Amid rising competition in the e-grocery category, Tata Group-owned e-tailer BigBasket has started testing a group buying model for delivering groceries in Tier IV towns. BigBasket’s move to experiment with community buying—or what’s loosely called “social commerce”—comes at a time when companies are trying different ways to ramp up their grocery and essentials verticals amid an increase in demand for these categories online.
With this, the Bengaluru-based online grocer will join a growing list of ecommerce firms—including Walmart-owned Flipkart, SoftBank-backed Meesho, DealShare, and Udaan—which have been making aggressive moves in this space to widen their customer base and serve value-conscious users.
BigBasket has started testing the group buying model in areas that are often called “Bharat”—beyond Tier II and III towns—starting with Karnataka.
With group buying for Tier III and IV towns, BigBasket is looking to widen its user base beyond the metros. The company currently operates in around 30 cities across India. All its big rivals have launched services to tap users beyond the top cities.
Flipkart recently added groceries to its social commerce app Shopsy, while Meesho will double down on the category through Farmiso. Other leading e-commerce startups experimenting with group buying of groceries and other necessities outside of metros include DealShare and Udaan (via Price Company).