BigBasket.com had emerged as one of the major players in highly competitive Indian online grocery retailing market by employing inventory based model. On March 22, 2016, Big Basket had secured Series D funding worth USD 150 million from the United Arab Emirates-based Abraaj group for driving its future growth. A few days later, the Government of India came out with guidelines on March 29, 2016, through its Press Note No. 3 (2016 Series) which stated that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the inventory based model of e-commerce would not be permitted. As BigBasket grappled with the challenges of a growing and expanding business, BigBasket team had to evaluate the existing business model. This case traces the predicament of BigBasket in formulating a business strategy for taking the online grocery retailing business further.

This case focuses on Infibeam, a small, new e-commerce company in India, as an illustration of innovative B2B contractual agreements that enabled it to acquire a significant customer base at a very low cost. However, it must now develop innovative strategies for marketing communication, customer value proposition and a new IT e-commerce rural platform in order to achieve its required growth estimates and raise capital for a new project in cooperation with a state government. Internet retailing is rapidly growing in India, but it does contain challenges: the cost of acquiring customers is high; per person spending amount is smaller; and customers are spread all over the country, often 2,000 kilometres away from supply centres.