Friday 8 May 2015

BigBasket.com-The e-grocery store in Chennai-Review

A few years ago, when I first heard about how convenient it was to buy groceries online in Bangalore, I was impatiently waiting for Bigbasket to launch in Chennai. The recent launch in the city has gotten a lot of people into shopping for groceries online! A lot more are still skeptical about the quality (how can one buy lady's finger without checking it's end??!) of the perishables and the time of delivery! Well, give it a try as I did! When shopping online for clothes, books, gifts or toys is awesome, why not this?

Read on as I share my e-grocery shopping experience at BigBasket in detail!


An easy interface
The website is simple and non-cluttered, making it a 'cake walk' experience for even a novice. All you have to do is spend about 2 minutes at the comfort of your home to register your account, create your profile and start shopping! 


Once you register, you can choose your city. There is a drop down list under 'Offers', where you can find 'discounts', 'promotions' and 'bundle packs'. Hence, you aren't hidden from the latest offers available.


Wide range of products
You can choose the category you wish to shop under and just add the items to your basket. No hassle. A lot of brands are available too. 



What impressed me most was that there were options to choose as little as 100g for green chillies, garlic, coriander and likewise! Brownie points!
Some products that totally surprised me:
  • Organic fruits and veggies
  • A range of pasta and pasta sauces
  • A variety of cheese including parmesan, mozzarella, organic feta and cream cheese!
  • Multigrain beverage mix
  • Ayurvedic food
  • Ayurvedic personal care products
  • Cookwares and gadgets of different brands
  • Mexican olives and Mayonnaise
  
Fresh produce
The vegetables and fruits I ordered came neatly packed in Ziploc bags with a lot of holes punched allowing them to breathe and remain fresh. There were impressively arranged in big green baskets that were taken away for reuse! Extra brownie points from me!!

Convenient delivery time slots
The website offers you 4 time slots starting from 7am to 10pm. That gives you the liberty to plan your day instead of being stuck at home expecting the delivery. I selected the last slot of the day and it reached me on time.
Easy payment
Since you shopped online, you don't have to necessarily pay them online. You can choose to pay cash on delivery, use credit/debit card or simply use the food coupons. The bill is displayed when you checkout but you're informed that you might be charged a little extra (usually about 5%) depending on the weight of the fresh produces that you've chosen. And any changes to the bill or an item unavailable is notified again by SMS before the delivery to keep you aware.
Friendly delivery
It was at the end of the day that the guy had to bring in those heavy baskets to my residence, yet, he was patient enough to go through the list with me to ensure no missing items.
Easy return
I wasn't satisfied with the quality of a couple of vegetables. As much as I dreaded for the long procedures I had to go through returning the items, I was more than happy when he just took them away without a question and deducted my bill! How convenient is that?

Create your shopping list
You can shop in multiple sessions by using the 'Create New List' feauture! So, even if your session times out, the products added to the list remain intact. And if you have a standard list of groceries each month, you can simply add only the extras to the list every month instead of virtually selecting all the items and adding them to the cart every time you shop!!
Delivery Pin
Once an order is placed, you receive a delivery pin via SMS. You need to mention this to the delivery boy when you get your supplies. An enhanced precautionary measure to avoid wrong deliveries.
 On the whole, it is a customer friendly e-supermarket that I would recommend you to try!
 If you love going out in the hot sun, squeezing your way through the counters in the 'always crowded' super markets, trying hard to remember what you wrote in the long list of groceries you forgot to carry, waiting in the long queue to pay and carrying home your purchase, then this review is strictly not intended for you :) Others, have a relaxed life!

2 comments:

  1. Even I wanted to try this but as you said the initial hiccups. Hope now I can have a try too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Can look at my blog and see prices, and nutritional facts of healthy, low fat food at different grocery stores.

    ReplyDelete