Solution to Case Study — Grofers Assignment 2
What are the limitations that the Grofers model entails. Which challenges do you see coming towards Albinder within the next few years and what could be the significant hurdles that he would have to overcome in the future?
- Early movers advantage does not assure longetivity : Whilst Grofers might have sucessfully changed the mindset of the Kirana store owners who are now comfortable selling online, other pure play ecom retailers such as Bigbasket, Peppertap and Aaramshop are gearing up with their own hybrid models and will have a lower entry barrier than Grofers did. Competition is going to be a click away and hence Grofers needs to be able to start building a customer loyalty program so that recurring purchase rate remains high.
- Operational Hours for Stores : Whilst Grofers can steer their partners to maintain a certain level of inventory, type of products, and also negotiate with FMCG companies to offer better discounts for their group of retailers, Store Opening and Closing times is a factor that challenges the last few deliveries of the day. If the Kirana store closes at 9 pm, technically the last order can be placed only at 7:30. Grofers will probably open dark stores within cities to ensure that they get much longer delivery period.
3. Looking for varierty within Skimmed Milk or Tofu ? : While they currently sell pet food, staples, pest spray to mobile phones andy other electronic items, their product offering per category/vertical seems to be mild if not Low. Since their customers are high income profesionals and homemakers, they will need to better understand their tastes and preferences and ensure that those products are available on the platform. Becoming an Everything store might hamper their core offering. Grofers should focus on key verticals and keep the product discovery innovative so its easy to find it on the app.