Tata Sons to add BigBasket into its carts

Tata Digital will acquire up to 64.3 percent of Supermarket grocery supplies and its sole control over Innovative Retail Concepts that runs BigBasket. Tata is building a super app under Tata Digital, with plans to add categories such as groceries, health, education, entertainment, electronics, fashion, travel, beauty and lifestyle.

The move comes as e-commerce sales, especially of food and groceries, have exploded in India as the Covid-19 pandemic spurred a shift to online shopping.

It also plans to leverage the strength of group companies such as Titan, Voltas, Trent, Tata Consumer Products, Tata Motors, Vistara, Tata AIG, Tata Capital and Taj Hotels, offering users an array of services in one app.

The Competition Commission of India said it has approved the acquisition by Tata Digital of up to 64.3 percent of Supermarket Grocery Supplies and its sole control over Innovative Retail Concepts, the company that runs BigBasket, which is primarily backed by Alibaba. Tata Digital is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons. While Supermarket Grocery Supplies operates the business to business division, Innovative Retail Concepts runs BigBasket.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given a big push to the category and it clocked a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $3.3 billion in 2020 as compared to $1.9 billion in 2019. The overall segment is set to grow further as these players compete to onboard more and more consumers online. The Tata-BigBasket deal has put the conglomerate in direct competition with Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart.

BigBasket competes with players such as Grofers, JioMart, Swiggy's Instamart, Amazon and Flipkart. Tata’s entry makes the space more competitive," said Anurag Mathur, head-retail and partner, PwC. "But these four large players can also bring disruption to the segment,” he added.

Tata Digital is also close to buying a majority stake in online pharmacy player 1mg.