Brick and mortar retailer Big Bazaar is focussing on home deliveries as it adapts to changing consumer preferences towards online shopping, accelerated by the lockdowns.

The retailer plans to incorporate both walk-in store sales and home delivery channels in its business in the future.

Big Bazaar expects around 40 per cent of its business from home delivery orders against a pre-Covid number of less than 5 per cent as it gears up to take on prominent e-tailers such as Big Basket and Grofers with the proposition to deliver within two hours of booking, leveraging on a countrywide network of 290 stores.

The growth in home delivery orders according to Future group chief marketing officer Pawan Sarda is on account of consumer preference towards online purchases that have been accelerated by the lockdowns to prevent the spread of pandemic.

“Customers are adopting to shopping online and we have to be where our customers are. The idea is if you cannot come to the store, the store will have to come to you. We initially started with three cities in terms of two-hour home delivery. Today we are present in 154 cities and this is no longer a metro phenomenon,” said Sarda.

Big Bazaar launched online shopping and booking through WhatsApp and phone last year. “The idea is to get 40 per cent of Big Bazaar’s business through home delivery. We have 290 stores and all of them are doing this,” he added.

It localises the experience which means that whatever the customer is used to shopping from Big Bazaar, that will be delivered,” said Sarda.

The presence of the retailer in smaller cities gives it an edge in terms of inventory management and quick delivery.

The retailer has seen online orders rise to Rs 1,400 on an average, twice that of its competitors

According to Nasscom estimates, e-commerce in India growing at 3-4 times more than the offline business. By 2030, with more retailers moving to a hybrid online and offline models, there would be additional revenue of $640 billion and incremental GST earnings of $8 billion.