate on a daily basis but some of the commodities and fresh food prices do change on a daily basis. Since you can place an order upto 30 days in advance from the actual delivery date we need to accommodate for these price fluctuations and therefore any difference in the bill value on the date of placing the order and the bill value as per the prices applicable on the date of delivery will be collected / refunded in cash at the time of the delivery of the order.

Cancellation by BigBasket.com / Customer

You as a customer can cancel your order anytime upto the cutoff time by calling our customer service and we will refund any payments already made by you for the order. If we suspect any fraudulent transaction by any customer or any transaction which defies the terms & conditions of using the website, we at our sole discretion could cancel such orders. We will maintain a negative list of all fraudulent transactions and customers and would deny access to them or cancel any orders placed by them.

Return & Refunds

We have a "no questions asked return and refund policy" which entitles all our members to return the product at the time of delivery if due to some reason they are not satisfied with the quality or freshness of the product. We will take the returned product back with us and so it will save you the hassle of sending the product back to us through post / courier. We will issue a credit note for the value of the return products which can be used to pay your subsequent shopping bills.

You Agree and Confirm

1. That in the event that a non-delivery occurs on account of a mistake by you (i.e. wrong name or address or any other wrong information) any extra cost incurred by BigBasket.com for redelivery shall be claimed from you. 2. That you will use the services provided by BigBasket.com, its affiliates, consultants and contracted companies, for lawful purposes only and comply with all applicable laws and regulations while using the Website and transacting on the Site. 3. You will provide authentic and true information in all instances where such information is requested of you. BigBasket.com reserves the right to confirm and validate the information and other details provided by you at any point of time. If upon confirmation your details are found not to be true (wholly or partly), we have the right in its sole discretion to reject the registration and debar you from using the Services and / or other affiliated websites without prior intimation whatsoever.

4. That you are accessing the services available on this Website and transacting at your sole risk and are using your best and prudent judgment before entering into any transaction through this Website 5. That the address at which delivery of the product ordered by you is to be made will be correct and proper in all respects. 6. That before placing an order you will check the product description carefully. By placing an order for a product you agree to be bound by the conditions of sale included in the item's description.

You may not use the Website for any of the following purposes:
1. Disseminating any unlawful, harassing, libelous, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise objectionable material. 2. Transmitting material that encourages conduct that constitutes a criminal offence results in civil liability or otherwise breaches any relevant laws, regulations or code of practice. 3. Gaining unauthorized access to other computer systems. 4. Interfering with any other person's use or enjoyment of the Site. 5. Breaching any applicable laws; 6. Interfering or disrupting networks or web sites connected to the Site. 7. Making, transmitting or storing electronic copies of materials protected by copyright without the permission of the owner.

Colours
We have made every effort to display the colours of our products that appear on the Website as accurately as possible. However, as the actual colours you see will depend on your monitor, we cannot guarantee that your monitor's display of any colour will be accurate.

Modification of Terms & Conditions of Service

BigBasket.com may at any time modify the Terms & Conditions of Use of the Website without any prior notification to you. You can access the latest version of these Terms & Conditions at any given time on BigBasket.com. You should regularly review the Terms & Conditions on BigBasket.com. In the event the modified Terms & Conditions is not acceptable to you, you should discontinue using the Service. However, if you continue to use the Service you shall be deemed to have agreed to accept and abide by the modified Terms & Conditions of Use of this site.

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

This User Agreement shall be construed in accordance with the applicable laws of India. The Courts at Bangalore shall have exclusive jurisdiction in any proceedings arising out of this agreement. Any dispute or difference either in interpretation or otherwise, of any terms of this User Agreement between the parties hereto, the same shall be referred to an independent arbitrator who will be appointed by Innovative Retail Concepts Pvt Ltd. and his decision shall be final and binding on the parties hereto. The above arbitration shall be in accordance with the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 as amended from time to time. The arbitration shall be held in Bangalore. The High Court of judicature at Bangalore alone shall have the jurisdiction and the Laws of India shall apply.

Reviews, Feedback, Submissions

All reviews, comments, feedback, postcards, suggestions, ideas, and other submissions disclosed, submitted or offered to BigBasket.com on or by this Website or otherwise disclosed, submitted or offered in connection with your use of this Website (collectively, the "Comments") shall be and remain our property. Such disclosure, submission or offer of any Comments shall constitute an assignment to BigBasket.com of all worldwide rights, titles and interests in all copyrights and other intellectual properties in the Comments. Thus, BigBasket.com owns exclusively all such rights, titles and interests and shall not be limited in any way in its use, commercial or otherwise, of any Comments. BigBasket.com will be entitled to use, reproduce, disclose, modify, adapt, create derivative works from, publish, display and distribute any Comments you submit for any purpose whatsoever, without restriction and without compensating you in any way. BigBasket.com is and shall be under no obligation (1) to maintain any Comments in confidence; (2) to pay you any compensation for any Comments; or (3) to respond to any Comments. You agree that any Comments submitted by you to the Website will not violate this policy or any right of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy or other personal or proprietary right(s), and will not cause injury to any person or entity. You further agree that no Comments submitted by you to the Website will be or contain libellous or otherwise unlawful, threatening, abusive or obscene material, or contain software viruses, political campaigning, commercial solicitation, chain letters, mass mailings or any form of "spam". BigBasket.com does not regularly review posted Comments, but does reserve the right (but not the obligation) to monitor and edit or remove any Comments submitted to the Site. You grant BigBasket.com the right to use the name that you submit in connection with any Comments. You agree not to use a false email address, impersonate any person or entity, or otherwise mislead as to the origin of any Comments you submit. You are and shall remain solely responsible for the content of any Comments you make and you agree to indemnify BigBasket.com and its affiliates for all claims resulting from any Comments you submit. BigBasket.com and its affiliates take no responsibility and assume no liability for any Comments submitted by you or any third party.

Copyright & Trademark

BigBasket.com and its suppliers and licensors expressly reserve all intellectual property rights in all text, programs, products, processes, technology, content and other materials, which appear on this Site. Access to this Website does not confer and shall not be considered as conferring upon anyone any license under any of BigBasket.com or any third party's intellectual property rights. All rights, including copyright, in this website are owned by or licensed to IRCPL. Any use of this website or its contents, including copying or storing it or them in whole or part, other than for your own personal, non-commercial use is prohibited without the permission of IRCPL. You may not modify, distribute or re-post anything on this website for any purpose. The BigBasket.com names and logos and all related product and service names, design marks and slogans are the trademarks or service marks of Innovative Retail Concepts Pvt Ltd. All other marks are the property of their respective companies. No trademark or service mark license is granted in connection with the materials contained on this Site. Access to this Website does not authorize anyone to use any name, logo or mark in any manner. References on this Website to any names, marks, products or services of third parties or hypertext links to third party sites or information are provided solely as a convenience to you and do not in any way

constitute or imply BigBasket.com endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation of the third party, information, product or service. BigBasket.com is not responsible for the content of any third party sites and does not make any representations regarding the content or accuracy of material on such sites. If you decide to link to any such third party websites, you do so entirely at your own risk. All materials, including images, text, illustrations, designs, icons, photographs, programs, music clips or downloads, video clips and written and other materials that are part of this Website (collectively, the "Contents") are intended solely for personal, non-commercial use. You may download or copy the Contents and other downloadable materials displayed on the Website for your personal use only. No right, title or interest in any downloaded materials or software is transferred to you as a result of any such downloading or copying. You may not reproduce (except as noted above), publish, transmit, distribute, display, modify, create derivative works from, sell or participate in any sale of or exploit in any way, in whole or in part, any of the Contents, the Website or any related software. All software used on this Website is the property of BigBasket.com or their suppliers and protected by Indian and international copyright laws. The Contents and software on this Website may be used only as a shopping resource. Any other use, including the reproduction, modification, distribution, transmission, republication, display, or performance, of the Contents on this Website is strictly prohibited. Unless otherwise noted, all Contents are copyrights, trademarks, trade dress and/or other intellectual property owned, controlled or licensed by BigBasket.com ,one of its affiliates or by third parties who have licensed their materials to BigBasket.com and are protected by Indian and international copyright laws. The compilation (meaning the collection, arrangement, and assembly) of all Contents on this Website is the exclusive property of BigBasket.com and is also protected by Indian and international copyright laws.

Objectionable Material
You understand that by using this Website or any services provided on the Site, you may encounter Content that may be deemed by some to be offensive, indecent, or objectionable, which Content may or may not be identified as such. You agree to use the Website and any service at your sole risk and that to the fullest extent permitted under applicable law, BigBasket.com and its affiliates shall have no liability to you for Content that may be deemed offensive, indecent, or objectionable to you.

Indemnity
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless BigBasket.com, its employees, directors, officers, agents and their successors and assigns from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs and expenses, including attorney's fees, caused by or arising out of claims based upon your actions or inactions, which may result in any loss or liability to BigBasket.com or any third party including but not limited to breach of any warranties, representations or undertakings or in relation to the non-fulfilment of any of your obligations under this User Agreement or arising out of the your violation of any applicable laws, regulations including but not limited to Intellectual Property Rights, payment of statutory dues and taxes, claim of libel, defamation, violation of rights of privacy or publicity, loss of service by other subscribers and infringement of intellectual property or other rights. This clause shall survive the expiry or termination of this User Agreement.

Termination

This User Agreement is effective unless and until terminated by either you or BigBasket.com. You may terminate this User Agreement at any time, provided that you discontinue any further use of this Site. BigBasket.com may terminate this User Agreement at any time and may do so immediately without notice, and accordingly deny you access to the Site, Such termination will be without any liability to BigBasket.com. Upon any termination of the User Agreement by either you or BigBasket.com, you must promptly destroy all materials downloaded or otherwise obtained from this Site, as well as all copies of such materials, whether made under the User Agreement or otherwise. BigBasket.com 's right to any Comments shall survive any termination of this User Agreement. Any such termination of the User Agreement shall not cancel your obligation to pay for the product already ordered from the Website or affect any liability that may have arisen under the User Agreement.