Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Online grocery shopping has become highly popular among people, mainly because there is no need to visit a grocery store standing in a queue physically. The grocery is directly delivered to the customer’s address. The rapid growth of mobile apps has fuelled the trend of online grocery shopping. Grocery delivery app is one of the fastest-growing categories of on-demand mobile apps.
The global value of the grocery delivery apps market is expected to reach $630 billion by the year 2024. The market is expanding at a CAGR of 7.5%. When it comes to the best grocery delivery app, there are several choices.
Big Basket is a well-known grocery delivery app providing access to farm fresh fruits and vegetables, kitchen items, snacks, and others. The app is available in 7 languages and offers many functions and customer benefits.
Milkbasket is another popular mobile app concerned with grocery shopping. Apart from fresh fruits, vegetables, and other daily use items, this app also delivers fresh milk and dairy products right to the. Customers’ doorsteps.
Grofers enables you to buy fruits, vegetables, and other grocery items easily. A variety of brands of grocery items are available at Grofers. A host of deals and offers are provided on the app for the users.
Swiggy is another popular delivery app. It started as a food delivery app but has expanded its operations to grocery delivery. The Instamart of this app has a large collection of daily-use items such as milk, flour biscuits, and more. Items can be ordered from 7 am to late at night every day.
Virtual supermarket listing products in online stores. The products are grouped under various categories. The users can search for the items as per their requirements. Search filters are also available to refine the search to match the specific needs of the users.
The orders can be placed instantly by adding to the cart and checking out. Pre-payment can be made through any of the multiple digital payment options. Many grocery delivery apps also offer cash on delivery. The order can be tracked while it is in transit to the user’s location.
The 3 top options for users searching for the best grocery delivery app are as follows.
| App | Downloads | Average rating |
| Big Basket | 1 Million+ | 4.5 |
| MilkBasket | 1 Million+ | 4.5 |
| Swiggy | 100 Million+ | 4.5 |
Big Basket, known as BBDaily App, was founded in 2011 and became a unicorn company in 2019. It started as a chain of physical grocery stores called Fabmall in many big cities in India. The chain was sold to the Aditya Birla Group in 2011. The store launched a dedicated grocery delivery app to place orders in the same year. The products are directly purchased from the retailers and sold directly to the customers.
The products listed on the Big Basket app number more than 18,000 and over 10,000 brands. A wide range of products is included in the catalog, such as food grains, packaged items, frozen food items, fruits and vegetables, beverages, dairy products, and more. The number of orders processed per day by Big Basket is around 20,000. The store has links with over 1800 retailers to provide grocery items to customers.
Big Basket provides multiple delivery slots for customers at their convenience. Multiple payment options are provided to the users, such as credit/debit cards, UPI, net banking, and cash on delivery. The orders are usually fulfilled on the same day, subject to order load and availability of delivery executives.
The earlier business model of the Big Basket was what is called purchased-to-order. Under this model, the product ordered by a customer was picked up by the delivery executive directly from the retailer and delivered to the customer. Later, the company switched to an inventory model. Under this model, the products sourced from the retailers are stocked in warehouses and delivered to the customers as per the orders received.
Big Basket has a record of a 99.3% on-time delivery rate and a 99.5% order fulfilment rate. The company also has a no-questions-asked return policy. A policy of compensating the customer in case of non-delivery of an order is in place. The app has a feature called Smart Basket, which predicts the products a customer needs more often based on the past buying behaviour and reduces the time to order to 5 minutes or less.
Depending on the cart value or bank offers under card payments, various discount coupons are offered to customers. Special seasonal discount coupons also keep appearing. The discount coupons save 25% to as much as 75% of the cost.
Competitive pricing is the norm for Big Basket for both branded products and private labels. The prices can be higher or lower than the brands and grocery items. Delivery charges of Rs. 20-40 are added to the total amount by Big Basket. However, free deliveries are offered above certain cart values.
Its users have reviewed Big Basket extensively on Play Store/App Store and other digital platforms. The average rating received by this app is 4.5, which is a high rating. Hence, Big Basket is a top choice for users looking for the best grocery delivery app.
Milkbasket was launched in 2015 and is owned and operated by Reliance Industries. It is an online marketplace and delivery service for milk, dairy products, fruits and vegetables, kitchen and household essentials, and other grocery items. The unique feature of this milkbasket app is that the ordered products are delivered by 7 am. The catalog of this app has more than 7000 products of more than 650 brands. The delivery service is provided in more than 20 cities all over India.
The Milkbasket app allows its users to order till midnight. Even the orders placed at midnight are delivered by 7 am the next day. The idea is to enhance customer satisfaction by delivering fresh milk and other grocery items early in the day and prevent the customer from waiting for the order in the middle of a busy day.
Flexi ordering facility is another customer-friendly feature of this app. This facility is for the users subscribing to grocery products delivered daily at 7 am. Under Flexi ordering, the user must enter the dates on which he/she won’t be at home, and the deliveries are terminated on those dates. The deliveries resume automatically after the number of off days ends.
No minimum order value is set to deliver the grocery items. Additional delivery charges are not imposed even if the user orders a single product only. There is no checkout process, and the user must add the product to the cart to place an order. The app has a digital wallet that can be used to make payments. The user needs to keep the wallet topped up with any amount.
Recurring orders can be repeated whenever required by setting up repeat features on certain days. The order history lists all the past orders and their expenses to enable the user to track his/her grocery expenses.
Discount offers such as Stock Up Sale, and the app frequently offers Top Up Sale to save up to as much as 70-80% on grocery shopping. The app also offers special discounts on certain products. Other offers such as free milk, fruits and vegetables, cashback, and buy one get one free also help users save money on grocery expenses.
The app’s milk prices and other grocery items depend upon their brands and category. There is no considerable difference between the prices of the products listed on the app and their grocery store price. However, a monthly delivery charge is levied by Milkbasket.
The milk basket has an average rating of 4.5 on the Play Store and App Store. A high rating is due to the greater number of positive reviews than negative ones. On-time delivery is the primary reason for customer satisfaction, while the slow performance of the app is a common reason for negative reviews. Altogether, Milkbasket is among the best app.
Swiggy started as a food delivery app in 2014 when the concept of online food ordering had not evolved. With a network of over 28,000 restaurants all over India, Swiggy is a significant food delivery app. However, Swiggy has also become a central grocery delivery app by introducing Instamart in its services. The average monthly users of Swiggy stand at over 20 million, placing millions of orders for both food and grocery items.
Instamart is a virtual convenience store hosted on the Swiggy app, launched in 2020. All kinds of grocery items grouped under various categories are listed on the app. These include fruits and vegetables, milk, dairy products, beverages, instant food, snacks, bakery items, sweets, chicken and meat, frozen products, chocolates, cooking essentials, and home cleaning products. Swiggy App has what is called dark stores spread throughout a city. A dark store can be a warehouse stocking various products or a retailer selling grocery items. The delivery executives pick up the ordered items from the dark stores to deliver to the customers. Instamart service is available in 25 cities across India and is used by 9 million customers.
Grocery deliveries are made from 7 am to 1 am. Multiple time slots are provided to the users. They can either choose fast delivery within 20-25 minutes by paying Rs. 15 as delivery charges or set the delivery for a later hour by paying Rs. 5 as delivery charges. The delivery is free for order values above a certain threshold. The order can be tracked in real time through the app on a digital map. The app provides both digital payment options and cash on delivery. The maximum quantity of a single item that can be ordered is 3.
Swiggy Instamart offers multiple discount coupon codes for orders above Rs. 199. Some standard codes are SwiggyIT, TRY NEW, JUMBO, and more. Discount codes are also offered on card payments from various banks. The discount codes reduce the overall cart value at checkout and save money for the users. Special offers and discounts are offered on festivals.
The various grocery items listed on Swiggy Instamart have lower rates than conventional grocery stores. However, there is not much difference when it comes to branded items. Discount coupons, if applicable, further reduce grocery expenses. Delivery charge is a minimum of Rs. 5 and a maximum of Rs. 15. The listed prices are inclusive of all taxes, and no extra tax is levied on the cart value.
Swiggy Instamart has an average rating of 4.5 on the Play Store and App Store. Overall positive reviews about the app have resulted in a high rating. Even though there have been concerns about long delivery times expressed by a section of users, the customer reviews have largely been favourable. Thus, Swiggy can be considered by users looking for the best grocery delivery app.
Big Basket has multiple positives which have contributed to its growth. A vast collection of products and a wide range of brands provide many options for customers. The freedom to select a time slot for delivery among multiple options is also beneficial for the customers. The weaknesses of Big Basket include defects in the app affecting user experience and slow progress in adding newer categories.
The milkbasket is known for delivering groceries at 7 am. The customers also appreciate the facility to place an order at midnight and Flexi delivery to halt and resume deliveries at will. However, the main weakness of this company is its subscription model because many customers prefer on-demand apps instead of a subscription.
Swiggy Instamart has emerged as one of the best apps. The major strengths of this company are fast delivery and a feature-rich interactive user interface. The addition of delivery charges to the cart value and the surge in delivery charges during rush hours are its weaknesses.
A comparison of Big Basket, Milkbasket, and Swiggy based on various parameters can be made to determine the best grocery delivery app.
Prices: There is not much difference between the three companies in terms of the prices of the items. The prices are more or less the same even though Big Basket may have higher-priced branded items in larger numbers than Swiggy and Milkbasket.
Selection: In terms of the selection of products, Big Basket wins hands down. With over 10,000 brands and more than 18,000 types of products, Big Basket scores over Swiggy and Milkbasket. On the other hand, Milkbasket lists much more products than Swiggy Instamart. Overall, Big Basket can be called the best app among the three in selection.
Delivery options: The Big Basket grocery delivery app offers multiple time slots. Swiggy Instamart provides fewer time slots but can deliver within 20-25 minutes. Milkbasket has a single time slot of 7 am but allows midnight orders. Thus, all three companies are almost evenly matched in terms of delivery options.
Customer satisfaction: All three apps have an average 4.5 rating. Thus, the customer satisfaction level of the three companies is the same. Thus, the best grocery delivery app for customer satisfaction is an individual choice.
The cost to develop an app depends upon several factors, such as its features, platform, technical documentation, UI/UX design, front-end and back-end development, QA and testing, and the developer’s hourly rate.
A grocery delivery app has several basic features, such as user registration and profile, search, order tracking, order management, multiple payment options, customer reviews and feedback, and more. You can add more features in addition to the basic features. The cost of developing an app increases with the number of features.
UI/UX designing can cost $1500-$3000, while technical documentation can cost $1000-$2000. QA and testing can cost $2000-$4000. The app development hourly rate ranges between $80-$250, depending on the country.
The grocery delivery app development cost is almost identical for Android and iOS platforms. However, the cost increases for developing a cross-platform app compatible with Android and iOS.
The average cost of developing a basic grocery delivery app for Android or iOS is $10,000-$20,000. Let’s connect with Moon Technolabs to know the final estimations.
Let’s Get A Free Consultation from Our Experts.
Users must decide on the best app after comparing the three companies on various parameters. There are many other options for the users because the online grocery delivery market is vast and continues to grow.
However, to put forth an opinion or recommendation for the best grocery delivery app among Big Basket, Milkbasket, and Swiggy, we select Big Basket due to its huge collection of products, ease of placing orders, high quality of the items, competitive pricing, more flexible delivery options, and easy payment choices.
Jayanti Katariya is the CEO of Moon Technolabs, a fast-growing IT solutions provider, with 18+ years of experience in the industry. Passionate about developing creative apps from a young age, he pursued an engineering degree to further this interest. Under his leadership, Moon Technolabs has helped numerous brands establish their online presence and he has also launched an invoicing software that assists businesses to streamline their financial operations.
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