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Even as Future Retail’s deal with Reliance Retail hangs in the balance, Big Bazaar is enhancing its digital infrastructure. The Kishore Biyani-owned retail chain has now integrated its offline stores and Big Bazaar’s mobile app and offline portal. The company announced the launch of its 2-Hour Delivery promise on every product across fashion, food, FMCG and home products for orders placed online through Big Bazaar mobile app and portal on April 1.
Speaking at a virtual press conference, Kamaldeep Singh, President, Food Business and Head Online business, FRL, said in the first phase Big Bazaar will offer 2-Hour Delivery in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi. The second phase of Big Bazaar’s 2-Hour Delivery promise will be rolled out in the next 45 days in all the cities where Big Bazaar has 3 or more stores.”
Big Bazaar aims to generate at least one lakh orders a day in the first phase. Sources said the expansion of this service will be completed across all Big Bazaars within the next six months. Currently, Big Bazaar has over 285 stores across India. “Logically, in the future, this service will be extended to the other brands of Future Retail as well.”
A Future Retail spokesperson said the team has been working on building the digital infrastructure over the past 15 months by perfecting its e-commerce portal, mobile app along with perfecting its pick-up and fulfilment capabilities in order to achieve this objective.
Kishore Biyani, Founder & Group CEO, Future Group, said, “With this launch Future Group will become the first multi-channel retailer in the country with complete digital capabilities.”
When asked about the investment in the launch of this service, Bharati Balakrishnan, Head, Digital Commerce, Future Group India, said: “This service is an extension to our brick and mortar stores. It (online services) was the most logical step now. The main expense would have been the physical infrastructure, which we had already. The other bit was spent on the back-end building and integration.”
Future Retail has been in a financial crunch post the Covid-19 pandemic. In August 2020, Biyani sold off the retail business to Reliance Retail for close to ₹25,000 crore.
When asked about how these services would be impacted by the change of hands in the business, a company spokesperson said, “We are on a journey of innovation and solving problems of our customers and we will continue to do so irrespective of ownership.”
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