E-grocer Bigbasket.com to focus on household items, kitchenware

Online grocer BigBasket.com will focus on selling merchandise now. The e-tailer has added some 3,000 household and kitchenware products across cutlery, crockery, kitchen utensils, storage containers, lunch and snack boxes, water bottles, festival decoratives, etc.

Seshu Kumar, national head (merchandising) at BigBasket, said, "Household items, kitchenware and beauty together constitute six per cent of our total sale at this point of time.”

Eyeing further growth, it has added ready-to-cook meal kits in a range of international cuisines under the private label brand Happy Chef, which it has created by tying up with food delivery start-up Chefkraft in Bengaluru.

Freshly-ground filter coffee and pani poori kit would also be retailed under the private label brand Fresho.
 
"We currently have 27 items in this range and are planning to expand to about 100 items in the near future. Gourmet range of imported and international foods across baby food, rice, pasta, noodles, cheese, soups and sauces, snacks, chocolates and confectionery categories,” said Kumar.

Chief Executive Hari Menon had recently said the company wanted to do what Blue Apron had done in America. BigBasket.com has thus far raised around Rs 370 crore from investors including Helion Ventures and Zodius Capital.

Last month, BigBasket had acquired Delyver, a Bengaluru-based hyperlocal delivery start-up in a cash-and-stock deal. Delyver will continue to operate as a separate entity till the two teams chalk out the details. BigBasket will have Delyver's on-the-ground fleet for deliveries.