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Over the last few weeks you may have found it hard to find slots on bigbasket (hopefully you& #39;re finding it better over the last few days). I thought I& #39;d try to explain why.
First, let& #39;s start with how we plan for demand. We plan for demand 3 months ahead on a rolling basis. This means setting up warehouses, procuring racks, picking devices, crates, hiring people, delivery vans etc ... its a very long list. Meticulously planned.
Over the last year, we rolled out large warehouses and last-mile delivery hubs ("dark stores", in industry parlance) which meant we were covered in terms of warehouse capacity for two years. We are therefore even better prepared on infrastructure than usual.
We also have close relationships with our suppliers-FMCG companies, 15,000+ registered farmers and mills, which means we would be able to service the additional post-lockdown demand comfortably.
Well, then what happened ? Just ONE THING REALLY ...
A very large portion of our workforce left for their villages just prior to the lockdown. That was something we didn& #39;t anticipate, and which meant we couldn& #39;t pick orders and deliver them in sufficient numbers to satisfy the 3-6x increase in demand.
Resulting in slots closing within a few minutes of opening.
We& #39;ve been trying to recruit warehouse staff and delivery executives in all cities. We also entered into partnerships with cab aggregators and 57 other partners like Restaurant Association, Non-essential Retailer’s, Garment factories, etc.
However, recruitment and training do tend to take time; also, a lot of the people who applied for jobs were only willing to join after the lockdown. Fortunately, things have improved now, and should get better in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile the key priority was: How do we deliver to more customers with the existing capacity? And we executed on the ONE BIG LEARNING FOR ME DURING THESE TRYING TIMES - “DO MORE WITH LESS”.
We innovated like hell. Made many many process tweaks to get serious improvements in people productivity, introduced community delivery in various apartments to deliver more with the existing manpower, the reduced assortment helped (essentials only) ... etc
One thing which has kept us going is the commitment of our warehouse staff and delivery executives (or Customer Experience Executives, as we call them) who have stepped up to help during this time. Hats off to our “FOOD WARRIORS”.
When the lockdown hit and a large chunk of our manpower left for their hometown, we started with delivering 30,000 orders. Today we deliver 2.83 lac orders and growing. However, sadly, the expectation is 3 to 6 times this number ... We are really really trying our best.
And finally, there is so much angst about refunds. And understandably so. Let me assure you that all refunds are being done. Refund volumes are really very high. Unprecedented. All our payment gateway partners are working very closely with us to ensure bulk upload of refunds.
We will complete all pending refunds in the next 2 to 3 days. However, in cases where the refund is to the source account, it may take a few more days. Please bear with us.
We are genuinely trying our best ! Thanks 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🙏" title="Folded hands" aria-label="Emoji: Folded hands"> so much for being our valued customers.
