Exclusive: BigBasket resumes express delivery after a year-long pause

Almost a year after shutting down its express delivery, BigBasket has resumed the feature in select pin codes across Bengaluru, NCR and Hyderabad. Team Entrackr has tried the service on its app across these three cities.

As it used to do in the past, the express delivery orders are being fulfilled in slots. 

“The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a spurt in demand for e-grocers and people in the top 10 cities have been ordering grocery, vegetables and other essentials frequently. Timing for resuming express delivery makes absolute sense,” said one of the experts tracking online grocery space.

At present, none of the mainstream e-grocers except Big Basket have express delivery features. While Swiggy Stores, Dunzo and Amazon fulfil instant orders via pantry, Grofers had moved to next day delivery after its pivot to the monthly stock-up model.

It’s worth noting that the instant delivery feature was discontinued with a view to cut expenses. “Express delivery costs between Rs 45-75 per delivery while slot based delivery is relatively cheaper,” added the above-quoted person.

Entrackr queries to BigBasket remained unanswered until the publication of the story. We will update the post as and when they respond.

Over the past 12-15 months, Swiggy Stores and Dunzo have captured the major volume of the instant delivery segment. Both companies offer dark stores for their sellers to facilitate quick fulfilment of fast-moving consumer products.

Swiggy had launched dark stores under Urban Kirana while Dunzo owns the network of such stores under the Xpress Mart brand. “Since both are betting on instant delivery, there is a sense of fear of missing out for BigBasket. Additionally, the prolonged lockdown has also increased the use-case of quick deliveries,” said a top executive of a micro-delivery platform.

Founded by Hari Menon, V.S. Sudhakar, Vipul Parekh, Abhinay Choudhari and V.S. Ramesh in 2011, BigBasket had raised a $60 million bridge round led by Alibaba. Entrackr had exclusively reported the development in April this year. The company is reportedly in the market to raise fresh funds.

Ever since the fear of the spread of Coronavirus and back to back lockdowns, about three dozen companies had started grocery delivery and aggregating platforms. Companies such as Meesho, Cure.Fit, BharatPe, and Box8 began grocery vertical in the lockdown. It would be exciting to watch who all continue doing so in a long haul.