India’s online grocery market boasts of potential. Currently valued at a little over $1 billion, it is supposed to grow up to $3 billion to $5 billion in the next 3-4 years. Bigbasket, which is at the forefront of this e-grocery revolution, currently has operations in 25+ cities with over 15,000+ products on its platform. Bigbasket has grown to a customer base of over 10 million in less than seven years. Upsizing- procurement, maintenance, and transportation in such a short time frame requires decision-making capabilities far more substantial than human intuition. So, when Bigbasket decided to expand their horizons and broaden their reach all over the country, they decided to bring Locus on-board as their logistics intelligence partner. The biggest challenge that Bigbasket faced was to serve the customers in the time that has been promised to them. The perishable nature of the product also adds to Bigbasket’s complexities. The emergence of several players in the e-grocery market means that customer satisfaction is the only key distinguisher. The nature of the product means that the customer is highly dependent for fresh and timely deliveries, a lack of which can derail his or her day. A dissatisfied customer will easily switch to other players which has a direct impact on business and revenue. Another issue that Bigbasket faced was the small window between the order and the delivery time. This means a very short planning time for shipments that is extremely difficult to manage using manual planning processes. “Locus provides us with automated route plans in no time that ensure that customers get their orders on their preferred time slots. It also suggests the best fleet combination after considering real-world constraints like traffic conditions and route restrictions. Another benefit for us has been the increase in vehicle space utilization which has resulted in reduced freight costs. With Locus, we can tell our consumers about the ETA of their deliveries, enhance the overall customer experience and maintain an SLA adherence of 99.5%," said Tejas Vyas, Head of Product & Design, Bigbasket. Tackling the challenges