Online grocer BigBasket believes morning milk delivery segment will increase revenues

Leading online grocer BigBasket which recently entered the morning milk-delivery segment is expecting the division to grow ten times by March, according to a media report.

BigBasket is hoping that the segment will account for at least 10 percent of the company’s total revenue, Hari Menon, the company's chief executive told The Economic Times.

Menon told the newspaper that morning deliveries are currently available on a separate app and the company is planning to integrate this service into the main BigBasket app.

Representational image. Reuters

Last week, BigBasket acquired subscription-based e-grocery startup RainCan in order to strengthen its micro-delivery operations, VCCircle reported. BigBasket rebranded the RainCan app as BBdaily.

Apart from milk, the company will also launch a subscription-based service enabling early morning delivery bread, fruits and vegetables etc, the report said.

In February this year, BigBasket raised $300 million from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and other investors.

"The funds will be directed towards improving our technological, analytical and infrastructural abilities, all of which enable the company to grow," the company's CEO and co-founder Hari Menon had said in a statement.

Currently, BigBasket operates in 30 cities in the country, with its headquarters in Bengaluru. The online grocer claims to have over 8 million customers, registering a revenue of up to Rs 200 crore per month. BigBasket had a total revenue of Rs 1,410 crore for 2016-17.

The retail market in India is estimated to be worth over $900 billion, out of which grocery shopping is said to account for an estimated $600 billion.

--With inputs from IANS