Covid-19: BigBasket, Grofers Witness 80%-100% Spike as the Coronavirus Scare Continues, Says Report

Moneylife Digital Team 16 March 2020

Economy & Nation

Online grocery retailers like Bigbasket and Grofers saw a spike of 80%-100% in orders over the weekend as customers across metros began stocking up staples like flour, rice and pulses besides disinfectants, hand sanitisers, diapers and personal-care items, top executives at these companies told a newspaper.

As per the report from Times of India (ToI), the development comes as authorities in major metros are urging people to stay at home, shutting down malls and restaurants, while companies are also announcing work-from-home for employees across the country to contain the spread of Covid-19.

Bigbasket CEO (chief executive officer) Hari Menon told ToI that he has been camping at the warehouse for past two days tackling a huge surge in orders. “We are seeing 2x (times) kind of growth and baskets are larger by 15%-20%,” he says, adding that the platform is also seeing a lot more new users and is now ramping up capacity including storage space, delivery van and personnel.

Grofers’ founder Albinder Dhindsa told the newspaper that while the platform had started seeing a spike of 5%-7% earlier this week, demand has increased by 80% over the weekend.

According to the report, on an average day, Bigbasket does over 160,000 deliveries for next-day shipments and 140,000 for its micro-delivery business BBDaily, which delivers essentials like milk and bread every morning. Grofers, which only does next-day delivery, does about 90,000 orders a day.

Grofers also saw a customer in Chandigarh run up a bill of Rs 52,000 on the platform, beating the previous record of Rs24,000.

Quoting industry sources, the newspaper says, offline retailers like Future Group, which owns Big Bazaar and Easyday, is seeing a spike of 20%-25%. “The demand is significantly higher in select SKUs (stock-keeping units) like rice, daal, atta (flour), milk and ready-to-eat items like Maggi. This is happening over the last two-three days,” a spokesperson of the Future Group told ToI.

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