Tag: BigBasket

E-commerce companies face disruption as India locks down to curb coronavirus

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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E-commerce and online groceries faced disruption to their warehouse and delivery operations in India on Monday as dozens of cities including New Delhi went into a lockdown to tackle the spread of coronavirus, industry executives said.

At least 75 districts across India were under lockdown to tackle the coronavirus that has infected 415 people and killed seven in the country with health experts warning a big jump could be imminent.

Though Ministry of Consumer Affairs had urged states to allow some e-commerce deliveries to ensure essential supplies, different state notifications created confusion and have marred operations.

China’s Alibaba Group-backed online grocery firm BigBasket said it faced disruptions in many cities as police were not fully aware of certain exemptions announced by state governments for grocery deliveries and had stopped some of BigBasket’s delivery staff from operating.

“We hope things will improve soon,” said senior BigBasket executive Hari TN, who urged governments to intervene to allow seamless grocery deliveries in the country.

Japan’s SoftBank-backed grocery firm Grofers warehouses in cities such as Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and New Delhi have been “forced (into) lockdown”, said CEO Albinder Dhindsa.

Similar delivery or warehouse disruptions hit Amazon, Walmart’s Flipkart and Softbank-backed e-commerce website Snapdeal across states, industry executives said. The full extent of the disruptions was not immediately clear.

EXEMPTIONS

Flipkart said there were “operational issues on ground” and it was working with governments to resolve them while Snapdeal said uniform implementation of the federal advisory would help reduce disruption for buyers.

Amazon said it was working with local authorities to ensure goods arrive safely and without disruptions at clients’ homes.

The federal consumer affairs ministry had on Friday advised states to ensure “no disruption or panic” by exempting e-commerce operations from prohibitory orders. The ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

The Delhi state government issued front-page newspaper advertisements on Monday on the wider lockdown, restricting transportation and shutting businesses, but listed e-commerce of “all essential goods” as allowed. In Mumbai, authorities said home delivery of essential commodities was allowed.

“If the delivery boys are stopped, they won’t even know what’s inside each packet. The larger resolution is that you allow e-commerce delivery staff to be on the road or prohibit them completely,” said one e-commerce executive.

Streets in New Delhi and Mumbai were deserted on Monday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging people to stay at home. Modi has assured there would be no shortage of essential goods.

But Priyanka Dhingra, who lives in Gurugram near New Delhi, was upset because of slow deliveries by BigBasket. “It’s obviously very inconvenient … something as simple as bread is taking 48 hours to come,” she said.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

A look at popular e-commerce platforms offering amazing deals

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Republic Day sales are over from most of the popular e-commerce platform. And if you missed the chance to grab the offer and are looking for last-minute options, we have listed a few names which still have the sales live and are offering amazing deals.

Big Bazaar

Big Bazaar is offering its customers, “Sabse Saste 5 Din”. From home care to food items to the latest fashion items one can avail maximum discount on all your required items. You can get a special discount on home needs, fashion, food, electronics and mobile and much more. You can grab the offer some exceptional offers on some incredible products from on till January 28 at a Big Bazaar near you.

GyFTR

GyFTR (Vouchagram) is an offline-to-online (O2O) peer gifting platform that offers digital gift vouchers from leading brands, to facilitate instant gifting and redemption. Customers can buy any gift voucher from the brands from different categories like Amazon, More, Aurelia, Bata, Voylla and can get up to is offering 50% off the next purchase of the gift voucher. GyFTR’s offers stand by its tagline – Happiness Delivered Instantly.

India Family Mart

The fastest growing value retail chain with over 100 stores across India, is offering its customers with flat 70% off on a vast variety of products ranging from Kids, Men’s and Women’s wear to home accessories. Enjoy the freedom of spending with 1-India Family Mart.

Reliance Digital

Indian technological giant — Reliance Digital has launched the ‘Digital India Sale’ at its stores across the country. The sale will provide a wide range of deals and cashbacks on the purchase of different categories of electronic items including home appliances, televisions, laptops, and other accessories.

BigBasket

BigBasket got over with its quarterly Big 47 sale. But it is followed by another general merchandise sale from January 17-26, largely comprising of home and kitchen items that are popular at this time of the year.

Grofers

Grofers’ “Grand Orange Bag Days” are still live across the 27 cities that it operates in. It offers gift to every shopper where new users are required to shop for a minimum of Rs 1,000, while existing users would need to make a minimum purchase of Rs 1,500.

Cashify

Cashify has partnered with HMD Global and will hold a Republic Day Sale for Nokia smartphones. The sale is designed for existing Nokia users as well as users who are currently on smartphones from other brands. Note that the sale is only on the Nokia E-store.

During the sale, users looking to buy a new Nokia smartphone can exchange any smartphone listed on Cashify for a great deal. Further, consumers exchanging their old smartphone will get an additional value of Rs 1,000 on their phone’s listed price.

Myprotein

If you are a fitness enthusiast, then this is for you. The sports and nutrition brand is offering mega-sale of its popular items like nutrition supplements, bars, snacks, cookies, gym wear, sports accessories and a lot more at very special prices.

A wide range of products which include sportswear and gym accessories are also on offer. The company is offering great discounts on its website by using this exclusive code: LIFTLIFE at the time of ordering. Visit: www.myprotein.co.in to start shopping.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries, the parent company of Reliance Digital, owns Network 18 that publishes CNBCTV18.com.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

These seven startups joined the unicorn club this year

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India has added seven unicorns in the first eight months of 2019, taking the total number of unicorns to 24, revealed IT industry body Nasscom’s annual report. At 24, India stands at the third spot in the global unicorn list, after the USA and China, that have 203 and 206 unicorns, respectively. Unicorns are startups with a valuation of over $1 billion.

2019 witnessed the addition of two unicorns from Pune, the second year in a row where a startup outside Bangalore, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai has achieved a unicorn status, the report said.

Two unicorns were added from Delhi-Gurugram, two were added from Bengaluru, while one was added from Mumbai.

Bigbasket, Delhivery, Rivigo, Dream 11, Druva, Ola Electric and Icertis are the startups that entered the unicorn list this year.

Five of these new unicorns are B2B, highest ever in a year till date.

Bengaluru-based Bigbasket is an online grocery store with total funding of $885 million. Ola Electric too is headquartered in Bengaluru. With total funding of $306 million, Ola Electric is a developer of electric mobility services and charging infrastructure.

Delhivery, a Delhi-based firm, offers logistics services for Indian ecommerce companies. It has a total funding of $306 million. Rivigo, a Gurugram-based firm with total funding of $238 million, is a tech-enabled logistics with a truck fleet of its own.

Dream 11, with total funding of $100 million, is a Mumbai-based online platform for playing real-time fantasy cricket and football.

Icertis and Druva are Pune based. While Icertis, with total funding of $330 million, is a cloud-based contract management platform, Druva, with a funding of $211 million, offers a backup and data loss prevention solution for enterprises.

“Indian unicorn club now has companies in gaming, supply chain and logistics,
enterprise, e-mobility in addition to e-commerce and mobility,” the report read.

According to the report, the average time taken by a startup to turn into a unicorn in India and USA was 6 to 8 years, while in China, a startup, on an average, took 4 to 6 years to become a unicorn.

In terms of valuations, the average value of a unicorn in India was about $3.2 billion, while it was about $3.5 billion and $3.8 billion for USA and China, the report said.

“The parallelism observed with the rise of one start-up triggering the growth of other, solving complementary problems is expected to strengthen the pipeline of unicorns in future as seen in the case of Flipkart and PayTM in the past. This is a unique feature of the Indian start-up ecosystem compared to the sequential growth of sectors in the US and China,” the report said.

Nasscom expects that the Indian Unicorn club could grow to 95-105 in 2025.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

BigBasket revives talks to acquire DailyNinja to boost its micro-delivery strength

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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In a deal that could mark further consolidation in the micro-delivery space, BigBasket has revived talks to acquire milk and daily essentials company, DailyNinja.

Sources tell CNBC-TV18 that talks are in exploratory stages at this point in time – a large number of details including the deal value, structure, and other contours need to be ironed before the deal can go through. The deal could happen at a 30 percent premium to the valuation of DailyNinja, which stands at an estimated $ 40-45 million.

The micro-delivery space has been seeing intense competition over the last two years. To strengthen its play in this segment, BigBasket acquired companies like RainCan and MorningCart in 2018.

At present, BigBasket’s BB daily service, which delivers essentials like milk, eggs, etc., is making about 140,000 deliveries a day. Sequoia Capital-backed DailyNinja has also been steadily expanding in the space and makes about 70,000 to 75,000 deliveries a day. If the deal goes through, BigBasket will get a significant leg-up in the micro-delivery space.

“It’s difficult to make money in the daily delivery space. There are plenty of overhead costs and margins are pretty low. Therefore, companies are always looking to raise money in some form or the other,” said a person close to the development.

Acquisitions like these could also give a company access to a good customer base. DailyNinja has a good set of investors on board including the likes of Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, and Saama Capital. Another direct rival, Milkbasket has been aggressively looking to raise funds. Having raised a total of 28 million dollars so far, reports suggest that Milkbasket is eyeing a 50 million dollar fundraising in the next round.

These developments come at a time when online giant Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart are stepping up their game in the grocery space. Flipkart recently set up a new food retail company called Flipkart FarmerMart Private Limited in Bengaluru to operate its food retail business. Amazon too launched its Amazon Fresh store in August for select pin codes.

In response to CNBC-TV18, BigBasket said, “Nothing to share on DailyNinja.” Meanwhile, DailyNinja denied the news and said, “We aren’t in talks with BigBasket.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Flipkart to enter food retail with Rs 2,500 crore warchest

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Flipkart, the Walmart-owned Indian ecommerce company, has registered a new company called Flipkart Farmermart Private Ltd in India, to deepen its penetration in food retail to fight Amazon, and run a farm-to-fork operation, sources told Moneycontrol.

Through Flipkart Farmermart, the ecommerce company will operate a full-fledged food retail business, including having its own private label, owning the grocery supply chain and even open stores.

“There is a lot more that Flipkart can do in food,” said one of the sources. “The company has got the nod to invest Rs 2,500 crore from the Flipkart board to expand its operations in the grocery business.”

Flipkart is late to the party

Amazon secured a food retail licence in July 2017, and since, has been investing to build the grocery business. Flipkart will now apply for the licence, and then will have to take a go-head from the Department of Industrial Policy and promotion (DIPP) to invest in food retail.

“It is critical for Flipkart to get this piece right,” said the second source. “Grocery is the stickiest business that any ecommerce company can build. There is a huge repeat factor, which is not there with electronics or fashion or furniture.”

Flipkart hopes to bring in Walmart’s expertise in building the supply chain for food. The American retailer already runs a cash-and-carry (or wholesale) business in India, and has tie-ups with farmers for grocery and food produce. “That will be a big help for Flipkart being a subsidiary company. For the first time it also allows Walmart to bring in its grocery business understanding and wherewithal to a consumer business,” said the first source.

The source also said that it is too early to say if Flipkart will open up stores or stick to an online-only selling model, but “there are possibilities that it might open up stores in major cities in the coming years. That gives a lot of mindshare to a company, especially in food and grocery.”

The online grocery market in India is just opening up. According to research firm Research and Markets, only 0.15 percent (or two million out of 1.35 billion) Indians make purchases through online channels. However, the market is anticipated to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 68.66 percent between 2018 and 2023 period, to reach to Rs 1,03,413 crore by 2023, from Rs 6,201 crore in 2018.

Questions sent to Flipkart did not elicit any reply when this story was published. We will update it when we receive a response.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Grocery start-up Bigbasket gets $14.5 million in venture debt

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Bigbasket valued at about $1 billion, will receive $14.5 million in debt from local venture capital firm Trifecta Capital, the online grocery start-up said on Monday.

The deal comes months after Bigbasket closed $150 million in funding from a group of investors, including South Korea-based Mirae-Naver and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.

Bigbasket, which competes with Walmart Inc-owned Flipkart and Amazon.com Inc, will use the fresh funds to set up warehouses and boost its cold chain, the company said in a statement.

Vipul Parekh, co-founder of Bigbasket’s parent group, noted that the venture debt allows the company to limit dilution for its shareholders, but did not provide details on the nature of the debt.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow