Deconstructing Big Basket

It is one of the apps which I use on a weekly basis for ordering groceries. I also use Swiggy Insta and Grofers but my preference is Big Basket.

Basic flow

Home Page → Click on Categories → Select Categories from Category list page- > Select Subcategories-> Add Products -> Click on basket -> Checkout -> Proceed to Pay-> Payment options page-> Select option-> Proceed

What do I like about Bigbasket?

1. Offers Highlighted — On the Homepage as soon as I launch the app I can see all offers running on BB. They have a variety of offers some of which are

Instant discounts on minimum purchase of 1200

Mid-month sale

Cashback of 100

On the homepage itself, I am aware of all the offers running which might lure me and I can use them for my purchase

I scroll down and I can see offers in different categories.

As I scroll further I see more offers based on categories or brands

Conclusion

BB's homepage is all about highlighting its offers on different categories, different brands, festivals, and occasions. For Eg Independence Day offers.

They are also sometimes promoting a few categories like Ayurved products, organic products, monsoon must-haves, Rakhi Special, etc

Even if the user has not come to the app with a particular product in mind, he might end up buying these products tempted by offers and promotions. Showing offers based on categories can lead to buying multiple products from that category and stocking his grocery needs for months or weeks.

2. Variety of Products — I get a variety of products in categories, be it vegetables, staples, or fruits. BB has

Products — 40,000 Products Brands — 1,000 brands

I want to buy vegetables. I go to the vegetable section and I get a large variety of veggies. Some of the vegetables lesser known to my household are

Kachalu

Ash gourd

Karonda

Coccinia

And many more

They even have an exotic section of fruits and a seasonal produce section to offer which includes kiwi, blueberries, Italian basil, avocado, cherry tomatoes, celery, lemongrass, etc.

Suppose I select the flour section apart from basic wheat flour I get different other varieties like rice flour, ragi flour, jowar flour, cornflour, and many from different brands.

Conclusion — BB provides a humongous variety of all grocery items be it vegetables, fruits, edible oils, or gourmet. Idea is to provide so much diversity that people come back to BB with the hope of getting that product here.

3. Subcategories to make life easy

BB provides interesting categories like

Exotic Fruits and Vegetables

Cut Veggies

Sprouts

Flower bouquets and bunches

Non Dairy

Cakes and Pastry

Bakery snacks

If you want to do meal planning for the week, you can order cut veggies from BB.

Want to follow a healthy protein-rich diet you can order sprouts, festivals coming and if you want flowers for home decor or pooja, you can order from BB. If you are planning a brunch for Sunday you can order whatever you require from Big Basket.

Conclusion — Anything and everything required in Kitchen(except appliances), Pooja room, Garden, and Laundry is available in BigBasket

Some non-regular things I have bought from BB

Idli Stand

Fertilizer from my plants

Broomstick

Reason- BB would deliver in 4–5 hours without delivery charges whereas Amazon would take at least 2–3 days for normal delivery without a Prime membership.

Conclusion — Make BB a one-stop store for all household requirements. Not only makes grocery its USP but also attracts customers to BB for their daily needs apart from just grocery.

4. Categories thumbnail — All the products in BB have been categorized which are depicted with an image, and each category has subcategories that have thumbnails. It becomes very easy for a user to select the category of his choice and proceed to purchase. From a product point of view, all my products are easily discoverable and users will not have to spend so much time finding the items.

Conclusion: Easily discoverable products through categories and groups make the purchase journey easy, also the quality of the image used is really good. It sometimes tempts me to buy a product just by seeing the vibrant thumbnail of fresh-looking fruits.

5. Easily accessible touchpoints on the homepage

1. Category — Most used on BB to find products and add to the basket

2. Search — IF there is any specific product you would want to add without going through the entire list, the search comes in handy.

3. Offers — Offers are available on the home page however if a user is on any other page the bottom menu bar remains the same on all pages and the user can click on offers to check offers.

4. Basket — The user can easily check the basket from the bottom menu bar and proceed to checkout.

5. My Accounts — Users can easily access the details of their orders, subscriptions, and other user-specific data from here.

Conclusion- Users can perform all their activities of searching, buying, checking offers, checking their account details, and reviewing their basket from one single page without scrolling just within their reach of thumb. Users can order from BB in their most comfortable way. It’s a very effortless process for users.

There are many other reasons why I prefer BB like

1. Amazing customer service — Whenever they have delivered a product that is not of good quality they will always refund it without making any fuss about it.
2. Easy Payment — Sometimes when I select Paytm and proceed I get to know that my Paytm wallet doesn’t have enough funds. Instead of asking me to refund my wallet and proceed BB completes my order.
3. Pay Later — In the above scenario, BB gives me the option to pay later. You can either pay from My Accounts or you can pay at the time of delivery.
4. Products available in different quantities — If you are looking for a product in a smaller quantity BB offers products from 50gm of cardamom to 25kgs of rice. This is one reason I prefer BB over Grofers.
5. Good Quality — Products purchased from BB are of good quality and whenever there is an issue with a product, they get it exchanged or refunded.
6. Cost-effective — Products are at genuine prices and with offers they are even more affordable.
7. Products categorized wisely — Even in subcategories all products have been divided into different groups and provided with tabs on top of the screen on the product list page. Users can easily select different groups and see products in that group without going back

Eg category — Bakery, Cakes, Diary.

Subcategories- Diary

Groups — Milk, Paneer/Tofu & Cream, Butter & Margarine, Condensed Powdered milk, Buttermilk/ Lassi, Curd, Cheese, Yogurt/Shrikhand, Flavored milk.

What do I not like about Bigbasket?

1. No Customisation — After ordering multiple times, BB should recommend products that are part of my basket in every order. BB doesn’t provide any recommendations.

A lot of time users will have to keep searching for products or keep scrolling in the product list page to get the items. Adding products either by recalling or scrolling from the dump of past purchases can be frustrating at times.

From a product point of view, I want the products to be easily discoverable by users.

2. Smart Basket — BB has a tray named smart basket which shows a list of all products from your previous purchase. It is like a dump of all products so one needs to scroll down a lot which is not useful and doesn’t serve the purpose of a smart basket.

So every time building a basket from scratch can be a bit time taking and cumbersome for users. From a product point of view, I would want to make the purchase journey smoother for users so that they can reach the payment funnel quickly and proceed with the purchase.

3. My Account data at multiple places- My Accounts icon is shown on the homepage on the right-hand side, and on the left-hand side, there is a hamburger menu that has again all My Accounts data like my orders, subscriptions, referrals, etc.

The same data shown creates confusion for users. From a product point of view, I would want my app to be neat without redundancy.

How can I improve BB?

I would like to introduce some features to make it more interactive and smart.

1. Create a smart basket — Based on users' past purchase history, we can analyze

The number of products in an order

Products in an order

Quantity of products

Amount spend in an order

Frequency of orders in a month

Time of order

Based on the above data we can create a smart basket with a list of products and their quantity. The user can easily review this basket, add if he wants to add anything extra, and remove it if needed.

2. Provide some recommendations — Based on his past purchases we can deduce the time the user takes to repeat an order for a product. Eg: The user bought a packet of oats in his first purchase and then again orders the second packet of oats after 45 days so we add oats to his smart basket when a user is making a purchase approx after 45 days.

We can also create a recommended section, something like a tray on the homepage, and add oats to this section. For any festival approaching like Rakhi, we recommend Kaju Katli in his recommendation tray based on his past purchase from the Indian Mithai section. A lot of personalization can be done for each purchase based on the products he consumes and the categories he likes. The past history can be very useful in knowing a user’s preferences, lifestyle, buying capacity, and a lot more.

3. Make it interactive — Add an interactive message saying “Hey Bhavya, Looks like you are running out of oats, do you want to add it to your basket?”

4. Shop by Dish — Currently, users can shop by category. What if we also provide a section where users can shop by dish? A user wants to cook Palak Paneer and Dal Makhani for dinner and wants to shop from BB. He gets an option to shop by dish where he selects Palak Paneer. Clicking on Palak Paneer takes him to the ingredients list page where he gets a list of all the products required to cook Palak Paneer.

In conclusion, Big Basket is a great platform for ordering groceries and household essentials online. Its homepage is all about highlighting its offers, promotions, and different categories which can easily tempt the user into purchasing items they had not even considered. BB’s variety of products is impressive, making it a one-stop shop for all household needs. With interesting categories like cut veggies, sprouts, and flower bouquets, and easily accessible touchpoints like the search, basket, and account details, the purchase journey on BB is effortless for users. Additionally, their excellent customer service is an added bonus. Overall, BB provides a great online shopping experience for its users.