BigBasket set to enter fresh meat, cosmetics categories
India’s largest online grocer BigBasket, which raised $300 million from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd earlier this year, will soon start selling branded beauty products and fresh meat on its platform, challenging established brands such as online beauty and cosmetics start-up Nykaa and gourmet meat start-ups Licious and Zappfresh.
In an interview with Mint, BigBasket co-founder and CEO Hari Menon said the grocery start-up will launch a new private label for beauty products to enter the category.
“We are adding a new private label under the new category of beauty products. We are going to have a lot of private-label play there,” said Menon. “We will not just have a private label (for beauty), but also normal labels, imported stuff, etc. Basically a new set of categories that you will see in beauty.”
BigBasket already has private brands such as Fresho for vegetables and idli and dosa batter and Royal and Popular for staples. BigBasket has also launched Tasties, a private label for snacks.
The company also sells its private labels to hotels, restaurants and caterers.
BigBasket already sells some specific meats under its Fresho private label, but plans to create a separate category and deeper supply chain to focus exclusively on the business.
“In meat, we already have a supply chain, but now we want to build a deeper supply chain, in terms of getting deeper into that category. That is because we see a tremendous new business opportunity that is called HORECA (acronym for hotels, restaurants and caterers). They have a huge requirement for meat and we want to strengthen that business, for which we need to get deeper into the supply chain,” added Menon.
With the addition of a new private label for beauty products, BigBasket is aiming to generate 45% of overall sales from its private label business by April 2019, Menon said. Private labels currently contribute roughly 34% to BigBasket’s revenues.
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