Innovative Retail Concepts, the company that runs the online grocery retail startup BigBasket had posted a much higher loss for the last full financial year 2018-19 as per the figures reported by the company to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The revenue from operations recorded an impressive jump, however. As per these figures, the company posted a revenue of ₹2,380.95 crore in 2018-19 against a revenue figure of ₹1,409.61 crore in the previous financial year. This is a jump of 68.9%. However, the losses also increased from ₹179.23 crore in 2017-18 to ₹348.27 crore in 2018-19, almost twice the previous year’s figure.
You will normally have an explanation statement from the company for this abnormal increase in losses despite a robust growth in revenue. The company has not responded to the report and there is no note attached to the financial performance figures submitted to the MCA either, it appears.
Apart from the online retail business of BigBasket, there is the SuperMarket Grocery Supplies, a sister firm that handles the wholesale business in the same space. The wholesale business caters to the bulk requirements of groceries and other food articles to institutional customers like hotels as well as making supplies to offline retail outlets like provision stores etc. It ends up saving a lot of effort and money for these customers since they can rely on BigBasket to deliver their requirements at their doorsteps and take ownership for quality and pricing. Hotels can cut down on the staff they employ to make purchases and the provision stores need not bother to go to the mandis to make their procurements.
BigBasket has Grofers for competition while the giants like Amazon and Flipkart have also moved in, offering groceries and fresh foods. All the players are toying with innovative ideas to woo the customers. However, the Indian customer is largely wedded to the conventional ways of making purchases of their daily needs and monthly provisions and household stuff. The mom & pop stores round the corner still enjoy patronage.