Bigbasket focuses on B2B sales; sets up separate warehouses for supply to hotels, restaurants

Bigbasket, the domestic hyperlocal ecommerce startup, is focusing on business to business sales, and pushing for its private labels in the highly competitive market. In July’16, the startup launched HORECA, a program under which it sells high-margin private labels and products from other brands to hotels, restaurants and caterers. The vertical, currently operational in eight metro cities, generates INR12 crore monthly sales, and ~75% of that comes from private labels.

In a bid to further expand this business presence, the firm is now opening dedicated warehouses in each city where it is operational. Abhinav Choudhari, Founder and Head of New Initiatives at Bigbasket, said that “We are setting up dedicated business-to-business distribution centres starting with Bengaluru. Some customers have different specifications. Getting vendors to meet those specifications becomes a challenge. With a centre of our own, we can meet those specifications easily”. He further added that “In fruits and vegetables, we make good margins and the clients also save money. We will also start bringing in additional specifications in terms of staples, say different qualities of rice or larger packs of other commodities meant only for the B2B business”.

Bigbasket’s new institutional business currently counts about 1,500 hotels and restaurants as clients, including JW Marriott, Le Meridien and Sheraton in Bengaluru, apart from start-ups such as Oyo.