Chop and shop: online veg shopping gets easier

From offering cut vegetables to using ozone technology in cleaning greens, ensuring minimal human intervention while packaging to express deliveries, online retailers are innovating to reach increasingly harried consumers.

Bigbasket.com has recently introduced cut vegetables as part of its product offerings. The veggies are cleaned using ozone technology that removes not only the dirt but also residual pesticides and micro-organisms. The vegetables are then cut and sliced and packed using machines developed by the Mysore-based Central Food Technological Research Institute .

Enthused by the response, Bigbasket now plans to sell whole vegetables and fruits that are ozonated, and is installing machines for this at its centralised warehouses in Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Similarly, vegwala.com , which operates largely in East Bangalore, is selling assorted veggies in a box that takes care of a family’s weekly nutritional requirements. Vegwala offers free delivery and there’s no minimum quantity for an order. Tradus.com too is betting on faster deliveries. From building a marketplace model to carving out differentiated product offerings, online retailers are constantly innovating as more people log on to the Net to source their daily bread, cheese, veggies and fruits. The brands, on their part, are looking for brand stickiness and modifying their offering as online grocery shopping picks up pace.

“Fresh products now account for about 20 per cent of our business and this is growing at a healthy 30-40 per cent every quarter,” said Vipul Parekh, CFO and marketing head at Bigbasket.com .

It is easy to start, but difficult to scale and sustain, Parekh says, adding that the company has been focussing on value addition and expanding its product range. Bigbasket has streamlined its sourcing of perishables through a chain of suppliers as part of its backward linkage. “If you offer better quality products, customers will stay with you,” said Parekh, adding that customer retention at Bigbasket is very high at 60 per cent.

Rajiv Tevitiya, Founder, Greencart Ventures, says: “The backward linkage of a farmers’ network gives us a huge sourcing advantage. Besides, we also grade our products on quality and offer consumers a choice”.

The angel-funded company said that 75-80 per cent of its orders were repeat buys, with the minimum order standing at ₹400.

The fresh produce market in India is estimated at $20 billion a year, and is dominated by the unorganised sector. This sector is witnessing a marked transformation. More and more consumers are becoming conscious of quality, looking for standardisation of products and beginning to enjoy the convenience of online shopping.

“We have used the inputs of a nutritionist in designing boxes that take care of a family’s nutritional requirements,” says Vegwala’s Santosh Patil, a techie turned online veggie retailer, who’s looking to expand to other parts of Bangalore.

The proliferation of online retailers seemed to have also raised the quality levels as the produce sold through online platforms is largely graded at the farm level.

“In addition to the guaranteed freshness, almost all our fruits and vegetables are graded as export quality, premium or standard, etc. This helps the consumers understand the difference across products in the same category. Accurate grading helps consumers to derive full value from their purchase,” adds Tevtiya.

Greencart offers a wide range of products, including exotic items such as asparagus, blueberries and kumquat nagamis (a SE Asian fruit), apart from domestic fruits and vegetables, international and gourmet food items, groceries and imported packaged food, and oils and vinegars, among others.

According to a US Department of Agriculture report the number of online food and grocery retail outlets has increased to 44 so far this year from 14 in 2013, with growing Internet users in the country.

Domestic products dominate but most retailers carry some imported items. Given the complexity of importing food products, the retailers currently rely on local distributors, it said.

AaramShop , meanwhile, is working on a marketplace model where it ties up with FMCG companies and local retailers.

“Neighbourhood stores also have good discounts but the shopping experience is not particularly enjoyable. We have developed a mobile app that will give you the best deals of all the retailers near your home, thereby offering the best shopping experience,” Vijay Singh, Founder, AaramShop said.

Localbanya too has tied up with a slew of local sellers.

The company said that order can be fulfilled in a matter of hours. The company has a warehouse in Goregaon, in Mumbai, and buys products in bulk.

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