In today’s digital world, it seems that everyone now shops virtually—whether it is clothes, electricals, or even food, they don’t have to walk down to get everything. Shop, shop till you drop, ordering daily household items through online stores such as JioMart, BigBasket, Grofers, or Reliance Fresh.
But among the hundreds of possibilities available, how can you choose which to go with?
This article will compare two of India’s leading grocery platforms, JioMart and BigBasket, for your choosing between each serving your criteria best.
BigBasket: Top Online Grocery Market in India
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BigBasket, established in 2011, found its inception in the entrepreneurial minds of five individuals, mainly in the persons of Abhinay Chaudhary, V.S. Sudhakar, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, and V.S. Ramesh.
Interestingly, while working together in the early 2000s at a venture named Fabmart.com, most of them would have remembered it because that site’s growth was inhibited by a lack of internet trust, which, interestingly, contributed quite a bit to the foundation of BigBasket.
Now it offers more than 18000 products from over 1000 brands to more than 44 cities in this country. Then, in the year 2021, TATA found out about the business transaction and acquired BigBasket’s parent company for $1.3 billion, holding a 64.3% share in it.
JioMart: Best Online Grocery Market
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Reliance introduced JioMart back in 2020, right with the pandemic. Initially launched in areas like Navi Mumbai, Thane, and Kalyan, it stretched right up to more than 200 cities across India within a month’s time.
However, JioMart has not just been built overnight. Preparations for this digital retail move began as early as 2014-15 by Reliance. Further, in 2019, C-Square (an eCommerce tech firm) and Grab (a logistics company) were brought into the fold to pave the way for the results: an all-government-backed grocery platform robustly built on a comprehensive infrastructure.
JioMart vs BigBasket: Which is the Best Online Grocery Market in India?
| Feature | BigBasket | JioMart |
| Launch Year | 2011 | 2020 |
| Ownership | TATA Group (64.3%) | Reliance Industries |
| Reach | 44+ cities | 200+ cities |
| Product Range | 18,000+ items from 1,000+ brands | Competitive pricing & Reliance brands |
| Strength | Established brand, quality selection | Fast delivery, aggressive pricing |
Features Comparison for Best Online Grocery Market
Features of BigBasket
BigBasket is today an online grocery shopping option for over 1 crore people across India. Its typical customers would be working professionals, students, and elder citizens—those who hardly find time or energy to go through the tedious experience of shopping in crowded supermarkets or waiting in line. BigBasket provides an option for its customers to be at home and look for groceries from a wide range of quality grocery items.
BigBasket offers very speedy and easy deliveries to cater to different customer needs and requirements. Customers can shop for groceries online and choose one of the three options for delivery:
Express Delivery
This entails delivery of your order within 90 minutes in select cities, including Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, and Delhi NCR.
Slotted Delivery
A customer chooses a preferred time slot for delivery the next morning or at the customer’s own choice.
BB Speciality Stores
Your order of items from partner stores, such as from Karachi Bakery, would be brought to you within 90 minutes.
Features of JioMart
JioMart is operating an online-led offline (O2O) business model. JioMart ties up with local retail outlets and runs delivery operations from the nearest store to the consumer.
This model guarantees faster delivery and helps local rice owners whose sales had been affected due to large online brick-and-mortar retailers.
By partnering with the neighbourhood stores, JioMart aims to organise the unorganised retail sector and then create a win-win position for the consumers and small businesses.
As much as JioMart focuses on increasing sales and profit margins of local shopkeepers, it is equally concerned with empowering them with modern tools and skill sets. Retailers are provided with PoS terminals, integrated billing systems, GST compliance mechanisms, and training in inventory and supply chain activities, all of which help them to adjust to the changing world of digital retail.
On the customer side, JioMart has several delivery services set in place to offer convenience and value:
Free Home Delivery
An order is fulfilled by the nearest local store and delivered free to your home.
No Minimum Order Requirement
JioMart does not have any minimum order size for free delivery, unlike players such as BigBasket and Grofers.
Express Delivery
Customers get delivery at express speed, usually within 24 hours, for easy access to their much-needed supplies.
No-Questions-Asked Return Policy
JioMart redefines return processes for the customer—no questions will be asked when items are returned by the customer.
Good Launch Discounts
Pre-registration offers from JioMart grant discounts of up to ₹3,000 on future purchases for customers during the period before the official launch.
Thus, by marrying local retailer empowerment to customer service, JioMart is redefining convenience in the Indian e-grocery space.
Acquisition & Funding of BigBasket and JioMart
In India, BigBasket is one of the largest grocery suppliers with a strong backing of innumerable foreign and domestic investors. The total funds raised by the company stand at approximately $526 million from some of the most eminent names, like the Alibaba Group, Abraaj Group, Ascent Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Brand Capital, Helion Venture Partners, ICICI Venture, IFC Venture Capital Group, LionRock Capital, Paytm Mall, Sands Capital Management, Sands Capital Ventures, Trifecta Capital, and Zodius Capital.
The funds flow has helped BigBasket in increasing operations in many cities of the country while reports of another funding round are in circulation, expected to be in the region of $200 million, which may value the company close to $900 million.
A crucial part of BigBasket’s growth strategies involved diversifying its brand portfolio by buying Delyver, another online grocery delivery business, in June 2015. It is intended that Delyver shall use local retail shops to fulfill customer orders as opposed to delivering from centralized warehouses, and the acquisition has made BigBasket a much better player in the hyper-local delivery model, greatly widening its customer base. This acquisition will greatly enhance BigBasket’s supply chain and competitiveness in the online grocery sector.
JioMart is following an unprecedented path toward its scalable operations. Rather than being strictly limited to grocery delivery, Reliance made investments in technology-led companies through its digital arm, Jio Platforms. The acquisitions and other investments include those in AI-based chatbots (Haptik), edtech platforms (Embibe), telecom solutions (Radisys), language technology (Reverie), logistics (Grab a Grub), governance tech (EasyGov), drones and aerospace (Asteria Aerospace), and augmented and mixed reality (Tesseract). The various acquisitions facilitate the creation of a robust and multifaceted ecosystem that supports JioMart’s digital commerce aspirations.
Jio Platforms has also raised investments from some of the world’s most potent financial and technology companies. Among the strategic investors are KKR, Vista Equity Partners, Silver Lake Partners, Mubadala Investment Company, General Atlantic, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Google, and Facebook. Such associations not only help with capital infusion but also bring technology know-how and global credibility aboard, thus better positioning JioMart as a future-ready platform that can transform the retail space in India.
JioMart & BigBasket: Valuation
In May 2020, the enterprise value of Jio Platforms was assessed at $72 billion, which was above all their businesses of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) collectively. This valuation endorsed the phenomenal digital transformation that Reliance would bring to an entire fold like Jio. Analysts like Morgan Stanley put the net asset value of Reliance Retail at $29 billion, indicative of the growing promise in its retail and e-commerce verticals.
Reliance went on and estimated that it will achieve 15% of all Indian retail sales will be directly from e-commerce, reflecting a change in the way purchases are made and retail trends across the entire nation.
We will never know how BigBasket, the leading online supermarket player, tagged itself with a valuation of above $1.2 billion. The company raised $300 million in a series E funding round led by Alibaba Group, thus bringing the post-money valuation to around $850 million.
BigBasket was now looking for further investment of about $350-400 million; the company was geared towards a possible evaluation of around $2 billion, having expanded its operations and gained market share. The ambitious growth plans of BigBasket were now bearing fruit, as the company would be increasing its growth targets for FY21 by 40-50 percent—a strong statement about its intended positioning in India’s rapidly changing online grocery space.
Wallet & Checkout
JioMart is a little behind when it comes to wallet and checkout assistance for its clients. There is no wallet here, and checkout can be a little lengthy, especially when discount vouchers are involved or during a selection of delivery slots. Refunds, however, are quite straightforward and happen when the amount is credited directly into the original mode of payment or as credit to the store.
On the contrary, BigBasket shines when it boasts a hassle-free chain of checkouts that requires applying vouchers to wallet balances and delivery slots to be selected as per convenience. This is in great part due to its flexibility concerning user experience, as well as making the ordering side easy for customers using BigBasket.
Conclusion: Best Online Grocery Market
In contrast, discrete online grocery shopping is provided by the two: JioMart and BigBasket. What JioMart pursues is an online-to-offline model with local retailers by ensuring free-of-minimum-order home delivery alongside an easy return policy. BigBasket, which involves the Tata Group, offers seamless integration with wallets, scheduled delivery hours, and variety in products for the end-user. While JioMart targets cost-sensitive consumers and those not willing to abandon their local stores, BigBasket is more for someone who wants convenience and variety. Ultimately, that would depend on what one values more—cost-effectiveness or user experience.
