BIG BASKET ASSIGNMENT

A. WHAT ARE YOUR KEY LEARNINGS FROM THE CASE

STUDY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE CURRENT PANDEMIC
SCENARIO?
Ans: - The Company hired over 12,000 persons in 16 days to meet the
surge in demand as people started turning to digital platforms to shop
for grocery items amid the lockdown
Resilience and ‘doing more with less’ were two key tenets followed
by Big Basket during the Covid-19-induced lockdown that helped the
online grocery retailer sail through and grow, a top company official
said on Friday.
Big Basket co-founder and CEO Hari Menon said the company hired
over 12,000 persons in 16 days to meet the surge in demand as a large
number of people started turning to digital platforms to shop for
grocery items amid the lockdown.
Recounting his experience at the ‘Isha Insight: The DNA of Success’
event, Menon said the company lost 80 per cent of its workforce
within two days, just as the nationwide lockdown was announced in
March.
“Stores were shut, people scared to get out and orders were pouring in
(for Big Basket). There was a surge in business, and we had 20 per
cent workforce. We realized that we can’t give this up... (Realized)
how important this quality is...resilient organizations are winners,” he
added.
He said the company hired 12,300 people in 16 days, which
demonstrated the power of resilience.
E-commerce companies had initially struggled to deliver orders after
the 21-day lockdown, imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus,
came into effect from March 25. Even though the government had
allowed delivery of essential goods including food, pharmaceuticals
and medical equipment through e-commerce platforms, players
complained that their delivery staff was being hassled by police.
Also, with local authorities shutting down warehouses and stopping
trucks from crossing state borders, e-commerce players had seen
massive disruption in their operations even as orders spiked during
the lockdown.
Menon noted that another critical aspect is that resilient people
become more innovative in times of crisis.
“And, when you become more innovative, you start doing more with
less. I made the organization internalize this — ‘doing more with
less’. Shortage of people, making sure we use technology to the hilt,
make sure we come up with new things like community delivery, we
did about 60 innovative things, and the whole theme was doing more
with less,” he said.
The 59-year-old executive also emphasized on the importance of
being a learning organization. “An organization needs to be a learning
organization and the first thing we did at Big Basket was set up an
excellent training and innovation function,” he said.
B. HOW CAN BIG BASKET STRATEGIZE TO TARGET THE
SMALL TOWN MARKET IN INDIA?
Ans: - It has over 10 million customers. Its customers are working
people, students, old people who have no time or energy to go to
grocery stores, stand in line and buy the necessary products.
Big basket helps these people to browse through a huge variety of
quality grocery items. Customers can order the required products
which will be delivered within 90 minutes for express delivery or next
morning for slotted delivery.
Big basket has acquired 100% stakes in milk delivery ventures
Raincan and morning cart. It got a controlling stake in smart vending
machine startup Kwik24. The milk delivery service was branded as
BB daily where customers can get milk delivered to their home in the
morning everyday through subscribing for a fee. Big basket has also
installed over 100 smart vending machines in Bangalore. Customers
can order through BB instant app and get the products from vending
machines.
It also acquired a hyperlocal delivery startup named delyver. It helped
to strengthen its delivery system in all the cities it is operating in.

C. HOW CAN IT ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN THIS CATEGORY,

AGAINST COMPETITION FROM THE KIRANA SEGMENT?
Ans:-
• Slotted Delivery: Customers can pick a convenient slot when they
want their purchase to be delivered.
• Express Delivery: This service can be availed by customers in cities
like Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and
Delhi-NCR. Delivery will be done within 90 minutes
• BB Specialty stores: Big basket has partnership with specialty stores
like Karachi bakery. Customers can request a product from the store
which will be delivered within 90 minutes.

RAHUL DEVJEET CHAND

FMS-MBA-2019-21-030