Food and Grocery – Dutch Uncles

BigBasket’s Deep Tech Acquisition for Powering its Offline Retail

Shalmoli Sarkar — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 12:45:03 +0000

The inclusion of advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning in offline retail ensures seamless operations and minimises operational costs in offline retail. To redefine offline retail in a new avatar, BigBasket recently has acquired the enterprise business unit of Kerala-based deep tech startup Agrima Infotech to power BigBasket’s self-checkout offline store Fresho with its computer vision technology platform – Psyight.

Agrima Infotech’s Psyight is the world’s first food-focused recognition and Information Orchestration Platform that will aid BigBasket to identify all Indian fruits and vegetables uniquely from an image without using barcodes. Detecting raw food items like fruits and vegetables uniquely from an image is a complex machine vision problem since the appearance of those items changes drastically according to the location of its origin and seasons. Psyight’s AI recognition feature is versatile and can be integrated into any food system having a camera. Through this, AI recognition platform thousands of SKUs across seasons and various locations can be scanned to achieve 100 percent accuracy.

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A CIPHET study finds that the post-harvest waste and loss in the fruits and vegetable segment in India stands at 40,811 crores.

How AI recognition will work magic for offline retail?

Reduce inventory losses and wastage: Fresh fruits and vegetables in transit from the farmer’s place to the retail store undergo deterioration in quality such as green leafy vegetables losing water or apples shrinking in size, gradually moving closer to the expiry date. The change in the size of fruits and vegetables goes unnoticed by the naked eye. This prevents the retail owners from selling first the inventory nearing the expiry date. AI recognition will analyse the shape of fruits and vegetables that will help retailers or grocers to sell stocks of near expiry first and keep them for little time, thus preventing losses and wastage. It also helps supermarkets to plan inventory with the help of an algorithm that analyses previous demands and sale trends.

Increase profits and sales through an optimised planogram: The AI product recognition can identify which items are missing from the shelf to remind the store staff to restock products immediately thus following planogram compliance of products on the shelf. According to a study by National Association for Retail Merchandising Services (NARMS) when an optimized planogram is 100% matched, sales will be increased by 7.8% and profit by 8.1.

Increases efficiency at the checkout: Long billing queues are a disappointment for a majority of retail shoppers in India. Automatic product recognition ensures an efficient checkout process. Until now cashiers have had to type in the barcode for all fruits and vegetables for billing but with automatic product recognition, this will no longer be necessary.

Accurate stocks: Had there been barcodes, there exists a probability that an organically grown potato is accidentally scanned as a normal one impacting the accuracy of the actual count of organic potatoes. But, AI recognition on scanning reflects this in the store data. This also solves store-level ordering conventionally done using pen and paper, which is considered to be the biggest pain point in the world of fresh food.

Can grocery stores in India adopt AI recognition?

A CIPHET study finds that the post-harvest waste and loss in the fruits and vegetable segment in India stands at 40,811 crores. 5 to 16 percent of perishables like fruits and vegetables are ruined in transit or on farms therefore the appetite to adopt AI recognition systems or platforms in grocery retail exists. But lack of internal expertise and fear of complexity hinders them to adopt the same. For AI to be used in grocery retail, somebody has to train an AI model that knows what and how to do what the customer wants. The AI models require to be retrained constantly once integrated with the store. Retraining is necessary since AI models tend to lose accuracy and performance over time.

The post BigBasket’s Deep Tech Acquisition for Powering its Offline Retail appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Fintech and Grocery: A Profitable Partnership During The Pandemic

Anju Nambiar — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 12:35:08 +0000

If you aren’t aware of the grocery market in India, BigBasket’s name can instantly remind you of the potential of this sector. BigBasket is currently one of the biggest players in the e-Grocery space. But over the years, many more hyperlocal firms have emerged like Jio Mart, Spar, Amazon Fresh, etc. Speaking of hyperlocal grocery apps, there’s also Grofers, India’s e-Grocery unicorn.

Most of these names were offline supermarkets and hypermarkets which have quickly pivoted to an online presence during the pandemic. Digital Transactions have allowed them to quickly go online. It’s not just these big names, but the small brick-and mortar Kirana shops were able to survive and revive during the pandemic due to Fintech products and services.

Grocery challenges and needs during the pandemic

For a very long time, householders loved to physically walk into a store and pick up fresh fruits, vegetables, pulses, grains, and bakery products. But the pandemic has made this impossibile. Now both homemakers and working professionals simply place monthly orders for groceries on e-Grocery apps depending on who is offering the most attractive discounts and prices.

Fintech and Grocery partnership

The fintech and e-Grocery partnership has been long-standing. Even before the pandemic, digital wallets like Citrus, PayUMoney, MobiKwik, and Paytm were partnered with prominent e-Grocery companies like Grofers. They were mutually making profits by offering cashbacks, discounts, and reward points. But since the pandemic, their partnership has taken on a whole new level.

Kirana store partnership for essential items delivery

Hundreds and thousands of Kirana shops which were providing fresh grocery items had to suddenly go online and compete with e-Grocery giants. Fintech firms stepped up to help them in their digital transformation by providing digital payments services. Fintech companies have been launching apps and deploying POS systems for them.

Now, even the smallest Kirana shops in India have the PhonePe QR codes on their counters. Paytm also provides all-in-one QR codes for local shops and merchants to accept payments via Paytm wallet, Rupay cards, and UPI based payment apps. The local mom-and-pop stores even started accepting orders on WhatsApp and providing e-payment options through mobile wallets, apps, and cards.

A convenient payment model – BNPL

Buy Now Pay Later is facilitating robust partnerships between the fintech and grocery industry. The BNPL model works by extending a small-ticket loan to an e-Grocery shopper placing orders and making purchases for monthly or daily groceries online. The loans are instantly accrued either on the fintech app (the grocery platform redirects to the BNPL app).

In most cases, the BNPL service is integrated as a payment method during checkout in the e-Grocery platform. The BNPL model facilitates instant payments and bite-sized credit which are accessed by the shopper alongside the purchase. BNPL pays for your order free of interest but levies a minor late charge per day if you miss the repayment date.

For example, while checking out on BigBasket, you can choose the BNPL option on Simpl (A BNPL service). You will get redirected to Simpl’s login page and upon logging in, Simpl will pay for your grocery order and add the charge to your account which you can pay at a later date.

An instant real-time payment system

e-Grocery online shoppers can choose the UPI payment option while placing orders on smartphone apps. UPI is available as a payment option on RBI approved smartphones successfully verified and linked to one or multiple UPI accounts like Google Pay, Bhim UPI, PhonePe, etc. The UPI payment method is reflected on the checkout page where customers can choose their preferred UPI app. The amount will get directly debited from the customer’s bank account linked to their UPI ID. Grofers for instance, had earlier rolled out UPI for android devices.

UPI penetration has seeped into every household making this the most popular payment mode on e-grocery apps. UPI providers like Google Pay, Phone Pe, Paytm have partnered with grocery firms. In Google Pay, you can purchase daily essential items. You can view Google Pay’s partnerships with hyperlocal small businesses in the grocery sector in the ‘Business’ section on their app. Even Paytm features small businesses in the e-grocery segment on their ‘Paytm Mall’ section where they offer attractive discounts and deals for everyday essentials.

How this fintech startup took offline grocery online

An example of a partnership between fintech and e-Grocery has been PayNearby’s initiative to take offline grocery stores online. PayNearby is a fintech start-up which offers a hyperlocal delivery and purchase app. They onboarded more than 2 lakh pan-India Kirana shops on their hyperlocal discovery and purchase app to enable customers to order a wide range of products from their local Kirana stores.

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Noteworthy start-ups in India offering conversational AI and voice based B2B solutions.

What’s in it for me?

The voice tech industry has been evolving and Voice AI is seeing applications across numerous key industries including healthcare, retail, hospitality, customer service, etc. The Asian market is seeing high adoption of voice AI solutions for commercial applications. The reason why the Asian market is a hotbed for voice start-ups is due to the sheer diversity of languages, accents, and dialects. There’s huge potential for B2B voice tech start-ups to acquire clients in the government, across enterprises, as well as investor interest.

Conversational AI tools have high demand among enterprise contact centres since they are easing the process of customer communication and subsequently enhancing the customer experience. There’s also great demand for chat and voice-based bots that cater to multiple different languages among enterprise contact centres. Ever since the revelation that massive new markets open up by targeting regional languages in India, every industry is in a race to develop multilingual products. Whether its vernacular gaming apps, social media, or speech services, the whole of Indian population can become your consumer base by being inclusive of local languages.

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Jumbotail: Filling India’s Supply Chain Gaps with Tech

Ujyant Ramesh — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 14:54:37 +0000

Online grocery services have become an essential part of our households, especially amidst the ongoing pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns due to it. Ordering groceries has become as easy as a tap on the phone, with plenty of options to choose from besides other services. But, behind this seamless – search, click, order, deliver – motion, lies a humongous supply chain, including producers, retailers, wholesalers, and so on.

Ever wondered how the grocery merchant you ordered a rice packet from got the same in the first place? Maybe s/he had a similar exclusive platform where s/he ordered it from?

Well, this brings us to the vast cycle of e-commerce processes for businesses and the introduction of B2B online food and grocery start-up, Jumbotail.

Jumbotail, a ‘data-centric and agile company in the B2B e-commerce domain’, gives thousands of Kiranas, producers, retailers and wholesalers a common platform to buy and sell products. Starting out small, the start-up today operates a full-stack e-commerce model consisting of its B2B marketplace platform, industry-leading warehousing infrastructure, last-mile delivery supply chain network, and a fintech platform for payment and credit solutions to Kirana store owners.

Bringing the Idea of Jumbotail Together

Like most start-ups, Jumbotail has had its fair share of ups and downs, especially given the fact that it operates in a traditional sector. It all goes back to 2008, when co-founder Mr. Karthik Venkateswaran, a former Major in the Indian Army and a marketplaces technology-product veteran, conceived the idea of aggregating coconut farming in Madurai. Though the ‘aggregation’ proposition was ahead of its time, it didn’t yield expected results.

On the other hand, co-founder Mr. Ashish Jhina, a third-generation apple farmer, continued with his management journey at Boston Consulting Group in New Delhi. The duo came together at Stanford University and discovered a shared interest in the Indian grocery and food supply chain, more towards its gaps and filling the same. They went on to pursue their respective paths, but the idea lingered at the back of their heads and was discussed on multiple occasions between the two.

Both Karthik and Ashish, primarily being from agricultural backgrounds, had first-hand experience with regard to the gaps in the food supply chain, including mismanaged distribution and procurement at Mandis. More prominent for them was the gap between retailers, wholesalers, and producers besides logistics, payments, and other challenges.

In 2015, the duo launched Jumbotail to fill this gap and bring the trio of retailers, wholesalers, and producers together on one single platform in order to streamline the process. Their respective combined backgrounds in agriculture and management played to their strength.

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While the Indian agricultural scene is a backbone of our economy and society, it also has a vast number of gaps. Jumbotail is the bridge that is aimed at closing those gaps.

‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Dukaan’: Power of Aggregation

Jumbotail started out with a simple app in the year 2015, a time around which the internet wasn’t as prevalent and cheap as it is today. As a result, it faced challenges such as hesitancy and lack of trust from people to use the app. However, deriving inspiration from successful online business models of Amazon, eBay, etc., it gradually convinced people about the potential future of online marketplaces such as its booming landscape, revamped communication, its role during a disruption such as demonetization, and how Jumbotail stood as a collective alternative for all this.

Jumbotail realised the issues in having non-streamlined networks at the distributors (wholesalers) end who faced communication discrepancies and time constraints. Similarly, at the other end with Kirana stores, it figured out issues such as poorly structured procurement methods, resultant financial constraints, largely low educational qualifications, and tech and market awareness due to which it designed its marketplace (an app) in a simplistic user-friendly manner that effectively catered to all of this.

This app was also made compatible on low-end 2G/3G network phones and the company introduced fintech platforms to it that enabled transactions and provided access to working capital credit. Through this, Jumbotail was able to get its idea across people, overcome major obstacles and get thousands of customers aboard over the course of a few years.

So, how does Jumbotail work?

It connects Kirana stores/retailers with the supply side. In other words, it is an aggregator and online wholesale marketplace that connects small scale retailers with wholesalers. Essentially, this happens through the app which drastically simplifies the traditionally prolonging task of retailers having to physically visit markets which would result in other issues such as financial loss due to temporary closure, warehousing, transportation, disputes, etc. This online platform opens up a whole new world to Kirana store owners by eliminating several constraints in the following ways.

Procurement and Transportation

What would initially require retailers to shut their stores for a day or two and result in unnecessary communication, transportation and time/financial loss is now available at the retailer’s fingertips wherein orders can be placed online. And for transportation logistics of the same, the company ties up with vehicles on a monthly lease and has 110 vehicles currently in the running.

Stocking and Warehousing

The start-up provides a makeshift warehouse for regular customers/retailers who face the issue of limited storage capacity amidst stocking up goods in bulk in order to prevent multiple commutations to distant places.

Versatility

Instead of retailers having to visit multiple places for different kinds of products, the app streamlines the same by allowing access to over 3,500 varieties of products that are placed in its various sections.

Jumbotail also seems to have a clear understanding of its target audience which is reflected through its app’s extremely simple interface and friendly add-on features. For instance, its ‘GoldenEye’ and multilingualism feature simplifies and educates Kirana store owners regarding market trends, purchase patterns, product margins, stocks, etc, without them having to spend much time researching and that too in their preferred languages. Besides, Jumbotail offers to install data packs into customers’ devices and add the same in their invoice post-transaction.

Collectively, through this, Jumbotail aims to re-engineer the Indian grocery ecosystem by providing fair access to markets and increased economic opportunities for millions of ‘mom and pop’ grocery retailers, brands, and staples producers and farmers.

Jumbotail’s Business Model That Paved the Way

Let’s talk about revenue now. The company runs on a B2B business model with a large chunk of revenue coming from commission collected from sellers (particularly wholesalers) who list their products on the app along with supply chain services such as warehousing and door-to-door delivery for retailers among other generic aggregator services. The company also earns from digital product placement, digital merchandising and in some cases, sampling.

Coming to funding, Jumbotail raised around $2 million in its seed funding; even before its incorporation, which convinced future investors of its ability to build the business. Credits for this growth spree go to its timely tapping in of the right market (Kiranas), its conviction of the future of 4G internet and its ability to visualize a combined future of both as an economic powerhouse of India which was proof enough for its first investor – Nexus Venture Partners.

Post this, the company has witnessed a manifold increase in interest by investors from around the world. The latest being in the third round of its Series B wherein it met its targeted $25 million single round investment by gaining a whopping $14.2 led by VII ventures.

Prior to this, it raised around $11 million in the second round of Series B the previous year along with its other stages, therefore, summing up its total funding to around $54 million. Overall, the company aims to utilise this capital to scale its business to new regions and double down its network along with launching a suite of services to help FMCG brands go to the market exponentially faster and at a low cost.

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Thanks to its rapid addressal system and how it is broaching the gaps in the industry, it has received significant backing which will help Jumbotail grow more in the years to come.

Jumbotail: Competitors and Meeting the Challenges

Jumbotail initially faced competition from big start-ups like Grofers, Big Basket, etc. Some of these brands have also had to reinvent themselves due to outrage around their business models. For instance, Grofers, which went from a logistics company that delivered groceries from Kiranas to consumers eventually ended up building its own inventory and eliminating Kiranas due to increasing demand. This, despite “simplifying” supply chains, ended up having severe consequences on Kirana stores.

Jumbotail instead operates a full-stack tech-driven supply chain to provide warehousing facilities for its wholesalers and simplifies logistics by its storefront delivery system, which helps enhance small scale business operations. Thus, committing itself to the preservation and improvisation of Kiranas, it leaves little room for their elimination.

Of late, Jumbotail has developed stronger competition in the likes of Ninjacart, Waycool, Udaan, etc. with Ninjacart being the fiercest, boasting funding of over $200 million (4 times that of Jumbotail) and a steep difference in workforce of around 2000 employees. Despite this, Jumbotail is seeing profits and seeks to ramp up its operations in several parts of the country outside its Bangalore headquarters to boost ahead of competitors in the long run. At the end of the day the main challenge comes down to staying afloat in such a saturated market while still looking out for everyone in the supply chain.

The ‘X’ factor: What Made Jumbotail Stand out?

The start-up has managed to adapt to various different scenarios of the grocery-agriculture industry and cater to some of the major demands of Kirana stores’ even during times of major inconvenience. For instance, the ongoing pandemic where they could boast about being one of the only companies in their sector to have profitably functioned during some of its most stringent months. Thanks to its ‘J24’ programme which connects Kirana stores to its own hi-tech streamlined supply chain network, it stood as an exclusive alternative for traditional offline players that were highly disrupted during the lockdown crisis.

Another distinguishing factor is Jumbotail’s understanding and analysis of mistakes of those who have directly jumped the gun of profit, without genuine consideration of their brand’s actual motive. This gives Jumbotail an edge over its competitors who have faced the wrath of accusations of “wiping away” small scale stores and farmers.

Current Status and Upward Trends

Despite its tough competition, Jumbotail has managed to pass the test of time. Subsequently, the pandemic seems to have done little or no harm due to its well planned techno-centric and futuristic arsenal which has clearly worked in its favour.

While companies lost about 75 per cent of their workforce, Jumbotail managed to almost retain this amount due to its full-stack tech-driven supply chain and logistics model and its provision of capital credit to customers via its fintech platform.

In short, it paved the path for emerging and “failing” companies (those affected by the pandemic) through its optimal tech usage in restoring and restructuring the Indian grocery-agriculture supply chain; thus pioneering and gearing up for possible future distortions such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Road Ahead of Jumbotail

Latest trends have also shown that Jumbotail plans to expand its business across multiple geographies. The company also aims to increase its pre-existing omnichannel integrations by adding several more hyperlocal platforms. All of this, with the help of its $14.2 million raised in its Series B3 funding earlier this year.

So how far will the company go? What does the future hold for Jumbotail? Only time will tell. At the moment, it looks bright and they certainly seem to have stuck to their tagline. Their ultimate goal to streamline and rebuild India’s supply chain along with garnering the retailer’s trust only seems to be moving upwards. Therefore, they certainly have made their mark by overcoming obstacles and turning challenges into opportunities.

For more inspiring stories like this, read our Inspire Section!

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Albinder Dhindsa’s Journey: Forging a Path to Becoming a Grocery King

Keegan Kennedy — Sun, 13 Jun 2021 06:35:07 +0000

The average Indian household is incomplete without having to make daily trips to the local paan dukan or kirana. We all have memories of running down to the shop across the road to pick up ingredients for that one special meal your mother would make on Sundays or more realistically, when she was expecting guests. Be it for staples like bread, milk, eggs or for more specific items, this daily act has for generations been embedded in the Indian culture so passively that it would be almost impossible to think of an alternative to procure them. Well, that is the challenge every entrepreneur faces – conventionality. To change the way people carry out their day-to-day functioning is no easy task, but Albinder Dhindsa is not one to go down without a fight. The fight here being the inception of a massive online grocery platform with a valuation of approximately $115 million – Grofers.

A Grain of Salt: The Early Years of Albinder Dhindsa

Not all entrepreneurs are cut from the same cloth and Albinder Dhindsa’s story is a strong advocate of that notion. Born and brought up in Patiala, Punjab, Dhindsa went on to create a rather impressive track record before trying his hands at entrepreneurship.

He had no intention of slowing down after completing his Bachelors in Technology from prestigious IIT Delhi, following which he kickstarted his career in the field of transportation and logistics. Having acquired valuable experience at URS Corporations (2005) and Cambridge Systematics (2007) as a Transportation Analyst and Senior Associate, respectively, Albinder Dhindsa was not satisfied with his current position.

With a desire to explore more in the field and a strong intention of starting his own business, he decided to take a leap of faith by quitting his job in pursuit of a Master’s in Business Administration from Columbia University.

It was in the United States where Dhindsa met Saurabh Kumar (Co-founder and COO of Grofers), who would go on to play an important role in the success that was to come towards their start-up. The duo met during their respective stints at Cambridge Systematics and instantly clicked owing to their shared interest in the field of logistics and transportation besides similar backgrounds. Although they did not have any intention of launching a start-up together at that time, they did keep in touch.

After completing his MBA, Dhindsa attempted to apply what he had learnt on home ground and picked up a job at popular food delivery company, Zomato as the head of international operations. He spent almost 3 years at the company, absorbing as much first-hand information as he could about supply chains and the workings of a company in the delivery sector.

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Even though the market was so saturated, this entrepreneur realised that hyperlocal was the key to success - the untapped goldmine.

How a Personal Touch Reinvented a Company

All this while, Dhindsa and Kumar remained in touch and brainstormed occasionally over new ideas. The former’s analytical skills came into play when he, along with the latter noticed that the delivery system in India was in absolute chaos. Even though there were many big players in the logistics or hyperlocal delivery at that time, there was a lack of communication due to which customer service was not being optimised. In other words, they had discovered that if the hyper-local market space was tackled in the right way, the results could increase tenfold.

Albinder Dhindsa had very smartly identified this opportunity before any other firm, which goes to show that the entrepreneurial trait was prevalent in him which got activated when he saw the business opportunity in the gap. Working at Zomato was like a pool of information and first-hand experience regarding the food supply chain for Dhindsa and acted as a catalyst to push the entrepreneur to take the plunge. It was during his stint at Zomato itself that he, along with Kumar, began working on his ambitious project – Grofers.

The two were so sure of their observation that they started their first company, OneNumber in 2013. Initially, they were just a delivery company that focused on dropping and picking up items around the neighbourhood. These items could be anything from groceries to cosmetics to accessories among others. They had a small team of delivery boys who worked much like Uber drivers. As soon as an order was placed by a customer, the nearest delivery boy would pick up the item and have it delivered.

Having personally spoken to small merchants and shop owners, Albinder Dhindsa knew too well the problems faced by them. In fact, the two carried out around 50-60 deliveries within a 4km radius themselves to understand the hindrances in such an unorganised system of delivery.

Although OneNumber did see success, Dhindsa felt that the flaws in the hyper-local market in India were not exploited enough. He had his eye on the bigger picture.

Despite having a wide range of businesses sign up with them, they found that the majority of the orders came from groceries and pharmacies. With that, the concept of an e-commerce platform solely for the purpose of grocery shopping came into being and OneNumber was rechristened Grofers.

Grofers started as a B2B model but shifted to a B2C soon. They facilitate delivery of almost 20,000 different products spread over categories like grocery, bakery items, cosmetics, fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy, flowers, toys, accessories, personal and baby care, among others in a maximum of 90 minutes!

Dhindsa, being a man from humble beginnings, understood that customers value reliability above everything. To get customers to trust an e-commerce platform to handle their grocery shopping proved to be quite a task. Moreover, to get smaller merchants to sign up for their services was even more challenging. However, Dhindsa was determined to create a system that worked for everyone. Thus, he gave top priority to the merchants. The sign-up process was made extremely easy.

Another important aspect that worked in the founder’s favour was his belief in treating the customers and merchants the same. He understood the importance it would have in spreading awareness of the brand. Dhindsa knew exactly how to build a strong, organic user base, and within no time the brand established itself as a force to be reckoned with.

That being said, they were only breaking even despite having moved products worth almost 8 lakhs within 3 months.

Grofers had a seed funding of just $500k which came from Sequoia Capital followed by a Series A funding of $10 million by the same investor along with Tiger Global Management in 2015. By November 2015, the company had managed to raise $120 million in funding although that was not reflecting in their performance. By the end of 2016, they had reported an annual loss of Rs 225 crore and continued to do so for the following months.

After they were forced to lay off 10 per cent of their staff and temporarily suspend services, Dhindsa had to come up with new ways to actually get the ball rolling.

Albinder Dhindsa: Moving Beyond the Fear of Failure

To keep the start-up up and running successfully, it was important for Albinder Dhindsa to expand Grofer’s reach in such a way that it did not hamper its customer service. His move to launch a mobile application for Grofers was probably what saved the company from losing its influence in the hyper-local market. They provided their customers with a quick and easy way of doing their grocery shopping, with just a click of a button. When it comes to grocery shopping, there are three options to possibly choose from. One could either go to your local kirana, a store like Spencer’s or more, or a superstore like Big Bazaar.

Albinder Dhindsa’s vision is to eliminate the above mentioned options and solidify the start-up as the one-stop destination for everyday needs. Quite a bold claim considering the competition in the market but not a shred of doubt is seen in his future plans for the company.

Despite making changes, Dhindsa found that the whole delivery process would be much smoother if they took supply in their own hands. By cutting out the middlemen in the convoluted supply chain, the company could save valuable time and resources by dealing directly with companies.

A strong and proactive supply chain was mandatory to keep the company afloat. Dhindsa ensured this by maintaining a good network of retailers, manufacturers and distributors. The bond shared was symbiotic, improving the overall performance of the company.

A whole lot of investment was needed for this. At the preliminary level, no investor wanted to get into a business that was not making ‘enough’ revenue. Gradually, Dhindsa and Umar managed to convince traders and set up 60,000 sq. Ft. Storage facilities in Delhi, Bengaluru, and Gurgaon. The business began scaling up from 2017 and the average order fee shot up.

Dhindsa maintained transparency by integrating a rating system in the app which allowed users and the company itself to monitor the performance of the merchants. Any merchant with a rating of below 4 gets removed from the platform. The company also keeps a strict check on how efficiently orders are being processed. This attention to detail was reflective of the ideator’s qualities and brought the start-up into the limelight and by the looks of it, they are here to stay there.

Grofers is not the first online grocer to have their own supply chain, but they are definitely among the fastest growing ones, owing it to Dhindsa’s aversion to complacency. He knew what needed to be done to plunge Grofers into the hyper-local market space and give firms like BigBasket and JioMart a run for their money.

Dhindsa remained unfazed by the adversities and left no stone unturned to find new methods to expand. By focusing on the supply chain rather than the products, Dhindsa managed to create a massive network that provides top quality service at a reasonable price.

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Dhindsa envisioned a one-stop-shop for all the grocery needs of the customer, which is one of the reasons Grofers is such a rapidly growing giant.

Proceed to Checkout

Grocery shopping, unlike shopping for clothes or other accessories, is relatively simple. There is no hassle of doubting the size, colour or fit of the item. Therefore, Dhindsa stressed the importance of having a user-friendly application. Numbers and statistics aside, Dhindsa’s frankness helped him understand consumer behaviour better and that ultimately helped him win over a significant share of the market in a relatively short span of time.

After almost 8 months of contracting farmers and setting up connections over the country, as of today they have above 400 products under their name. With customer acquisition and retention being their top priority, Albinder Dhindsa is set to expand his reach and revolutionise grocery shopping in years to come.

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Water in Aluminium Cans, Volnaa Spurs a New Market

Anju Nambiar — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 17:24:21 +0000

Volnaa, a beverage company has come up with a unique and surprising product to tackle the mounting problem of plastic pollution due to packaged drinking water. The product is named Volnaa and is a very sleek, interesting answer to on-the-go purchase of plastic water bottles. Volnaa water is ‘Bottled’ in aluminium cans which are 100% recyclable with ‘relock revolution’ – technology that allows for relocking the lids.

Volnaa Beverages Private Limited is an F&B start-up co-founded in 2020 by Kartik Rajput and Kushagra Sharma. The company is mainly involved in the collection, purification, and distribution of water. However, the idea behind their product is much bigger than this process. Volnaa sources natural mineral water from the Himalayas with a pH level of 7.9.

Reducing plastic pollution: an industry trend

The founders of Volnaa have redefined the generic packaged water bottle. A single use plastic bottle which is responsible for a major portion of the global plastic pollution. By redesigning the packaging of water in an eco-friendly manner, Volnaa has spurred a new market for aluminium can water with relock lid technology. Last year a similar beverage brand ‘Responsible whatr’ had unveiled their ‘water in a can’ product. This goes to show that the trend is catching on in India with new players showing themselves in the new market.

Increase in sales even with 6x price

The fact that the average price of the aluminium can packaged water costs 6 times higher than regular bottled water doesn’t seem to deter consumers.

Nevertheless, if the solution is for a good cause, the price paid is worth it. And the problem to be solved is one that’s extremely important if we want to save the Earth from the dangerous plastic pollution which has already reached its peak. Global warming which is showing itself with unpredictable climate change across the globe needs to be tackled now. Putting an end to the production of single-use plastic bottles is a big leap towards ridding the earth of plastic waste.

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Last year a similar beverage brand ‘Responsible whatr’ had unveiled their ‘water in a can’ product.

What’s in it for me?

The beverage industry’s new market for aluminium can water looks promising. The price points for such an innovative product are obviously much higher than its predecessors (single-use plastics). The packaged water market is picking up pace with many other parallel markets like ‘sparkling water’ and ‘black water’ finding favour with consumers.

The can water is still a novelty, but it’s backed by a very strong cause. With the need for eco-conscious manufacturing of F&B products, this trend is sure to gain traction. If you are planning to enter this market, it’s recommended to wait and see how these new product launches do. The aluminium cans need to be infinitely recyclable, and the business model is based on a ‘circular economy’. India is interested in and steadily moving towards a circular economy which, of course, will encourage more F&B start-ups in the eco-friendly packaged water business to crop up.

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Is Online Grocery the Next Big Thing?

Shalmoli Sarkar — Wed, 19 May 2021 03:35:04 +0000

Online grocery is witnessing a spike in demand since consumers continue to seek convenient shopping channels for buying the daily essentials and grocery being top in the list. Delivery of groceries online is undoubtedly the next big thing, with a market size estimated to grow eight times by 2026. Adding more edge to the numbers is the home-grown consulting firm RedSeer stating that the online grocery is currently growing at 41-49 percent and is likely to stay the same till the end of 2021, heading to become a market worth $850 Million by 2025.

Key Drivers

The pandemic has caused a paradigm shift in consumer preference and buying behaviour.

Virtual working model has blurred the lines between professional and personal life, creating a never-ending schedule. An exhausted individual in the virtual workforce would like to purchase more easy-to-cook foods within the comfort of home delivery which offers hassle-free shopping.
Consumers are now emphasising on boosting immunity and fitness and therefore are showing a preference for healthy nutritional food and health drinks.
Working out and daily exercise has now become a regular activity, with focus on home gyms and exercise equipment, protein powder and shakes of global brands are on demand; these being available on E-grocery stores.
Health being the prime importance and top priority there is an increase in willingness to pay for premium and superior quality nutrients and healthy food.
Less or no option for offline buying and hence the consumer is made to look at digital channels.

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As per RedSeer the online grocery is currently growing at 41-49 percent and is likely to stay the same till the end of 2021, heading to become a market worth $850 Million by 2025.

E-commerce start-ups tapping into online grocery

India’s online grocery market turned out to be the next battleground with Flipkart, Reliance JioMart, Amazon, Paytm Mall, Shopclues, Snapdeal and Swiggy rushing to enter the space. This led to a sharp spurt in business in recent months not only in the metros but in Tier 2 cities and beyond leaving brands like BigBasket and Grofers no longer as front runners. The lucrative untapped opportunity of the massive Egrocery market prompted Meesho, the recently crowned unicorn to pump in $300 million into Egrocery. In the next 18 months Meesho will focus on enabling small-time grocers belonging to tier 2 and 3 cities to shift business online and break the notion of online grocery largely being a tier-I city phenomenon.

Market trends which are here to stay

The online grocery market is not only a lucrative one, but a floating one too. The demand for ordering groceries online was so sharp during the first phase of the pandemic that even large firms like BigBasket struggled to keep pace, given the supply chain challenges due to the restrictions. With demand exceeding supply, the real estate start-up, No Broker wants to tap into the e-grocery market in order to stay afloat in the business and survive the times of dwindling revenues. Most of these start-ups that earlier had not presence in the e-grocery verticals have partnered with kirana stores, local modern retail outlets and farm to fork start-ups like NinjaCart, Gully Network, Jumbotail, and supermarket chains like Spencer’s Retail, Vishal MegaMart, More, Metro Cash & Carry, and FMCG companies like ITC, to fulfill orders.

Convenience and apprehension of getting contacted by the virus are two behaviours exhibited by the consumers that are tailwinds to the online grocery’s exponential growth. This growth will sky rocket further with grocery being the category where most marketplaces’ investments will be made in the next five years. This thereby gives strong indication that staying in sync with time – traditional grocers should transform themselves into the online channel by partnering with e-grocery businesses and offering an omnichannel experience of buying essentials to the customers.

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