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Grofers: Revolutionizing Grocery Shopping in India – A Case Study

Introduction:

Grofers, the online grocery delivery platform, has emerged as a game-changer in the Indian retail industry. With its innovative business model and focus on convenience, Grofers has transformed the way people shop for groceries. In this article, we delve into the case study of Grofers, exploring the key factors that have contributed to its success and the valuable lessons it offers to entrepreneurs in the evolving e-commerce landscape.

Disrupting the Traditional Grocery Retail:

One of the main reasons behind Grofers’ success is its ability to disrupt the traditional grocery retail model. By leveraging technology and logistics, Grofers offers customers the convenience of ordering groceries online and getting them delivered right to their doorstep. This shift from the traditional brick-and-mortar stores to a digital platform has not only saved time and effort for customers but has also opened up new opportunities for small and local grocery sellers to reach a wider consumer base.

Efficient and Streamlined Supply Chain:

Grofers has built a robust and efficient supply chain to ensure timely delivery of orders. The company has established partnerships with local sellers and uses its own warehouses to stock a wide range of products. By optimizing inventory management and implementing advanced logistics solutions, Grofers has been able to streamline the order fulfillment process, enabling faster and more reliable deliveries. This emphasis on an efficient supply chain has contributed to its growing popularity among customers seeking hassle-free grocery shopping experiences.

Focus on Competitive Pricing:

Grofers has positioned itself as a platform that offers competitive pricing, making groceries more affordable for Indian consumers. By partnering directly with suppliers and eliminating intermediaries, Grofers is able to pass on cost savings to customers, offering attractive discounts and deals on a wide variety of products. This focus on competitive pricing has not only attracted price-conscious shoppers but has also allowed Grofers to gain an edge over traditional retailers in terms of affordability and value for money.

Leveraging Mobile Technology:

Grofers recognizes the growing importance of mobile technology in shaping consumer behavior. The company has invested in developing a user-friendly mobile app that allows customers to browse and order groceries seamlessly. The app offers features such as personalized recommendations, easy search options, and secure payment gateways, enhancing the overall shopping experience. By harnessing the power of mobile technology, Grofers has tapped into the rising trend of mobile commerce, enabling customers to order groceries anytime, anywhere.

Building Trust and Customer Loyalty:

Grofers places a strong emphasis on building trust and fostering customer loyalty. The platform ensures the quality and authenticity of products by partnering with verified sellers and conducting regular quality checks. Additionally, Grofers provides excellent customer support, addressing queries and resolving issues promptly. By prioritizing customer satisfaction and consistently delivering on its promises, Grofers has built a loyal customer base that relies on its platform for their grocery needs.

Conclusion:

The case study of Grofers exemplifies the transformative potential of leveraging technology, optimizing supply chain management, and focusing on customer convenience in the grocery retail industry. By disrupting traditional models, offering competitive pricing, leveraging mobile technology, and prioritizing customer trust, Grofers has positioned itself as a leading player in the Indian e-commerce landscape. The lessons learned from Grofers’ success story serve as inspiration for entrepreneurs looking to innovate and revolutionize the way people shop for groceries, highlighting the significance of convenience, affordability, and customer-centricity in achieving long-term growth and sustainability in the evolving retail sector.

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How Big Basket Became People’s Favourite Online Grocery Marketplace?

It is not easy competing with the market leader when your opponent is Amazon and Flipkart, the largest e-commerce retailers in the nation, who come with decades of experience and billions in the pocket. The story of this online marketplace is quite interesting and a story of constant passion and belief.

Today, we are going to discuss the story of an e-commerce platform which delivers over 2.5 lakh orders of food and grocery products across almost all the major cities. The e-commerce platform identified the need of people who want to get the essential items delivered at their doorsteps. They designed an interface that could allow millions of people to select from thousands of products and get them delivered within the next 24 hours in various slots. While creating an operational app and e-commerce, they also curated the  best brand activation strategies  which led to the formation of online people’s favourite online supermarket. Let’s get into the success story of the business which revolutionised the shopping experience of groceries and essential items-

What is BigBasket?

BigBasket.com is the India’ largest online food and grocery store with over 18,000 products and over 1000 brands in the catalogue where one can find everything they are looking for- fresh fruits to vegetables, rice to dals, spices to seasonings or any packaged products, beverages, personal care products, and meats and many more. They offer a wide range of options in every category, handpicked and the best quality available at the lowest prices to patrons in major cities of India.

A Brief Background Initiated in 1999, there were five friends- Hari Menon, VS Sudhakar, Vipul Parekh, Abhinay Choudhary and VS Ramesh launched their online retail website known as “Fabmart”. Being quite ahead of its time, the idea attracted attention but could not shake the masses.

They attempted to revolutionise the retail industry but they failed. In spite of being infamous, they decided to set up a physical retail chain of grocery stores in South India- “Fabmall”. Today, the stores are currently operating all over the world as MORE, by the Aditya Birla Group.

Then, the group of five friends reunited again to work on the idea of getting back to their original idea of an online grocery store. After procuring funds, the group of five friends finally gave birth to BigBasket.com in December 2011.

Business Model of BigBasket.com When BigBasket started its operations, it adopted a “purchased-to-order” model. In this model, the delivery boy directly picks up the item from the retailer, and directly delivers it to the customer. As the time passed, business continued to achieve success. Later they adopted an ‘inventory model’ for most of their products, and BigBasket now buys products directly from suppliers and keeps stocks in their warehouses. BigBasket sources many perishable food products like fruits and vegetables from the mandis and other places.

To serve the hyper-local sentiment of the people, BigBasket has been implementing hyper-local strategies and has joined hands with more than 1,800 neighbourhood grocery stores across India to deliver goods within an hour. Recently the online grocery platform has been funded by Alibaba and has tried to add in more assets in the form of a more efficient delivery fleet.

BigBasket has launched three new segments in the previous two years:

• BB Daily:  It is a subscription-based platform for milk, fruits and vegetables, bread, dairy, eggs, breakfast cereals, tender coconut, etc. for every day or alternate days.
• BB Instant:  It ensures that you get your basic needs covered 24*7.
• BB Beauty:  It takes care of men and women’s beauty and personal care products at one place.

Revenue Model of BigBasket BigBasket purchases the products from the direct manufacturers/suppliers like P&G, HUL, farmers & mills and stocks them in their warehouses saving big on each product cost. To generate revenue, it adds a small margin to the cost price before vending them. Most of its profits and revenue are dependent on its private label products like Fresho, Royal Organic, Happy Chef Gourmet and more.

BigBasket also earns through lucrative discounts, bundling techniques, delivery charges and on-time delivery which helps them retain customers and maximize sales.

With the imposed restrictions of lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, many people are dependent on BigBasket for their essential needs. Company noticed the demand for groceries rose by 3-5 times when compared to pre-lockdown days. BigBasket is receiving around 200,000 orders a day.

With an aim to completely revolutionise the online marketplace and become people’s favourite, BigBasket allows you to order grocery products, fulfil daily needs products and even beauty products within a few clicks on your mobile device. The Bangalore-based online start-up leveraged various  best digital marketing services  to gain wide popularity within a short period of time and provide a comforting shopping experience to people. With the help of the  best digital marketing agencies , they have transformed the online grocery shopping experience.

Digital Marketing Model of BigBasket

BigBasket wanted to ease the pressure of grocery shopping for people and make the weekends comforting. BigBasket has revolutionised the online shopping experience and have thrived to become one of the favourite platforms for shopping for food providers, grocery or products. They targeted everyone through its  top-digital marketing strategies . Consult some of the  brand activation agencies  to reach maximum people through  best digital marketing services . Let’s check out the  digital marketing strategies  used by BigBasket:

They have also optimised their blogs and articles for easy crawling and searching through Google. They have adopted the  best search engine optimization services  to optimize their content with potential keywords that show up high in search results.

Being in the eCommerce business, BigBasket has really become a PRO with its social media strategies.

Facebook and Instagram With a massive following of 4,00,000 fans, the company makes use of the Facebook page to engage with customers by promoting various campaigns, posts which encourage homemade food, and offers discounts and rebates. In fact, the e-retailing brand has now enabled the  ‘Shop Now’  button on its social media channels to redirect consumers to their e-commerce website for purchasing the products they wish to buy without losing any interest in the purchasing decision.

While on Instagram BigBasket engages with the young audience of 29,000 fans through creative content posts. It also advertises its various range of products, offers and posts videos of many influencers.

• Content Marketing:  Nowadays, there’s only one way to attract and keep your audience engaged on your brand’s website i.e. publishing creative and engaging content. BigBasket engages with its audience through various types of content strategies like blogs, reviews, suggestions, how-to videos, DIY videos, funny content like memes, gifs, collaboration of influencers and promotion of various contests and offers. Choose from the top 10 performance marketing communication agencies in Gurgaon to design the best content marketing strategies for your F&B e-commerce business.
• YouTube Marketing:  Knowing the importance of video advertising, BigBasket owns a dedicated YouTube channel “BigBasket.com” that provides the consumers with up to date and best video guides for using beauty and wellness products and making people aware of the latest trends in the society. With the range of “how-to videos” they also show recipes for making tasty food at home. BigBasket has garnered 9.33K subscribers on their YouTube Channel. Hire the  best video production company  for  top quality marketing video production services in Delhi NCR .
• Influencer Marketing:  BigBasket also tapped on influencer marketing tactics to create buzz around the online grocery platform. The brand collaborated with influencers from various categories to create a conversation about health products, baby products, and more. The influencers also talked about how to maintain health and build a fit body using good food habits and maintaining lifestyle. BigBasket had also partnered with the famous Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan as the brand ambassador. Reach out to the  best influencer marketing agencies in Delhi NCR .
• Online Reputation Management:  BigBasket tapped the power of ORM to improve its reputation on online platforms. The brand benefitted from the famous and most-visited platforms like Trusted Company, Quora, Mouth Shut, Google Play Store and Yahoo Answers, that helped customers share the reviews of BigBasket services and help spread the word.

Digital marketing has been working very well for BigBasket. It has helped eCommerce platforms to gain a lot of popularity within a short period of time. Some of the  best online reputation management agencies in Gurgaon  will help you in devising the best marketing plan and strategy for your brand.

Campaigns of BigBasket

Conclusion BigBasket has proven to be one of the best start-ups and one of the favourite marketplaces. With its poised and slow and steady approach, it has become one of the best online grocery marketplaces. It is the epitome of trust, wellness and care for all its customers. Looking at the marketing strategy of BigBasket, we understood that the e-commerce brand understood the nerves and inhibitions of its target audience and took the initiative to be present where it could easily interact with its audience while answering their queries in the most effective way.

You can get in touch with  The Marcom Avenue  for the best online marketing services for your e-commerce brand and reach your targeted customers.

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Table of Contents

Case Study: BigBasket Became Online Grocery Marketplace with Digital Marketing Strategies

About Bigbasket

BigBasket.com with 18000+ products and 1000+ brands listed on their catalogue is known to be India’s largest online food and grocery store. It offers a wide range of options in every category to provide you with the best quality products at the lowest prices which include – fresh Rice and Dal, Fruits and Vegetables, Spices and Seasoning’s, Packaged products, Beverages, Personal care products, Meats, and many more.

As of now, BigBasket is a purely internet based company .

How BigBasket started?

It all began in 1999, when Hari Menon along with five of his friends- VS Sudhakar, Vipul Parekh, Abhinay Choudhari and V S Ramesh launched their online retail website called ‘Fabmart’. Even though they did manage to get some traction but since their idea was way ahead of its time, they could not shake the masses.

They decided to start their online business again and focused all the energies on ‘Fabmall’, their physical retail chain of grocery stores. They also merged this chain with another grocery retail chain called – ‘Trinethra’. Within a period of seven years they expanded their business to 200 stores across Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. At that point of time they decided to sell their business to Aditya Birla Group but Krishnan Ganesh an entrepreneur concluded to go ahead with it. And finally in December 2011, they launched BigBasket.com!

They failed to get some traction as their idea was way ahead of its time, so they could not work for the masses.

That was the time when they all decided to put the online business on the backseat and focus totally on ‘ Fabmall’ with all their energy. Fabmall was their physical retail chain of grocery stores. They too merged this chain with another grocery retail chain known as ‘Trinethra’.

Implementing many strategies and with hard work, in a matter of seven years, they succeeded to expand their business to 200 stores across Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. Around the same time, they also decided to sell-off the business to Aditya Birla Group.

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Funding Received

Soon after their launch, they received their first funding of $10million from ChrysCapital co-founder Raj Kondur and Ascent Capital.

There were 15 funding rounds of more than $100 million in the whole year of 2014. So far this year, BigBasket has raised $150 million in fresh round of funding led by UAE’s Abraaj Group to expand its services into smaller cities. Existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Helion Advisors along with International Finance Corp and Sands Capital also participated in the round.

Business Model

When BigBasket started its operations, it adopted the ‘just-in-time model’ means  they were purchased-to-order. In this model, the delivery boy directly picks up the item from the retailer, and directly delivers it to the customer.

Current Scenario

BigBasket has been implementing a Hyper-local strategy, wherein, it has joined hands with more than 1,800 neighbourhood grocery stores across India to deliver goods within an hour.

Looking for the current scenario – BigBasket now processes almost 20,000 orders a day, with the involvement of 2000 team members.

Earlier they had acquired a hyper-local delivery start-up ‘Deliver’, to further strengthen its delivery service. Although, the company still functions as an independent firm, but the co-founders of Deliver have also been included in the management team of BigBasket.

This acquisition has helped BigBasket in their Express Delivery model, to delivery groceries in one hour.

Moving on, around the mid of 2015, BigBasket also roped in Bollywood actor – ‘Shah Rukh Khan’ as their brand ambassador, for an undisclosed sum; following which, they also launched a high volume television, digital and print media campaign as well.

They are now operational in 20 cities which include six metros, and are in plan to expand to 50 more tier two cities soon. They will also be opening 8 large warehouses in metro cities.

1 thought on “Case Study: BigBasket Became Online Grocery Marketplace with Digital Marketing Strategies”

Hello, Thanks for sharing such a great blog. very helpful article. Online grocery business in India is rapidly growing.I like your article because now a days everyone looks for latest technologies and easy done.

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Zepto - How Is It Delivering Groceries in Ten Minutes?

Sarika Anand , Manisha Mishra

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations.

The digital demand for smart applications is exploding like it was never before. To satisfy our daily food needs, we all buy groceries. You only need an app on your Android phone to have all of your grocery orders delivered to your comfortable couch, eliminating the need to go to the store for your daily requirements. With only a few taps on your mobile device, you can get your groceries now.

Companies are working to reduce the time it takes to deliver groceries in the grocery delivery business. Gorillas, JOKR, Swiggy Instamart, and Blinkit, are some of the companies from all over the world that are competing with the primary goal of reducing delivery time and transporting supplies in 10-15 minutes, and so is Zepto.

Zepto is not another grocery delivery app but a platform that promises 10-minute deliveries of groceries, built in order to revolutionize the selling and deliveries of groceries. With Zepto by their side, customers can conveniently purchase 5000+ products and get them delivered to their doorstep with the help of Zepto's 10-minute e-grocery delivery app.

Learn more about Zepto, India's first unicorn startup in 2023, its founders, funding and investors, business and revenue model, startup story, growth, challenges, and more.

Zepto - Company Highlights

About Zepto Zepto - Industry Zepto - Founders and Team Zepto - Startup Story Zepto - Mission and Vision Zepto - Name, Logo, and Tagline Zepto - Business and Revenue Model Zepto - Funding and Investors Zepto - Growth and Revenue Zepto - Challenges Zepto - Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns Zepto - Competitors Zepto - Future Plans

About Zepto

Zepto is a startup based in Mumbai that offers a 10-minute grocery delivery service. Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra launched Zepto to provide customers with ultra-fast grocery delivery.

Specializing in delivering groceries before the turn of a year is what Zepto is hailed for. It has worked with 86+ dark store owners in thirteen different areas in 2021, generating over one million deliveries. To fulfill orders promptly, Zepto employs its network of 'cloud shops' or micro-warehouses.

Zepto's secret of the trade lies in its capacity to routinely offer an extensive range of goods for delivery in under ten minutes. It's at the heart of everything the company does, and it's why they've been able to grow so quickly while maintaining incredible client loyalty.

Zepto operates in multiple cities with a 1000+ strong workforce and delivers 5000+ products, including fresh produce, daily essentials, health products, and more, within 10 minutes. Utilizing advanced technology and optimized delivery centers, the company is transforming the Indian grocery segment. With rapid commerce on the rise, Zepto's innovative approach positions it as a leader in the grocery delivery sector , capitalizing on the growing demand for faster delivery services in India.

Zepto - Industry

As per IMARC Group's analysis, the Indian online grocery market attained a value of $6.8 billion in 2022. Looking ahead, the market is anticipated to experience substantial growth and is projected to reach $37.0 billion by 2028 . This growth trajectory indicates a remarkable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.3% during the period from 2023 to 2028.

The sector has expanded in prevalence in the past few years as a result of evolving customer habits, growing urbanization, and a tech-savvy generation that prefers to make online purchases.

As per RedSeer, India's quick commerce market is set for impressive growth, projected to expand by 10–15 times by 2025 and reach a market size of nearly $5.5 billion. This substantial growth is expected to surpass other markets, including China, in terms of quick commerce adoption.

As their standard of living increases and their daily schedules get tighter, consumers are flocking to customized and convenient internet platforms for grocery shopping instead of walking down to the local shops.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the popularity of online grocery delivery became increasingly evident. As a consequence of social distancing constraints, consumers are converting to online grocery shopping, which is not only convenient but also safer.

Zepto - Founders and Team

Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, both 19-year-old childhood pals, founded Zepto after walking out of Stanford University's renowned computer science department to return to their home country, India, and start up a business. The Zepto company began its operations in April 2021.

Aadit Palicha

Aadit Palicha is the CEO and Co-Founder of Zepto. He was also the founder and CEO of KiranaKart. After completing an IB diploma from GEMS Education in Mathematics and Computer Science, Palicha then went for a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Stanford University, however, he quit the program in the middle to launch his firm. Aadit then completed Y Combinator Grade: W21 and started with PryvaSee as a Project Lead. Aadit Palicha then founded GoPool, his first startup, when he was just 17. He left the same in April 2020 and founded KiranaKart and then Zepto.

Kaivalya Vohra

Kaivalya Vohra is the CTO and Co-Founder of Zepto. He was also the founder and CTO of KiranaKart. He also attended Stanford University to pursue a degree in Computer Science, but like Aadit, he decided to leave the university. Kaivalya, along with Aadit, participated in Y Combinator as well.

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Zepto - Startup Story

Many of us have "startup ideas," but even the most creative among us struggle to see them through. Palicha and Vohra had both enrolled at Stanford to earn a Computer Science degree but had dropped out to follow their business passions instead.

During the Covid-19 outbreak, the concept for Zepto sprang from the limitations of their houses. A surge in demand for delivery services meant that groceries and other necessities would arrive in a couple of days, creating a void for quick delivery. As a result, Zepto was created with all this insight.

These teenagers were abruptly detained, because of Covid norms, detained in their Mumbai homes after significant collaboration on many projects, including a ride-hailing commuting app for kids. Even while grocery delivery, which was deemed important by local authorities, was still permitted across much of the nation as the virus spread, the duo battled to get their provisions as the illness expanded.

While Zepto is the focus of attention, Palicha and Vohra's first venture, KiranaKart, did not receive the same acclaim. Zepto, on the other hand, is inspired by KiranaKart. KiranaKart, as its name implies, was a supermarket delivery service. It had made arrangements with Kirana merchants to provide groceries in 45 minutes or less. A $730,000 pre-seed round was led by Global Founders Capital, 2 AM Ventures, Contrary Capital, and angel investors . At the time, Vohra and Palicha planned to make the first 1.5 lakh deliveries at a cost of Rs 1.

Zepto - Mission and Vision

As two bachelors living alone, the founders found it most difficult to obtain food, therefore, they focused their applications on grocery delivery. So, whereas KiranaKart, their first startup, tried to make grocery delivery easier for kiranas, Zepto aims to shorten delivery times.

Zepto - Name, Logo, and Tagline

The firm, which uses the term "Zepto" to denote "a factor of 10⁻²¹, i.e. 0.000000000000000000001," named after a minuscule unit of time, offers a 10-minute grocery delivery service, surpassing numerous well-funded competitors.

Zepto's tagline says, "Groceries delivered in 10 minutes" .

Zepto - Business and Revenue Model

Zepto delivers groceries in ten minutes through a system of dark storefronts and mini-warehouses, on up to 90% of orders. Zepto works in the quick commerce segment of India. It is designed to be customer-centric and built around the instant service model.

To ensure a flawless delivery experience, Aadit says that their average delivery time is 8 minutes and 47 seconds. Through a chain of dark stores or retail distribution centers, the Mumbai-based company employs a hotspot method to cater largely to digital purchases.

A dark store is a tiny neighborhood storehouse that customers cannot visit but purchase online to get packaged delivery. While dark stores are not new to the Indian industry, Aadit believes that the idea has yet to be completely explored. Population, traffic dynamics, topography, road patterns, weather conditions, last-mile operational improvement, real estate prices, and other geographic data and local intelligence aids Zepto in optimizing its connectivity. Furthermore, the startup's dark warehouses and cool rooms are custom-designed to satisfy particular criteria such as ease of travel, allowing packers to move as swiftly as possible to fill orders.

Location intelligence and geographic data, such as topography, population, road patterns, traffic dynamics, weather, last-mile supply availability, real estate values, and so on, are said to help Zepto optimize its network.

Zepto - Funding and Investors

Zepto, the Mumbai-based startup, has raised a total of $597.8 million in funding over seven rounds to date. The latest funding round (Series E) was completed on November, 8, 2023 helping Zepto raise $31.3  million . As of June 2023, the company is valued at $900 million. The startup's initial seed funding in September 2020 was led by Contrary.

In August 2023, Zepto achieved unicorn status by raising $200 million in a Series E funding round, bringing its valuation to $1.4 billion . This marked the end of India's 11-month unicorn drought. The StepStone Group led this funding round, with participation from Goodwater Capital and existing investors. Zepto's rise as the first Indian unicorn in 2023 shows its lits remarkable growth and potential in the quick commerce industry, even amidst a challenging market.

Zepto Ownership

Among the shareholders, Nexus Ventures holds the largest stake, holding 20.9% of Zepto. Other prominent owners of Zepto include Y Combinator, Lacy Groom, Glade Brook, and co-founders Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, among others.

Zepto - Growth and Revenue

Zepto has seen impressive growth, serving 10 major cities with 1,000+ employees. They deliver more than 5,000 products, revolutionizing the Indian grocery segment with 10-minute delivery, advanced tech, and optimized centers.

Engineering, operations, marketing, and financial positions are also available at Zepto. Palicha claims that month-over-month growth is 200%, with a monthly retention rate of 78%.

“We are looking at a pretty crazy runrate,” he said. “In the past one and a half months, we have grown our business by 10 times. And now we are working to grow another 10 times by February or March,” said Palicha in December 2021.

Zepto, when it was a five-month-old startup, had secured a valuation of $570 million after raising $100 million in a Series C round headed by Y Combinator's Continuity Fund, which was a 2X increase from its previous valuation of $60 million only 45 days before that. Zepto raised another round led by Y Combinator to lift its valuation further to $900 million, so there is certainly impressive growth that the company has received in funding as well.

Another positive development for Zepto has been the expertise it has been able to acquire. Plenty of well-known senior executives from Uber , Flipkart , Dream11 , Amazon , and Pharmeasy have joined the team.

According to Palicha, one of the reasons why several entrepreneurs have chosen Zepto is that it has enabled individuals who had transferred from Mumbai to Bangalore to come back to their homes. He says, nevertheless, that the startup's rapid development, rigorous execution, and ambitions have captivated others who share his interests. "We've been able to walk the walk," he said.

“They originally launched with a different model, swiftly pivoted to quick commerce in August 2021 and are now adding 100,000 new customers every week, 60% of them women. Their attention to detail on the logistics experience is unparalleled and this has enabled them to scale to most major metros in just 5 months. Simply put, we’re confident Zepto will win in this space over the long-term," said Anu Hariharan, a partner at Y Combinator, in a statement.

Zepto has demonstrated significant growth in recent times, with the majority of its dark stores now operating profitably. According to co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha, Zepto has successfully established its presence in major metro cities in India with over 200 dark stores . Impressively, approximately 50–60 percent of these dark stores have started generating cash flows, indicating the effectiveness of Zepto's business model and operational strategies. This noteworthy achievement highlights Zepto's commitment to sustainable growth and profitability in the fiercely competitive quick-commerce industry.

Zepto Financials

In its initial operational year of FY22, Zepto achieved a total revenue of Rs 142.3 crore. However, the startup also experienced losses amounting to Rs 390.3 crore during the same fiscal year. With operations commencing in April 2021, Zepto's overall expenses added up to Rs 532.7 crore in FY22.

Zepto's net loss increased 3.35 times in the fiscal year that concluded on March 31, 2023. In the fiscal year 2022–2023 (FY23), the fast-commerce company recorded a net loss of Rs 1,272.4 crore, a 226% rise over the previous fiscal year FY22 Rs 390.3 crore.

Operational revenue increased 14.3X from Rs 142.3 crore in FY22 to Rs 2,024.3 crore in FY23.

The year under consideration had a 529% increase in total expenses. The company incurred costs of Rs  3,350 crore in FY23, a 6.3X rise from Rs 532.7 crore in FY22.

Zepto - Challenges

Zepto has encountered some challenges lately, and in one of the recent ones, there were instances of founder and investor impropriety within the quick commerce delivery startup. Ansh Nanda, an alleged co-founder of the startup said that he was forced to relinquish his stakes in the startup by the other cofounders and by Nexus Ventures. This was carried forward by Nanda, who lodged an FIR against the cofounders of Zepto and the Nexus Ventures partner, Suvir Sujan. However, the co-founders responded to the same without much delay by approaching the Delhi High Court. Zepto is the third startup that is backed by Nexus and where one of the co-founders has been named in an FIR. YoloBus and Acko were two other companies that dealt with the same before.

Zepto - Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns

Zepto's marketing strategy has been a key driver of its rapid growth in the quick-commerce industry. The creative brilliance of L&K Saatchi & Saatchi was evident in three earlier ads promoting Zepto's products and services.

Building on this success, Zepto continued to impress with new campaigns featuring celebrated singers like Kailash Kher, Shankar Mahadevan, and Usha Uthup during the IPL season of 2022. These unique and melodic campaigns resonated with audiences, boosting Zepto's visibility and brand appeal.

Furthermore, the launch of the "Nahi Milega" campaign in March 2023, featuring the character "Uncle Ji," highlighted unlimited free deliveries, solidifying Zepto's position as the go-to platform for ultra-fast and cost-effective grocery delivery. With an innovative approach and successful marketing initiatives, Zepto has emerged as a leading player in the competitive quick-commerce industry, catering to the needs of time-conscious consumers.

Zepto - Competitors

There are many businesses that compete with Zepto and have already been driving fast-paced delivery of groceries like:

• Swiggy Instamart

Dunzo is another startup, which uses its Xpress Mart dark shop network to deliver groceries in Bengaluru in 19 minutes, and competes with Zepto.

Zepto - Future Plans

Zepto currently operates in major cities across India, including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, and Kolkata. The company is targeting profitability by 2024, and to achieve this, Zepto has ambitious plans to multiply its dark stores and expand its delivery network. The ultimate goal is to become a publicly listed company, with an IPO targeted within the next two to three years. With a strategic focus on sustained growth and elevated key executives, Zepto is well-positioned to solidify its position as a prominent player in the quick-commerce industry.

In the upcoming months, Zepto, which was named the first unicorn of 2023, plans to surpass Rs 10,000 crore in total sales as per various news report of October 9, 2023, according to founders and CEO Aadit Palicha, who was speaking on a panel at the The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA).

What is Zepto?

Zepto is a startup based in Mumbai that offers a 10-minute grocery delivery service.

Who founded Zepto?

Zepto was founded by Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, two childhood friends.

When was Zepto founded?

Zepto was founded in September 2020 and began operations in April 2021.

Which companies does Zepto compete with?

Swiggy Instamart, BigBasket, Blinkit, and Dunzo are some of the top competitors of Zepto.

How does Zepto delivery work?

Zepto delivers groceries in 10 minutes through its network of dark stores and micro-warehouses. The median delivery time is 8 minutes and 47 seconds, ensuring a swift and efficient delivery experience.

Is Zepto a unicorn startup?

Zepto became the first Indian unicorn startup in 2023 after raising a Series E round worth $200 million in August 2023. This round increased Zepto's valuation to $1.4 billion.

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Innovations in Information and Communication Technologies (IICT-2020) pp 3–14 Cite as

Factors Affecting Online Grocery Shopping in Indian Culture

• Ashish Kumar Singh 26 &
• Nishi Pathak 26  
• Conference paper
• First Online: 16 July 2021

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1 Citations

Part of the book series: Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation ((ASTI))

Today the online grocery shopping (OGS) is helping customers by making their life convenient by offering best and comfortable deals. Scope of online grocery shopping is increasing exponentially. Therefore, this study aims at examining the influencing role played by personal innovativeness (PI), economic values (EV), design aesthetic (DA), perceived enjoyment (PEJ) and convenience (CON) attributes on development of positive attitude to use OGS by Indian customers. For testing the variables and relationship of the proposed model, a structured questionnaire was formed and dispersed among 351 Ghaziabad and Delhi residents, out of which 232 were used for analysis. The Smart PLS 3.0 programme has been used to provide partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) method. Finding a study easy to use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), PI, EV, DA and PEJ and CON have a symbolic quantitative correlation in India with the acceptance of OGS. In contrast, PEJ did not support PEOU. Therefore, the study will provide direction to all online grocery service providers to design their services according to the customer’s expectation and need.

• Online grocery shopping (OGS)
• Personal innovativeness
• Economic values
• Design aesthetic
• Perceived enjoyment and convenient

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Singh, A.K., Pathak, N. (2021). Factors Affecting Online Grocery Shopping in Indian Culture. In: Singh, P.K., Polkowski, Z., Tanwar, S., Pandey, S.K., Matei, G., Pirvu, D. (eds) Innovations in Information and Communication Technologies (IICT-2020). Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66218-9_1

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Online grocery stores in India

This case study Involves three retailers that engaged In alternative approaches to grocer strategy formulation. The primary goals were to assess the relationship between a company’s business model(s) and its performance in the online grocery channel and to determine if there were other company and/or market related factors that could account for company performance. The first company is Basket currently present in Iambi, Hydrated and Bungalow.

The other one is Armholes which Is a website that operates In National Capital Region of India and offers FMC ND CUP goods and the last one Is Salt n Soap, Online Grocery Store In Kola operating out of Kola. First, we seek to achieve Insight into how uptake of Internet- based grocer relates to management orientation and find relationships between the uptake of Internet-based grocer and entrepreneurial orientation, competitive intensity, and IT maturity.

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BASKET Overview: Basket. Com is Indian’s largest online food and grocery store.

It has over 10,000 products ranging from fresh Fruits and Vegetables, Staples, Spices and Seasonings to FMC branded products, Beverages, Personal care products, Meats ND much more. The order is delivered right to the customer’s doorstep, anywhere in Bungalow, Iambi ; Hydrated. Within a year, the company is planning to start services in Delhi and Achaean as well.

Subsequently, it also plans to cater to Pun, Metadata and Kola. The customer can schedule their delivery date and time. Payment options include cash on delivery, credit and debit cards or food coupons.

Since its inception, the company has seen demand grow 25-30 per cent on a month-on-month basis. Business Model: Once a customer registers on Basket. Com he can browse the wide range of products, select the products he wants and place an order online.

Internally the products are then picked, hygienically packed and levered to the customer in the time slot selected by the customer. Basket has tie-ups with manufacturers, wholesalers and importers and the merchandising teamwork on a combination of post order procurement and in house stocking. The service is unique as it lets customers shop for daily essentials from the comfort of their homes, saving them time, effort and money.

The company provides high quality products at competitive prices along with an on time delivery guarantee.

There are two operating models. It is called just-in-time model. This means that not just perishables but everything they bring against an order. So they consolidate orders for the day, go and buy the products and deliver. When they reach a particular volume, they move from the Just-in-time model to what is called the warehouse stocking model.

I Nat Is winner teeny are as Tar as Bungalow Is concerned. I nee Duty products directly from the supplies, like Milliner and Procter & Gamble, they buy from farmers and mills and stock the products in the warehouse.

They stock a certain number of days of sales, depending on the product and sales. They are able to set initial inventory levels and then decide what the re-ordering levels are. So it is all impolitely automated. Analysis: Basket’s business model relies on on-time delivery of goods, and in order to manage the operations smoothly and efficiently, it uses the hub-and-spoke mode of distribution.

Here wholesalers deliver goods to Basket’s warehouses. Branded delivery vans then deliver these goods to the consumers.

Perishables are only warehoused for a matter of hours, and in some cases it’s 24 hours from farm to fridge. It handles 1,500 plus orders a day in Bungalow and 700 plus orders a day in Iambi and Hydrated. The grocery store banks on technology-driven solutions to rack everything from the time an order is placed to delivery.

Basket uses Sidetracks Restart interface to tightly integrate with the ERP system and handle all movement of trucks and delivery vehicles, notification to customers on estimated delivery times, etc. Streetwalker’s real time location data helps achieve optimal vehicle utilization.

ARMHOLES Overview: Armholes is a hybrid retail platform that enables sales and marketing of FMC/CUP brands to “short on time – high on stress” consumers. It enables grocery shopping by leveraging the strengths of the neighborhood retailers and integrates hem with opportunities provided by the internet. Armholes was founded by Visas Sings, who, as an entrepreneur, has a deep focus and passion for brand marketing. Head-quartered in New Delhi, Armholes is a small team of techies and marketers that have been operational since a little less than a year.

Over 1900 retailers across 26 cities in India use Armholes as their preferred commerce platform. Their tie-ups with retailers are based on mutual strengths. The retailer has a time-tested local presence, which includes an ability to deliver goods to the doorstep of the consumers n his catchments area. They intend to add to this strength with the increased accessibility of the shop on web and mobile devices. This is done at no additional cost to the retailer.

Armholes currently lists over ask SKU. Only branded products are listed in Armholes; commodities and private labels are excluded from their platform.

The core idea of Armholes is to enable independent retailers, who have a physical presence, to have a web-store, which allows them to connect better with modern consumers. Business Model: The business model of Armholes is different from most e- amerce sites, as they do not believe that transaction based revenues is the way to go in the grocery category at the moment. Armholes does not make revenues on taking part of the margins made by the grocers; rather, they have created a number of premium services that are offered to brands.

These services are in various genres like, advertising options, on and off the platform, analytical led marketing and marketing at the retail point. The idea behind this unconventional and unique business model is that Armholes does not disrupt the existing business practices Ana tenured ensures no escalation AT costs SE Armaments NAS partnered with retailers so that customers can shop at these local retailers online. Once logged in to the site, users can choose a local retailer and shop for groceries. Armholes then sends the order to the retailer in real time.

The groceries are delivered to the customer’s doorstep and the customers pay for the goods upon delivery. They don’t keep any inventory and their partner retailers maintain their own inventories.

There is no cost for the retailer to Join Armholes, they are basing their ability to get revenues by offering premium opt-in services offered to the brands. Analysis: The model does look scalable and rather interesting as compared to regular commerce shopping. There is no logistics cost that the startup incurs and it brings in the comfort of your local store as well.

The only issue is predictability of order delivery as live inventory is not available online. The current format is more like providing one more interface to your regular grocery store, with the same issues and comforts. A more of Ajax functionality would make the shopping process faster and avoid showing shopping bag page after every item is added.

Unlike other online rockery delivery stores that become a threat to the small local businesses, Armholes puts the ball back into the court of local businesses that had begun to feel underprivileged in this age of Internet.

Armholes has overcome three major hurdles of business. It has convinced Cornwallis about the business model by putting them in touch with customers and being paid directly. Secondly, it has convinced customers by eliminating the need for online payments. Furthermore, since customers can choose their own Kirkland, they can be assured of quality. Thirdly, it has cut its own operational costs by eliminating the need to set up an inventory to stock goods or hire delivery boys.

Armholes is a great example of how you can optimize on the available resources to maximize your gains.

Armholes makes most of its money through ads of the numerous grocery brands it stocks on its portal. With a model like Armholes, everybody is a winner – the suppliers, the consumers and the business itself! SALT N SOAP Overview: Salt n Soap, a Bluebells initiative, intends to provide its consumers a convenient, social, enjoyable and rewarding experience of shopping their daily rockery needs online from the comfort of their homes and offices. Started in November 2012, Salt n Soap is owned and operated by Bluebells Solutions ALP. Though the services of booking daily grocery needs online and receiving timely delivery at the convenience of home or office are the basic foundations of Salt n Soap, Salt n Soap is more than Just another online version of a hyper mart, supermarket or a local Koran store. Salt n Soap intends to provide today’s busy urban consumers online tools for making their shopping experience social, enjoyable and rewarding.

Salt n Soap enables this through the various social features of the website, engaging and interesting games and contests.

Salt n Soap comes up with, and, last but not the least, the goldmine of information and analytics that facilitate a smarter buying decision. Apart from tottering want conventional online grocery sleets nave to offer, they have come up with quite a few innovative and engaging products and services that will catch attention of discerning customers. First, they are positioning online grocery services to “cash reach, time or” segment of population, typically SEC AY and AY class of people, working couple with busy work schedule and very little time to do daily shopping chore.

Hence, Salt n Soap position is more on “value” a customer derives by saving time rather than being just a “discount” shop. Business Model: Salt n Soap is a Kola-based outfit that has apparently pioneered the concept of “open analytics” in this space where customers can instantly summon a variety of data on a product like its market share, purchasing trends, and a comparison with what people in the same socio-economic class are buying.

The site also lets you know when it thinks a particular product has run out, thanks to some nifty code, and pings you so you’re reminded to buy more of it.

Consumers have access to a variety of data like market share of a product, purchase trend of a product, comparison of purchase trend with average pattern of people in the same SEC. Consumers can maintain their budget for purchase and track their consumption compared to the budget. Salt n Soap also seem to have developed an algorithm that predicts the umber of days of provision that a user has and thus prompting him/her when he should buy the same product again.

Salt n Soap has integrated their product with social media to provide a social experience to their consumers. Consumers are also rewarded with redeemable points for sharing their shopping experience with their friends in social media.

The website has been designed to enable users to shop through a “list” where he/she can select multiple products from one screen instead of having to navigate to multiple screens. Analysis: They seem to operate efficiently with very low capital investment.

Plus they provide a lot of innovative value added features to consumers which are typically not available in a brick and mortar store. Some such features are a unique web front that allows customers to shop multiple products without having to navigate to many pages, providing personal shopping assistance, helping customers to plan and monitor their grocery budget and inventory, analytics on market share and sale trend of products, etc.

Salt n Soap mimed to have understood that online shopping and especially grocery shopping is not about Just providing a web front to the consumer allowing them to book an order and then delivering the goods to the consumer’s doorstep.

They have introduced the concept of “Personal Shopping Assistance” where they promise to provide personalized assistance to consumers in buying through qualified professionals. Salt n Soap is constantly innovating on the features to ensure a more enriching and meaningful experience for its users. Grocery is a pretty complex business from the back-end and supply chain perspective.

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Amazon Food: Biting into the Food Delivery Market in India

Research by: Jones Mathew, Sandeep Puri, Darren Meister, and Maria Luisa C. Delayco

Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon) India expanded Amazon Food into the food delivery market in March 2021 amid a pandemic and the ensuing lockdown. The move surprised the industry, especially considering that Swiggy and Zomato Ltd. (Zomato), the two key players in the food delivery business, were facing an all-time slump and that restaurants were seeking to move away from aggregators to create their own ordering platform. Zomato and Swiggy, a duopoly in the foodservice aggregator (FSA) space in the country, had been struggling to keep cash burn low, squeezing delivery-executive commissions, executing mass layoffs, and scaling down profit-draining cloud kitchens. Although the timing of the launch appeared risky, Amazon India’s confidence to take on the established players and challenge the status quo stemmed from its size, reach, resources, technological prowess, reliability, trust, and goodwill.  In a market scenario where safety and hygiene standards were set to change forever and the odds were stacked against FSAs, the industry and consumers were expecting a tough battle. Amazon had to reassess whether its strengths would be adequate to help it make satisfactory inroads into the industry, confront the obstacles, and overcome the ongoing slump and make good on its decision to be the new entrant when the established players were bearing the brunt of not only the pandemic but also a deeply divided restaurant industry.

Learning Objective

This case is designed for graduate-level marketing management courses covering modules on market entry strategies and competitor mapping. The case is also suitable for a marketing strategy course in modules on understanding the competitive advantage and understanding business models. This case may also be useful in a customer relationship management course to discuss customer experience, unique value proposition, and building opportunities and challenges in a digital world.

The case analyzes the timing of Amazon’s entry into the food delivery market, the strategies it is likely to adopt to challenge the established players, and the choices it has to make to provide a unique, innovative, and standout experience to customers likely looking for a change. It explores the challenges a huge online retailer faces when entering a highly competitive segment where it has no prior experience, at a time when market sentiment and economic conditions are strongly unfavourable. While the firm possesses certain significant strengths that could prove to be instrumental in its success, there are also issues it must address. Working through the case will give students the opportunity to explore the following issues:

• The logic behind Amazon India’s entry into the competitive food delivery market.
• The most appropriate business model and targeting and pricing strategies for Amazon Food to find success in India, considering there are different FSAs it can choose from.
• The distinctive value proposition Amazon Food should create for online food delivery customers in terms of “customer experience” as a differentiator.
• The nature and scope of technical and digital capabilities Amazon would need in order to succeed in the online food delivery business.
• The possible obstacles Amazon Foods might encounter on its route to success.

Disciplines: Entrepreneurship; & Strategy

To cite this case: Mathew, J., Puri, S. , Meister, D., & Delayco, M C. L. (2021). Amazon Food: Biting into the Food Delivery Market in India . Ivey ID: W25902. London, Canada: Ivey Publishing

To access this case: https://www.iveypublishing.ca/s/product/amazon-food-biting-into-the-food-delivery-market-in-india/01t5c00000D4spuAAB

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Online Grocery Delivery Strategy in India: Amazon Prime Now`s Transition to Amazon Fresh

The case “Online Grocery Delivery Strategy in India: Amazon Prime Now’s Transition to Amazon Fresh” outlines the attempts of multinational technology company Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon)’s Indian subsidiary Amazon India to establish itself in the fast-growing online grocery delivery space. The case starts out by providing details about Amazon India’s foray into the space with the Amazon Prime Now app. It then details the hardships that Amazon India faced with the Prime Now app that led to discontinuation of the app. Later, it takes a look at the company’s decision to transition to the Amazon Fresh service – which was offered as part of the main shopping app/website – to remain relevant in the online grocery delivery space. The case then gives a glimpse into the Amazon Fresh service. Can Amazon India make a dent in the online grocery delivery space this time around with Amazon Fresh?

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COMMUNITY CASE STUDY article

Community case studies: an interpretative phenomenological analysis on sexual abuse in urban chennai.

• School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, India

This study attempts to explore the lived experiences of sexual abuse during COVID-19 in a big metropolitan city in India, with a special interest in understanding the contemporary problems faced by teenagers. Any Phenomenological enquiry begins with identifying and determining the suitability of the participants. In this case, the participants are teenage girls and boys, who have experienced one or other forms of sexual abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic. By restricting the act of sexual abuse that happened during a pandemic, this research brings attention to the medium (material), social conditions, and the role of the cultural world in the act of sexual abuse. It begins by distributing a questionnaire to 500 participants to identify the participants who had experienced one or other forms of sexual abuse during the aforementioned time. Secondly, brief interviews with the identified participants are conducted to record their lived experience of sexual abuse. Using this collected narrated experience as a reservoir for phenomenological reflection, this research aims to uncover moments of lived experience emphasizing spatial, corporeal, and temporal aspects as well as provide greater depth in understanding sexual abuse in the context of teenage lives. It helps to understand the different forms of sexual abuse experienced by teenagers as well as portrays how space plays a major role in the act. This article aims to highlight the role of the material world in the act as well as how the social, political, and cultural contexts are materialized in the act of sexual abuse. Also, this article analyses how the existing intervention mechanisms support the prevention of sexual abuse in different social settings as well as emphasizes the gaps in the intervention mechanisms apropos the chosen narrative data. To sum up, this study aims to create awareness, provides prevention mechanisms considering the role of the material world, and advocates for SDG 16 (Promote justice, peaceful and inclusive societies) and SDG 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls).

Introduction

Sexual abuse refers to any sexual activity perpetrated without consent. It includes unwanted touching, forced sexual activity, oral sex, and rape among other sexual acts. WHO 1 defines sexual abuse as Actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions . Sexual abuse becomes harassment once the position/power comes into the picture. UN’s Sustainable Development Goal of promoting justice, peaceful and inclusive societies, and gender equality emphasizes any form of discrimination and violence against people. 2 Henkhaus’s (2022) study on childhood sexual abuse and its impact on human capital and economic wellbeing brings attention to the problem of poor educational attainments and a decrease in the labor market outcomes. This foregrounds sexual abuse as a public health crisis and alerts us to the importance of robust prevention mechanisms. A study on Child Sexual Abuse in India: A Systematic Review ( Choudhry et al., 2018 ) conducted a systematic review of the existing quantitative and qualitative studies on Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) and demonstrated that sexual violence is distributed among both boys and girls as well as this study demonstrates that the act of sexual abuse is an interplay between individual, familial and societal factors. Even though SDGs 5.1 and 5.2 talk explicitly about the violence perpetrated against women and SDG 16 talks about peaceful societies, the implication for the same for cis-men was not adequately mentioned. 3 García-Moreno and Amin (2016) talk about the WHO’s detailed agenda for 2030 apropos any forms of violence (sexual or non-sexual) against women and girls which includes Mental health services for sexual violence survivors more importantly on providing appropriate care based on survey based research.

A study conducted by Walker (2020) on Harvard Medical Review mentions sexual abuse and violence against women as silent pandemic. The Safe City Programme in New Delhi was a program conducted by UN Women which is an organization dedicated to gender equality and empowerment of women as well as serves as the global champion for women and girls’ rights. As a part of this program, they conducted a survey on the high-and low-income areas of New Delhi, about 73 percent of the respondents reported that the city is unsafe as well as reported that women and men face sexual violence in their own neighborhoods. It foregrounds the lack of women’s spatial confidence in their own places. Rai and Rai’s (2020) study on Children and Youth Services Review explores how women’s confidence and fearlessness are undermined in their own city due to acts of sexual abuse and violence. It will be far worse for women and men when the act of sexual abuse is perpetrated by their own family clan and friends. All the participants in this study reported that they were sexually abused by people known to their families, friends, and relatives. Although much research has been done on sexual abuse crimes, and survivor’s narratives, there is a lack of research on the lived experiences of the survivors particularly on the southern part of India and ignorance on the part of the educators concerning this issue. So, this study proposes to work on the narrative of sexual abuse survivors who belongs to the community of the researchers.

Participants

At the time of the study, the participants are in their first year of study at an engineering university and they are all female. Participants are addressed as Nithya, Geetha, Preetha, and Sheela to maintain anonymity (Original names changed). All the participants are from urban Chennai, and they were sexually abused during COVID-19 at the time of their late teen years.

Data collection and procedure

This study begins by distributing a questionnaire to 500 participants to identify the participants who had experienced one or other forms of sexual abuse during COVID-19. The following questions were asked:

Only 258 participants responded to the questionnaire out of which 8 participants (including all genders) reported experiencing one or other forms of sexual abuse during COVID-19. Among the 8, four female participants are willing to share their experiences with the researchers. Secondly, brief interviews with the identified participants are conducted to record their lived experience of sexual abuse. Prior to the initiation of interviews, participants were reminded of the research’s objectives and furnished with detailed information via an information sheet. The voluntary nature of responding to interview questions was underscored, and participants were given the flexibility to withdraw at any point until one-month post-interview, leading to the removal of their interview record. Additionally, participants received a briefing on protocols safeguarding anonymity and confidentiality, including explicit clarification of scenarios where confidentiality might not be upheld (such as reporting information indicating a threat or risk to the participant or others or disclosing previously unknown offenses with identifiable victims). Informed consent was obtained through participants formally signing a consent form.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and their narratives were recorded using an Apple iPhone voice recorder. The interview schedule was decided based on the availability of the participants and the following unstructured questions were asked to obtain more information from the participants.

Following the interview, the participants were given a chance to ask questions, and opportunities were given to them to add more. The recordings were transcribed using a transcription tool with potentially important information such as the name of the place, person, and other significant information removed.

Phenomenology

Phenomenology is concerned with lived experience as a resource to foreground the underlying reality of the phenomenon that is being investigated. Merleau-Ponty et al.’s (2013) phenomenology emphasizes the notion of the body as a vehicle of our being in the world as a background or recessive presence. The shift in consciousness from a healthy state to a state of alienation from and objectification of the body in any physical act can be better understood through the first-hand account of lived experience. Its sole purpose is to clarify the meaning of the world. The main aim of Phenomenology is to explore how people make sense of what happens to them. It takes the participants’ articulation of their lived experience without any judgment and uses it as a source of knowledge for the future. It aims to bring about the biases, contradictions, and prejudices into light rather than experiences imposed with natural attitudes, errors, and biases. Any Phenomenological enquiry treats lived experience as data. More importantly, Interpretative (Interpretive) Phenomenological Analysis works on two layers: understanding the participant’s experience and how they make sense of their experience. There are three major Phenomenological traditions: Transcendental, Hermeneutic, and Existential.

Husserl (2001) said that the phenomenologist is “concerned with the essential structures of cognition and their essential correlation to things known” (p.27). Merleau-Ponty et al.’s (2013) states that phenomenologist attempts a “direct description of our experience as it is, without taking account of its psychological origin and the causal explanations, which the scientist, the historian or the sociologist may be able to provide” (p.6). Creswell et al.’s (2007) defines Phenomenology as a study that “describes the meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon” (p. 62). The sole purpose of Phenomenology is to reorient the natural sciences perspective of treating the body as an exterior without an interior to a holistic understanding of subjectivity in meaning-making and understanding of the world Merleau-Ponty (1962) . And Heidegger (2010) brings attention to the relationship between beings and their contexts.

Van Manen (2017) states all the phenomenological traditions intended for the bracketing of lived moment experience free from generalizations and preconceptions and he asserted that people could “reflect phenomenologically on the living meaning of the lived experience” (p. 813). Contemporary neuropsychology reiterates the postulates of memory studies in a different way. It states that memories are the phenomenology of retrospection but not an exact representation of the past. As far as temporality is concerned, any phenomenologist enquiry should consider the privileged position of the subject in terms of societal, cultural, political, and material presence. When it comes to applying phenomenological philosophy to empirical research, there were no clearly defined principles in the works of Husserl, Heidegger, and Marleau-Ponty but the confounding statement is that the elucidation of the meaning of an experience apropos to the subjectivity the researcher is exploring and the challenge lies in building a phenomenologically credible research.

Interpretative phenomenological analysis

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) gained its popularity as a qualitative approach in the late twentieth century. It is more concerned with the interpretation of the lived experience both by the participant and the researcher. Husserl emphasized intentionality, which is how humans impose meaning on their experience. The earlier usage of IPA was focused on health psychology based on the interest of the pioneers, but later it was found to be a useful methodology for developing insights from individual experiences. Since this is idiographic, this methodology is useful for focusing on less data and in-depth analysis. Any successful IPA study would be useful for the detailed exploration of any phenomena highlighting new knowledge and understanding of the phenomena under study. Apart from its focus on individual experiences, IPA analysis can foreground the influence of the dominant social, cultural, and political factors on the interpretation ( Lopez and Willis, 2004 ). And more importantly, this methodological approach focuses on the integrated self and demonstrates new understandings ( Dickson et al., 2007 ).

Even though IPA offers a holistic understanding of the phenomenon under study, the researcher’s conception can affect and complicate the ‘process of interpretative activity’ ( Smith, 1996 ). This ‘double hermeneutic’ ( Smith et al., 1999 ) emphasizes the double interpretation of the experience: by the research participants and the researcher. An IPA study on male sexual offenders ( Kloess et al., 2019 ) provided new insights into the diverse situational and vulnerability factors of the perpetrators in committing the act. A study on the survivor’s decision for legal initiation using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis ( Plastock et al., 2021 ) brings attention to the diverse factors that influence the survivor’s decision as to whether to initiate legal proceedings or not.

Similarly, this study employs a qualitative methodology using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, an idiographic approach whereby each experience is analyzed in detail apropos the given context ( Smith, 2011 ). The first author herself interviewed the participants in both English and in the local language of Chennai (Tamil) and transcribed the recordings. Three participants did not express consent for recording, but they allowed the first author to record it in text. After each interview, the first author diligently noted her initial thoughts and notions in order to separate the preconceptions of the author from the intended focus/aim of the study ( Tindall et al., 2009 ). Subsequently, the author analyzed the transcripts line by line to identify the factors affecting the act, experiential claims for the committed act, and the standpoint/positionality of the participants.

Four participants out of the 8 who experienced sexual abuse expressed willingness to narrate their experience with the researcher. Almost all the 8 participants believed that COVID-19 paved the way for more sexual abuse cases, and they stated that they were well aware of the helpline number for reporting child sexual abuse. This study aims to understand the experiences of the participants and how they perceive the experience (Make meaning of the experience). Three main themes emerged in this study: (a) Material Circumstances as a cause of the incident (b) Patriarchal Indian family structure (c) Association of Shame . ‘Material Circumstances as a Cause of the incident’ refers to how the material world including the material things, and the enclosed space influences the perpetrators to commit the act. ‘Patriarchal Indian family structure’ refers to how the Indian familial structure prevents them from disclosing it to their parents immediately. ‘Association of Shame’ refers to how associating shame with the incidents prevents the survivors from reporting the incident.

Material circumstances as a cause of the incident

Among the selected participants, Sheela gave both a written narrative and recorded interview (personal) and this supplements her audio recording.

‘It was one of my dad’s very very very close friend. We were almost like a family and I always imagined him as my father but during pandemic we spent most of the time together. Firstly, I stared to feel uncomfortable with his behavior, the way he talk and the intimate looks he gave me, then slowly he started to call me and talk rubbish about me in his life and then I told about this to friends and they always had my back and I recorded all the calls that he spoke to me. I was so afraid to say it to my parents because he was so close to my family. Later he started to abuse me physically whenever he comes to my home, once I got stuck with him in our home and he tried to miss behave with me. Later after few days we informed my parents, first when they knew they were bit angry on me since I did not tell them the first day itself but then they understood it, Then we almost thought of giving a police case on him but keeping my future in thoughts we just had some massive fights. But with god’s grace my family and friends had my back (Sheela).

The experience of Sheela brings attention to the effect of the material world in the act of Sexual Abuse (SA). The perpetrator was a known friend to the family for more than 20 years and this relationship enabled easy access to the participant’s house. COVID-19 has imposed more restrictions on the mobility of people, therefore people often tend to visit relatives who are living nearby for recreational purposes. In the case of this participant, the perpetrator takes advantage of the fact of being a family friend staying next door as well as the COVID imposed restrictions in committing the act. As per the participant’s interpretation of the experience, the visit was more frequent during COVID-19 pandemic and the family had nowhere to go other than visiting nearby friends and relatives.

Initially, the survivor was experiencing inappropriate touch, but later during this time, the perpetrator took advantage of time and space and forcefully molested the survivor. This brings attention to the materiality/ material dimension of the experience. All 8 participants reported noticing a change in their close one’s behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic and it alerted us to the lack of mental health support and help during the crisis time. Similarly, in the case of Geetha, the perpetrator was the uncle who frequently visits the family, but the survivor reported the act before it got out of hand. At Sheela’s home, On the day of the incident.

‘ My mom and dad were not at home when he enters the house, and my sister was playing outside. He manipulated the timings and approached me. He forced me for a hug and asked me to kiss him and forcefully touching me inappropriately. I did not know how to react whether to shout or cry. I was confused, scared, and shocked’ (Sheela).

She reported past incidents of inappropriate touching to her male friends. After she reported this incident, Whenever she was with her friends, they never let him near her. Apart from this incident, the perpetrator used to send obscene messages, videos, and photos to the survivor’s phone before the incident.

Nithya was not ready to disclose much due to her close affinity with the perpetrator. In her case, the perpetrator was the adopted brother, and it brings attention to the effect of spatiality and temporality in committing the act. Nithya’s parents adopted a male child before her birth, and they grew up in the same house as siblings. The survivor was always in close proximity, but the act was committed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the imposed restrictions, people were forced to stay in their houses owing to the advantageous circumstances for the perpetrator to commit the crime. This act poses serious questions in relationship building, mental health, and stability in bringing up an adopted child along with the biological child.

Geetha was sexually abused by her uncle who often visits her home during the pandemic. This uncle often asks Geetha to sit on his lap and inappropriately touched her, so Geetha started to hide in her bathroom whenever the uncle visits their home. This brings attention to the lack of safe space for a girl in her own home. Prema have experienced sexual abuse during her commute to their tuition centers. The usually crowded autos were lacking people because of COVID-19, so the perpetrator used the situation to their own advantage and committed the act. The perpetrator inappropriately touched the girl, and he forced her to kiss his own private parts.

‘ He stopped the vehicle in an empty road and kissed me. He forced my face in to his penis and I was shocked, felt disgust and cried’ (Prema).

Prema immediately reported the incident to her family and the auto men were not seen from the next day. One noticeable aspect mentioned by Geetha and Prema is they reported the incidents to the family without hesitation. Prema mentioned that she was able to report the incident because the perpetrator were unknown/not related to the family.

Patriarchal Indian family structure

When the interviewer asked about reporting the incident to their parents, all the survivors reported that they were confused and not sure about their father’s reactions and felt scared to report the incidents.

Interviewer: Did you feel like reporting this incident immediately to your parents? Sheela: No. I was confused about my parents’ reaction towards this because this man is very close to my father, But I decided not to tell this to my father first because I felt my mom will understand it better than my father.

After the participant’s family came to know about the incident, they decided to report it to the police, but they did not go for it considering its implications in the girl’s life as well as the perpetrator’s wife and children and Sheela has mentioned that she fought with her parents for not going to the police. This brings attention to the typical Indian familial setting and the patriarchal mindset that prevails in the families. In Indian families, any shame on girl children will be looked upon as a disgrace to the head of the family and household. Moreover, Indian parents associates womanhood with purity and they believe that exposing the incidents will reduce the chance of their daughters getting married.

‘A study on Childhood Attachments, sexual abuse, and their relationship to Adult Coping in Child Molesters’ ( Marshall et al., 2000 ) demonstrated that the subjects of their study reported greater attachments to their mothers than fathers as well as explicated the correlation between the insecure patterns of childhood attachment and ineffective adult coping. All the participants feel that their mothers can understand and protect them than their fathers. A 2022 study on Gender Norms, Domestic Violence, and the Southern Indian puzzle ( Chattopadhyay and Sidharth, 2022 ) conducted by FLAME University, Pune suggested that even though the macroeconomic changes were suggesting improvements, they did not lead to changes in gender norms. The reluctance of the daughters to report these abusive incidents to the father as well as their doubts in terms of acceptance sadly upholds the unchanged gender norms in Indian society.

Interviewer: Why did you decide not to report this incident to the police? Sheela: Because my parents were not ready to put me in trouble and we knew their family very well. One thing that concerns our parents are his kids and wife. So we did not go for it.

Again, the same mindset prevents the parents from reporting the incident to the police or seeking legal help. Likewise, Geetha and Prema did not report this incident to the police, nor did they seek legal assistance. Again, in Geetha’s case, she felt safe talking about it to her mother rather than her father.

Interviewer: Why did you decide to report this incident to your mother? Geetha: Because I feel my mother understands me well and I doubt that my father might scold me so did not even think about that.

Nithya’s experience was the result of Siblings Sexual Abuse (SSA). The social myth justifying the experimental sexual acts between brother and sister has persisted for a long time. Hardy (2001) argues that the victims of SSA exhibit the same psychological and emotional impact on girls as girls sexually abused by fathers. Carretier et al. (2022) in their study on the impact of sibling sexual abuse in adolescent girls highlights the importance of the need to treat SSA with special care. They highlighted that the survivor should be separated from the perpetrator in case of significant distress and threat to safety caused by the presence perpetrator. Even though Nithya experienced significant distress, signs of trauma, depression, and nervousness, she was not separated from her brother. They continue to live under the same roof. This brings attention to the patriarchal Indian family structure, lack of awareness, and ignorance on the aspect of creating safe spaces for the survivors.

Association of shame

All the participants in this study reported that they immediately felt a sense of shame and shock after the incidents, and this prevented them from reporting it immediately to their parents and seeking help. According to a longitudinal study on the persistence of shame following sexual abuse ( Feiring and Taska, 2005 ), the survivors reported feeling shame for a period of 6 years. Likewise, in this study the survivors reported shame after the act and felt guilty about disclosing it to their parents however Sheela reported the continuous inappropriate behavior of her family friend to his friends, and it foregrounds the safe space in relationships outside the family unit. Even though Geetha and Prema reported the incidents to their family, they said that they felt shame, disgust, and fear immediately after the incidents.

How things shape the Mind? ( Malafouris, 2013 ) demonstrates the constitutive role played by the material world in a cognitive process. New Materialism suggests the ‘turn to matter’ focusing on the role of the material world drawing from philosophy, anthropology, and posthuman sociology ( Braidotti, 2013 ). It assert that the world and historical developments arise from a diverse array of material forces spanning the physical, biological, psychological, social, and cultural realms ( Barad, 1996 ). Posthuman thinkers like Braidotti (2013) emphasized the relational role played by the material world in the constitution of the self. Similarly, IPA focuses on the integrated self and the situated subjectivity through in-depth analysis of individual experiences. Sheela and Nithya’s narratives offer an enriched understanding of the associated materiality in the acts starting from mobile phones, sofas, and houses (enclosed spaces) as well as how the pandemic situation and its associated restrictions (social) were made advantageous by the perpetrators in committing the act. Sheela received obscene messages, verbal sexual abuse over the phone, and obscene pictures before the perpetrator actually committed the crime. Fear, confusion and shame have prevented the survivor from reporting the incidents of technological abuse. This incident suggests the able use of technology by the perpetrator but ineffective usage on the survivor’s part. It alerts us to the relationality of material things as well as their interactions with human beings in understanding any social problem.

Nithya was sexually abused by her adopted brother when they were sleeping on the bed next to each other as any siblings in a family. Her hesitation, self-doubt, and disgust after the incident explicate the lack of awareness, the society instilled fear and shame on females apropos body and sexuality. She cried during the interview and refused to talk further. Her difficulty in recollecting the abusive experience suggests an unspeakable and unresolved trauma in her life. She was referred to counseling by the interviewer (researcher) after the interview. After the incident, Nithya stayed in the same house with the perpetrator. She might have experienced severe trauma daily other than the time she was away from home. Now she is living in the college hostel far away from her home and the perpetrator got married as per the information given by her friend. Her refusal to talk about the actions on her parents’ part and the aftermath of the incident suggests a non-supportive response from her family. Geetha and Prema’s experiences are similar to the other girls in terms of known perpetrators, but the girls were more willing to talk like Sheela. Indian society’s family structure, parent’s fear about the future of girls (getting married), and the shame they felt on their part prevented them from reporting the incident or seeking legal help, but this societal and cultural influence left a traumatic scar on the girls’ lives. Sheela and Nithya reported feeling powerless during the incident and felt uncomfortable talking to or meeting (in a common gathering) the perpetrators. Above all, they emphasized on the educating and empowering the young girls to prevent sexual abuse and they stated this as a reason for talking about the incidents.

Implications

According to a 1-year 2021 survey, 4 the number of reported Sexual Abuse cases against women amounts to 12,500. The crimes committed by relatives, friends, or known people were higher compared to other reported crimes but still it is significantly underreported. According to the responses collected for this study, it is evident that almost all the participants who were sexually abused in one way or another do not want to talk about it. A 2023 study on Ecological factors associated with sexual abuse among adolescent children in Mainland China ( Fu et al., 2023 ) suggested the involvement of parents, educational institutions, and government in comprehensive sex education among young children. We can adopt it for Indian schools and colleges. The first step against sexual abuse should be demonstrating the importance of disclosure like the MeToo 5 movement in India. Secondly, creating awareness among young adults about acceptable and unacceptable sexual acts. Thirdly, the government bodies should ensure safety and enable easy access to report sexual abuse crimes. Then, the survivors should be encouraged to seek professional help in case of distress, and psychological trauma.

Few participants other than the selected participants for the study reported sexual abuse during their childhood and provided written narratives. It was observed that these participants were unaware of the difference between good touch and bad touch and this lack of awareness created an advantage for the perpetrator to sexually abuse them. All the participants who answered the questionnaire responded ‘YES’ to the importance of creating awareness about sex education among school children as well and 90 percent of the participants feel that there is not enough awareness of sexual abuse among older generations. As a part of this study, the researchers conducted an awareness campaign for the first-year students who participated in the study to create awareness of identifying potential perpetrators around them and discussed different avenues for reporting the incidents to seek help. This study was part of the lecture on contemporary issues for the corresponding semester. The second author (who is also a student) gave a talk on identifying potential perpetrators as well as discussed strategies to handle any potential risk situation followed by an interactive discussion. Students were actively participated in the study and gained confidence in talking about abusive incidents.

Limitations

This study employed a qualitative approach to a small set of participants owing to the fact that this is a sensitive issue and people are finding it traumatic to talk about the same. The reluctance to disclose may be partly due to the stigmatization associated with it or the perpetrators are related to them either as family or friends, or they find it difficult to process the traumatic experience. Although the number of participants is perfectly justifiable for the methodology used, the reported themes and findings cannot be generalized across populations. The results are therefore not representative samples of sexual abuse survivors across the globe. Furthermore, the participants’ willingness to disclose the intricate details of their experiences varies, which affects the research outcomes.

According to a 2021 study on the prevention of child sexual abuse ( McCartan et al., 2021 ), professionals or practitioners all over the world agreed to the prevention of child sexual abuse as well as recognized that it is a public health issue. This study concluded that the professionals agreed that education is one of the best ways to work on the prevention of sexual abuse and the treatment of sexual abuse offenders but implied that it may not be applicable in all other countries due to the difference in social, cultural, and political background. Although this is starting to change with more studies/research taking place in different regions, there is still a lot more to be done. Studies focusing on cultivating resilience ( Hinduja and Patchin, 2017 ) among the youth to resist and immediately report abusive behavior is one of the ways in which more offenses can be reported and survivors can seek help at an early stage. Three main themes emerged in this study which are the role played by the material things such as mobile phones, and houses, the material conditions that prevailed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the patriarchal family south Indian family structure. This study demonstrated how the material conditions that resulted as part of the COVID-19 pandemic became advantageous to the perpetrators as well as how the social, and cultural conditions were materialized in the act of sexual abuse.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Ethics statement

The studies involving humans were approved by School of Social Sciences and Languages, VIT Chennai. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. Written informed consent was obtained from the individual(s) for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article.

Author contributions

NG: Formal analysis, Methodology, Resources, Writing – original draft. BG: Resources, Writing – review & editing.

The author(s) declare that funding was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Financial support was received from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Chennai, for the publication of this article.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our participants for sharing their difficult stories with us. We also thank the School of Social Sciences and Languages for facilitating this research.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: sexual abuse, phenomenology, IPA, lived experiences, pandemic, COVID-19, pain, teenage

Citation: Ganesan N and Gopalakrishnan B (2024) Community case studies: an interpretative phenomenological analysis on sexual abuse in urban Chennai. Front. Psychol . 15:1352066. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1352066

Received: 07 December 2023; Accepted: 19 February 2024; Published: 14 March 2024.

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*Correspondence: Bhuvaneswari Gopalakrishnan, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.