Want to pick up some groceries for the week, but don’t have the time? There are a number of apps that can help you with that – BigBasket, Grofers, ZopNow and AmazonNow are a few of the choices.
The market size in India of the logistics-intensive business was estimated to be about $135 million in 2016. So which of them is the most popular?
Our friends at Kalagato have done a bit of research on the online grocery business in India and have shared some interesting insights.
A year ago, Grofers had the largest market share by app installs – 56% had Grofers installed on their phones. Big Basket was fast gaining share with 40% of the market. Other hyper local players had a smaller percentage of app installs. Amazon Now was just setting foot in India.
For you and me, it’s all about convenience. Users install the app that gives them the better user experience as well as service experience. That’s where Big Basket managed to trounce Grofers, but not many noticed the silent growth of Amazon Now.
A year later, Amazon Now has managed to grab nearly 32% of the app installs market, eating significantly into Big Basket and Grofers’ share. However, in terms of volume of orders, Big Basket still does far more deliveries of groceries compared to Amazon and Grofers, according to order volume tracking data from Kalagato.
When it comes to app uninstalls, the maximum attrition – people dropping an app from their phone in favour of another app – appears to be with ZOPNow, which has a smaller user base in fewer cities. Grofers and BigBasket also have been seeing significant attrition.
Clearly, users seem to prefer having familiar apps, and that’s perhaps where Amazon has an advantage. It is currently leading in market share in the e-commerce space and promotions on the app have been urging users to install the Amazon Now app for groceries. It operates only in four cities – Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad – while Big Basket covers 20 cities in India. That’s what makes Amazon’s case interesting – it has been able to gather significant market share from a much smaller city base.
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