National Institute of Fashion Technology

Mahuri Kesharwani, Masters of Fashion technology, NIFT.

A case study on: Comprehensive Comparison of

Bussiness Models - Bigbasket and Seven Eleven.

Abstract
A study on the comparison of two retail companies Bigbasket – which is India’s largest
online food and grocery store with over 18000 products and over 1000 brands
listed on their website. It provides the quality products with wide range of options
in every category at a lowest price viz. fresh fruits, vegetables, spices and
seasoning, fresh rice and dal, beverages, personal care products, meats, etc.
Bigbasket currently is an exclusively internet based company where as 7-Eleven
Inc. is a Japanese-owned American international chain of convenience stores,
headquartered in Dallas, Texas. To get a comprehensive comparative understanding
of marketing strategy, evolution of business and operations, expansion, customer
orientation, supply chain management, positioning strategy, different product
innovations, consumer experience between the both.

History

Bigbasket

In 1999, Hari Menon along with five of his friends- VS Sudhakar, Vipul
Parekh, Abhinay Choudhari and V S Ramesh launched their online retail
website called ‘Fabmart’. Even though they did manage to get some traction but
since their idea was way ahead of its time, they could not shake the masses.

They decided to start their online business again and focused all the energies
on ‘Fabmall’, their physical retail chain of grocery stores. They also merged this
chain with another grocery retail chain called – ‘Trinethra’. Within a period of
seven years they expanded their business to 200 stores across Andhra
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. At that point of time they decided
to sell their business to Aditya Birla Group but Krishnan Ganesh an
entrepreneur concluded to go ahead with it. Finally in December 2011, they
launched BigBasket.com!

They failed to get some attention as their idea was way ahead of its time, so
they could not work for the masses. Implementing many strategies and with
hard work, within 7 years, they succeeded to expand their business to 200
stores across Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. Around the
same time, they also decided to sell-off the business to Aditya Birla Group. Soon
after their launch, they received their first funding of $10million from
ChrysCapital co-founder Raj Kondur and Ascent Capital. There were 15 funding
rounds of more than $100 million in the whole year of 2014. So far this year,
BigBasket has raised $150 million in fresh round of funding led by UAE’s Abraaj
Group to expand its services into smaller cities. Existing investors Bessemer
Venture Partners and Helion Advisors along with International Finance Corp
and Sands Capital also participated in the round.

Seven Eleven

Business Model

When BigBasket started its operations, it adopted the ‘just-in-time model’

means they were purchased-to-order. In this model, the delivery boy directly
picks up the item from the retailer, and directly delivers it to the customer.

Current Scenario

BigBasket has been implementing a Hyper-local strategy, wherein, it has joined

hands with more than 1,800 neighbourhood grocery stores across India to
deliver goods within an hour.

Looking for the current scenario – BigBasket now processes almost 20,000
orders a day, with the involvement of 2000 team members.

Earlier they had acquired a hyper-local delivery start-up ‘Deliver’, to further

strengthen its delivery service. Although, the company still functions as an
independent firm, but the co-founders of Deliver have also been included in the
management team of BigBasket.
This acquisition has helped BigBasket in their Express Delivery model, to
delivery groceries in one hour.

Moving on, around the mid of 2015, BigBasket also roped in Bollywood actor –
‘Shah Rukh Khan’ as their brand ambassador, for an undisclosed sum; following
which, they also launched a high volume television, digital and print media
campaign as well.

They are now operational in 20 cities which include six metros, and are in plan
to expand to 50 more tier two cities soon. They will also be opening 8 large
warehouses in metro cities.