Grocery e-store EkStop, which was acquired by Godrej’s premium foods retailer Nature’s Basket, is being integrated into Nature’s Basket’s online business, reports VCCircle. Following this, around 100 EkStop employees from HR, marketing and admin functions have reportedly been asked to leave, and EkStop’s co-founders Sumat Chopra and Shaurya Mehta will head Nature’s Basket’s online business. This move is likely to give Nature’s Basket’s e-commerce sales a push.
Godrej acquired EkStop last month for around Rs 30-40 crores and was working on integrating and rebranding EkStop into Nature’s Basket. The EkStop management team was supposed to join Nature’s Basket and the new platform was expected to be launched by March 15.
The formal announcement of the websites merging is expected in two weeks. The EkStop website currently displays a message stating that it is going infrastructural changes and is working on bringing “faster same day delivery” as well as expand to other cities this year. The message includes, “EkStop will be ready to serve the customers in an all new upgraded form shortly.” Launched in 2012, EkStop was jointly run by EkStop Shop and Buy Daily Retail Pvt Ltd. This move is aimed to push e-commerce sales of Nature’s Basket.
Minimum order value set to increase?
Interestingly, EkStop offered free delivery on orders above Rs 400 or a charged same-day “EkSpress” delivery if orders were placed before 11am. Nature’s Basket, on the other hand, charged Rs 70 for orders below Rs 1,000 in Mumbai and Rs 150 for orders below Rs 1,000 in Navi Mumbai. However, Nature’s basket also states that in Navi Mumbai, the minimum order value is Rs 1,000.
Competition:
- FreshWorld raised an undisclosed amount of investment from Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan late last month.
- PepperTap raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Sequoia Capital late last month.
- The SRS Group forayed into e-commerce with the launch of its grocery vertical website, SRSgrocery.com last month. SRS grocery currently caters to users in Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad.
- Last month, Hyperlocal delivery service provider Grofers raised series A funding of $10 million led by Tiger Global Management and returning investor Sequoia Capital.
- Last year in November, Reliance Industries’ retail arm Reliance Retail had launched an e-commerce store called RelianceFreshDirect.com to delivery grocery products in some neighborhoods of Mumbai. The platform sells vegetables, fruits, groceries, dairy products, confectionery products, packaged food and personal care products to the residents of Navi Mumbai, South Mumbai and parts of Thane.
- Mumbai based online grocery store LocalBanya secured an undisclosed amount in Series A funding from a real estate development group Karmvir Avant Group in January last year.
