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In India groceries, sales have great prominence. As on average, Indians purchase groceries frequently. The market size of the grocery business stands at $604 billion.
There are around 12.8 million grocery shopping stores in India. This gives an insight into the importance of the grocery. But grocery shopping is not easy in India.
Nearby grocery stores are cannot gives discounts to their customers. So, the majority of the customers heads towards hyperlocal retail markets.
Even though retail markets give discounts but the shopping experience is not gratifying.
Because one has to move out with slow-moving traffic and finds it’s terrible to find a parking space. Moreover, one has to wait for hours at billing.
Even the quality of products is not up to the mark. Even the supply chain is not very well build.
So, to tackle this problem, two IITians build an online grocery delivery platform Gorfers. Starting as a hyperlocal delivery company now they build an online grocery shopping platform.
In this blog, we will give your deep insight into the Grofers startup story. How they build such a massive and powerful shopping platform.
Grofers startup
Grofers is an online grocery shopping platform. Users can seamlessly do online grocery shopping. Then get it delivered to their doorstep in no time.
This company operates in 27 cities. Even it has 45 warehouses where they will manage their inventory. There are around 1.2 million customers orders per month.
On this platform, users can shop for all the household essentials. Like one can order groceries, staples, vegetables, fruits, beverages, household items, and many more online.
The company expands its services to provide snacks, meat, and pet care items as well. This company delivers 70,000 orders per day. As an online grocery shopping platform made $357 million of sales in FY19.
Online grocery shopping platform, Grofers was found in December 2013. Till now the company got funding about $535.5 million. Soft Bank, Tiger Global, and Sequoia Capital are major investors.
Saurabh Kumar and Albinder Dhindsa are the founders of Grofers. They build this great platform to provide the best quality of groceries. They started this startup in Gurugram in 2013.
Recently, Zomato made about $120 million of investment in Grofers. The food delivery giant, Zomato got 9.3% of the stakes from the company.
Around, 2500 employees are part of the Grofers family. These employees give their best efforts to make this company successful.
Also Read: Sucess story of lenskart
Grofers startup story
To build a successful company requires many essential factors. Firstly, the founders should solve a problem that the majority of people are facing. Secondly, they pivot at the right time and understand the market accurately.
Before talking about the success story of Grofers. We have to go into the background of its founders.
Saurabh Kumar is an alumnus of IIT Bombay. He completed his graduation at the University of Texas. He made got a job at a tech- companies. Then he continued working and understood the insight of tech.
Albinder Dhindsa, co-founder of Grofers is an alumnus of IIT Delhi. Further, he had a great interest in the business sector. Always had a desire to start his venture. So. he completed his graduation at Columbia Business School.
Finally, Saurabh made up his mind to start his own company. Then he found a company called OneNumber in 2013. This company operates as a hyperlocal delivery service.
Meanwhile, Saurabh Kumar met Albinder Dhindsa. Then they had a deep discussion over the business. Eventually, Albinder Dhindsa became a co-founder of the company.
Further, the observer the vulnerability of the supply chain. In the grocery sector, there was a lot of demand but it is not fulfilled adequately.
Then they pivot to the B2B business. From then they offer to sell groceries, pharmaceutical products, and electronic gadgets.
They made contracts with the merchants. They got the revenue from the commission they charge. Almost 2000 merchants were selling products on their platform.
As there was high competition in the electronic appliances and gadgets from both e-commerce giant Flipkart and Amazon. So, Albinder and Saurabh quit the sales of this item.
These all the above-mentioned problem lead to the Grofers startup story
Initail statges:Grofers startup story
While some time in the business they understood the market size. So they pivot their business from B2B to B2C. Then they rename their company “Grofers” in 2013.
Gradually, the online grocery shopping platform, Gorfer got prominence over the years. Then they were able to get sustainable growth over the years.
Now, they are operating in 25+ cities. Millions of customers visit their website to make an order. From marketplace model to they shits to entirely of inventory model. So, they have 45 warehouses across India.
The online grocery business has a lot of competition and challenges. As the grocery sector has a high risk of losses. Because they have to make quick sales or the products are not reliable. Bigbasket was the main competitor of Grofers.
Now, Grofers is a successful company and impacting millions of lives in India. Even they save money for its users and provide the best quality of products.
In this way, both the founders build a successful Grofers startup story.
GrofersFundings
Online grocery delivery platforms have a great future because everyone going online. Digitalization is also ramping up and even there are 62.4 internet users in India.
As a result, the internet companies and online grocery delivery space got prominence. Grofers are also in the same space.
So, it has raised $662.4 million of funding in 13 rounds till now. The major investor is Soft Bank, Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, and KTB ventures.
Grofers and Zomato
Recently, India’s online food delivery platform Zomato has funded $120 million. They are in talks with co-founders for the acquisition in the future. Zomato is also showing intense interest to acquire an online grocery platform to compete in the market.
Earlier, Zomato started its own grocery segment earlier during the outbreak of the pandemic. But the segment did not give a successful result. So they shut down the grocery business.
Whereas, their rival Swiggy had acquired the online grocery delivery platform Supr Daily.
Even TATA also acquired 9.3% stakes on investing $1.2 Billion on BigBasket. So, every company looking forward to taking part in the grocery sector.
grofers Business model
Gofers follow the inventory business model. Where in this model, tons of products are ordered in bulk and store in the warehouse. Further, when the order comes they pack it and delivers it to the customer’s doorstep.
The inventory business model can get more revenue. As the company deals directly with the manufacturer. So, there is no extra commission to dealers. Hence, they can eliminate the middle man and saves money in commission.
Then they get the products at a very cheap price from the manufacturers. So, they can sell the products at cheaper prices to their users. The company can urge its users to buy groceries online at cheaper prices.
Another advantage of the inventory model, the company doesn’t have any physical stores. So, they can save on rents of building and maintenance of staffs at the stores. Hence, the inventory business model has dominance.
But there is risk in this model. As you order bulk, so have to sell the products within a limited time. Otherwise, the product get decomposes. As groceries are not reliable for a long time.
Another way of managing an online grocery shopping platform is from Market place business model.
In the marketplace business model, the company ties up with the local merchants for the products. In this model, the company earns through the commission.
Amazon and Flipkart are following marketplace business models. They are having millions of sellers on their platform and chargers commission from the sales.
In this model, the company cannot have control over both the supply chain and the quality of the products. If any seller sells any inferior quality of products then it directly affects the company’s reputation and trustworthiness.
In this way, Grofers startup story incorporated the business-model
Grofers rebranded to Blinkit
India’s largest online grocery delivery startup, Grofers as changed the name of the company to Blinkit.
Now, the startup Grofers has changed its name because they are completely shifting their business model.
Till now, Gofer’s core business model was the inventory model. As, they store the products in bulk in the various warehouse. Then as the order comes, products are going to be delivered to the customer’s doorstep.
But now the Grofers are making the transition to quick commerce. Now, the Blinkit is going to deliver the items in just 10 minutes.
Blinkit busineess model
The company is going to set up numerous dark houses in the cities in which they currently operate. As the orders come in, the message will be reached to the dark house.
Then the products are packed and delivered in just 10 minutes. To fulfill the 10 minutes delivery Grofers are going to shut down its operation in 18 cities out of 30.
Now, Grofer’s main focus is to make the service efficient and accurate. So, they are now starting in fewer cities, later they are going to scale up quickly.
Presently, Grofers has 2 lakhs customers. But due to the shutting down the operation might hit nearly 75,000 customers.
Resignment of the co-founder
Saurabh Kumar, co-founder of the Grofers left the company in 2021. He is one of the main architects of the company. Further, he would be part of the company only as a shareholder and as a board member.
He took this decision to explore more in life. Then he would spend more time in his own interests and trying to venture out something new. Finally, Saurabh Kumar ends his successful 8 years journey with Grofers.
Grofers Competitors
Online grocery delivery startups are ramping up their services at a quick pace. Even demand for online grocery is surging drastically. This recent demand for online grocery shopping is because of the outbreak of the corona pandemic.
A lot of startups are coming into the online grocery space to make revenue out of it. Here is the list of competitors for Grofers
Bigbasket
This is the main rival for Grofers. Grofers and Bigbasket are the top two contenders in the online grocery delivery space.
BigBasket is the largest online grocery delivery platform in India. This platform has 60,000 products with more than 10,000 brands in its platform.
This company was found in December 2011 to solve existing problems in the grocery sector. BigBasket has 50,000 Stock Keeping units. Besides, it operates in 25 cities across India.
Abhinay Choudhari, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, VS Ramesh and VS Sudhakar are the founders of BigBasket
JioMart
Reliance is just expanding wherever the demand and opportunity exist. They stepped into the telecom industry on launching JIO in 2015.
In the same way, they came into the online grocery sector on launching JioMart in December 2019. This company provides a huge discount for online grocery shopping.
This company provides services like speedy delivery, no minimum order, and no question-asked on returns.
JioMart is competing intensely to capture the market. Now, JioMart is operating across 200 cities in India.
Besides, it delivers 4 lakhs orders in a day. There are around 10,000 employees at the venture.
Supr Daily
Supr Daily is a subscription-based hyperlocal grocery and milk delivery startup. This company sells bread, eggs, fruits, vegetables, and household essentials as well.
This company was found in 2015 and its headquarter is in Mumbai. Puneet Kumar and Shreyas Nagdawane are the founders of Supr Daily. This online grocery platform delivers 1 lakh deliveries in a day.
The Supr daily company promises to deliver the item by 7 am in the morning. But the order should be placed before 11 pm the previous day. This online grocery delivery startup operates in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Chennai, and Hyderabad.
Almost 2,70,000 to 3,00,000 orders get a place on this online grocery shopping platform.
Supr Daily is acquired by the online food delivery platform Swiggy. Swiggy made $100 million(680 crores) on an acquisition deal with Supr Daily.
MilkBasket
This company mainly focuses on providing processes free milk to its customers. This startup is solving major problems in society. Where a lot of people are not getting the pure milk to consume.
Users have the choice to choose 45 varieties of milk. This company ties up with 10 essential brands like Amul, Mother Dairy, and many more.
Anant Goel, Ashish Goel, Anray Jain, Yatish Talavdia, and Ekwe Charles are the founders of the online grocery delivery platform MilkBasket.
Even this company also sells groceries online. Users can order fruits, vegetables, milk, bread, eggs, yogurts, and many more. MilkBasket has over 500 brands on its platform.
MilkBasket presently operates in Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Noida, Greater Noida, and Gaziabad.
Daily Ninja
This is another online grocery delivery platform founded in 2015. This company delivers milk, groceries, fruits, and vegetables at the doorstep in the morning.
Till this venture raised $14.2 million in fundings. Besides, it had partnered with more than 2000 milkmen.
Sagar Yarnalkar and Anurag Gupta are the founders of Daily Ninja. They found the company with the intention to solve the underserved grocery delivery sector.
Even founders also had terrible experiences while shopping grocery online. Due to late deliveries and low-quality products.
Eventually, this online grocery delivery platform Daily Ninja was acquired by Bigbasket. The acquisition deal was about 48 crores.
These are the top online grocery delivery startups in India. Even these are the competitors for Grofres.
In this way, Grofers continuing its successful journey in the online grocery delivery sector. Starting as a hyperlocal logistic company to becoming India’s best online grocery delivery platform.
Grofers startup story is inspirational for a lot of budding entrepreneurs. The Grofers founder’s dedication and commitment portraits all.