The grocery space has no differentiation today, only price wars. But one Bengaluru-based startup is trying to create a new space for newer businesses.

Wildermart, which bills itself as a clean grocery store, was launched in Bangalore recently by Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Member of the Lok Sabha, Animal Rights Activist and Environmentalist - who also became the first buyer on the portal. “The best way to preserve the Earth is with your pocket. Buy less, but whatever you buy, make it organic, chemical free, plastic free and good for the Earth,” she said at the launch.

The online grocery store is built on a sustainable model under which it offers a conscious solution to make everyday consumption be clean, green and earth friendly. The offerings include over 1000+ products across 30+ categories.

Sanjay Kumar of Progressive Grocer spoke to Wildermart’s Swaroop Mohan, MD and Shweta Thakur, CEO, about how their online retail store brings the convenience of better-quality products that are good for health and the environment and seeks to provide a wholistic solution for encouraging a better, cleaner consumption.

Tell us about how Wildermart was conceived and the idea behind its formation?

Swaroop Mohan: Wildermart has been in seeding for three years now since the time we started Wilderfest - Bangalore's first vegan fest. We combined the idea of plant-based living with sustainable living by including organics and a lot more categories.?

But the real work started last year when the pandemic hit. We realized that people definitely need to consume healthy and sustainable and we decided that it was the right time to make the idea work.?

We started by doing proper industry research, understanding supply chains and the complications of online grocery business. We developed our own model, which was to build a sustainable business and provide complete convenience to shoppers by helping them to start consuming clean.

What is your brand’s marketing positioning and customer value proposition vis-a-vis the competition – online as well as offline?

Shweta Thakur: We operate only online. Our positioning is of a 'clean grocery store'. The word clean embodies the type of products we sell – clean label, chemical-free, organic. It also represents the type of supply chain we have put in place – whether it is about eco-friendly paper packaging of products or their EV deliveries – and it is in keeping with the type of ethical business we want to build.?

Wildermart's offerings are very different from any of the current players in the market. We ensure that consumers don't have to run from pillar to post finding the best quality clean products, which are good for the health & environment. We are constantly evaluating and curating conscious brands and creators who make genuine products for everyday consumption.

What is Wildermart's current range of operations??What is your subscriber base currently and rate of growth?

Shweta Thakur: We are currently operating out of our warehouse in Bangalore. The first month was spent on implementing the processes we had designed, understanding where the bottlenecks can be, addressing those issues and moving forward. We also received a lot of encouraging feedback from our customers. We have grown consistently from 2 orders a day to about 10 a day in the first month. We got over 700 registered users in the first month.

Are you sure that shoppers will come to your platform in preference to other more established online grocery players?

Shweta Thakur: Our shoppers have really appreciated the quality of products we offer. They have loved the plastic-free experience we give them. They really like the fact that our products are natural and chemical-free. We have also added same-day delivery option when big grocers are currently struggling to meet even next-day delivery commitments.

What is your business model and how is it different from those of other inventory-based or hyperlocal online players?

Swaroop Mohan: We have a 100% inventory-based business model and it a lean inventory model. This sets us apart from the hyperlocal players because we stock products and brands that are not usually available on retail shelves.

How tough it was for you to convince your investors of your business model??

Swaroop Mohan: It was fairly tough to convince our investors. While everyone agrees that the trend of conscious consumption is on the rise, but there are no substantial numbers to back it up. More importantly, this is not a business model that's been tried. Hence, being the first mover is always ridden with a lot more risks – for both the investor and the team.

What are your investors' expectations?

Swaroop Mohan: Investors want us to scale this business and make it as accessible to people as possible. We are in agreement with each other on this matter that clean products need to be available to everyone – from geographic availability to the price point. We are working really hard to create value for everyone in the ecosystem.

Tell us about your product basket and how much of the sales contribution do you expect to come from each of these categories.

Shweta Thakur: Staples and F&V form 50% of grocery sales everywhere. These two categories are 100% certified organic for us. We private label them and sell them in plastic-free packaging, which changes the entire game.

Our home care is unique in its 100% chemical-free offerings along with plastic-free solutions. Personal care differentiates itself in being fully natural. Packaged foods is all natural and majorly preservative-free. We do a lot of label reading, ingredients research before listing products on our platform so that our users get only top-quality products.

As for the sales contribution, one month of operations is too early to predict the category-wise distribution.

How many orders are you servicing daily and what are your projections for the future??

Shweta Thakur: We are aiming to get 30-40 orders a day before the end of the first quarter. We are working on a lot of marketing associations to be able to do the same.

What is the customer profile on your platform and which type of customers are you looking for?

Shweta Thakur: Our current customer base comprises the standard grocery buying audience in the 25-44 years' age bracket, both M/F. However, we are working on attracting customers who are more conscious of their health and environment. Those customers will understand the value of our proposition and the uptake will be higher if we can meet their quality and delivery expectations. These are customers who want to switch to better options but don’t know how to go about it. We are looking for those who are looking for us!

How would you describe the customer buying pattern at your platform? What are the most sought-after products?

Shweta Thakur: Currently, the F&V and staples are the crowd favourites. We have also seen a lot of movement in our bakery category, which has exotics like sourdough and everyday items like loaves. Our pro-biotics options with kombucha have also been received quite well.

We had 20% customers who made a repeat purchase in the first month itself. That's, of course, too little a data to read from. But grocery is a habit-building business. And if you find the product quality and delivery experience to be good, you will come back. In terms of purchasing habits, we have seen top-ups, full baskets – it's a healthy mix of both.

How do you propose to encourage customer stickiness for your platform??What is your strategy for engaging with shoppers and nurturing relationships with your customers?

Shweta Thakur: This is one of the most critical aspects of our business. We will be putting in play a lot of CRM initiatives, which will drive consumer stickiness. Our expanding portfolio will provide solutions to customers – not just products.?

Also, we will be improving continuously on our supply chain to make it greener. The benefits of this will be passed on to each customer at an individual level, empowering them with data that shows how they have contributed to the environment. This feel-good factor cannot be replaced with discounts. Additionally, the customers will also feel a clear difference in their own health once they start consuming clean. That is the biggest motivator for anyone to come back.

Quality consistency, product availability and fill rate, and freshness remain a challenge for online players. How do you propose to overcome them?

Shweta Thakur: We source our products majorly from local players. We have put checks and balances in our model to ensure that we reduce our supply-chain bottlenecks. Since most of our products are not mass manufactured, our vendors are also in the growth phase. So, all businesses are rising together as an ecosystem. We keep a lean inventory – thus ensuring that our products stay fresh. We have studied at length the key problems grocery players are facing and have worked toward mitigating all of them.

The major problem today in the grocery space is that there is no differentiation. It's only price wars. Given our model, we don't fit into that competitive space at all. We are creating a new space for newer businesses to come on board with us.

Despite local sourcing, it's tough ensuring the balance in quality-value-price equation. How do you ensure that your offerings are priced competitively while also giving a fair deal to the suppliers?

Shweta Thakur: We have advisors on our board who have over 10 years of experience in the organic segment. They have helped us find very reliable, certified partners with whom we have had a great first month with.

Our marketing and PR have also attracted a lot of other local players who wish to sell on our platform. However, we are not a marketplace. We choose and curate the brands and products we want to sell. So now, we are moving toward a pull-based sourcing strategy.?

We don't negotiate hard with our farmers. We respect their margins. We are not trying to overcharge our customers either. We have a margin percentage that we are comfortable with and want to just maintain that. Hence, we pass on the benefits of pricing to our consumers entirely.?

At the same time, we have put in place stringent quality measures. We have been working with our vendors, constantly engaging with them and we have covered a lot of ground in our first month to ensure consistency. We will continue to work in that direction to improve customer satisfaction.

What steps you have taken to bolster your back-end, supply chain and your last-mile control?

Shweta Thakur: We have our own delivery fleet. This gives us a lot of control over the customer delivery experience. Our fleet is 100% electric. This means, it removes all the carbon footprint of our deliveries. The drivers are being trained by us directly as well.

The Wildermart team will create a clean supply chain that delivers products packaged in an eco-friendly material through electric vehicles. While we have started with products that meet all the requirements, the team intends to encourage existing brands in the market to join the movement.

What are you doing to improve your unit economics and increase profitability?

Swaroop Mohan: Given that it's just been one month of our operations, most of our spends was in capex. We will stabilise our P&L in a quarter. There is a planned allocation for all types of expense and we are very mindful of it while working on our operations. The idea is to plan well and execute flawlessly. And we are very number-and-tech driven from Day 1. We have invested a lot in technology for the back-end and for managing our day-to-day operations. Everything is automated and, hence, recorded as data. Working with the analytics from Day 1 is key to success in our business.

What do you think are the challenges and opportunities in the online grocery market?

Swaroop Mohan: There is a clear shift in the consumer demand now. Shoppers are asking for better quality products. The rise of some independent consumer brands is a testimony to that. Hence, the opportunity for clean groceries is immense. Being the first mover comes with a lot of responsibility of opening up this segment.

The challenges remain on the supply chain side. But if everything goes as per plan, our business model is designed for success. We also think the price war is a buzzkill. It takes away the real value of a product from the consumer. And the externalised costs of the cheaper products are paid by all of us. So somewhere, the brands need to develop a differentiating factor, which should not just be the price points.

Tell us about your future plans.

Shweta Thakur: We have a multi-city expansion plan over the next few years. We believe clean groceries have to be made available everywhere. However, we know the challenges that will come with that. We are taking it one step at a time right now.