Rapido partners Big Basket, Big Bazaar & Spencer's for essential deliveries across 90 cities
Rapido tied up with Big Basket, Big Bazaar and Spencer's Retail for last-mile essential deliveries across 90 Indian cities during the COVID-19 lockdown, deploying 70% of its driver fleet without charging commission. Talks are ongoing with Grofers, Dunzo and FreshtoHome.
What happened
Rapido partnered with Big Basket, Big Bazaar and Spencer's Retail for last-mile essential deliveries across 90 Indian cities during the COVID-19 lockdown,
Key facts
- 90 cities
- 70 percent of fleet
Why this matters
With Big Basket, Big Bazaar and Spencer's onboard and Grofers, Dunzo and FreshtoHome in talks, Rapido is positioning as a neutral last-mile layer that could become a partnership or acquisition target for grocery and quick-commerce players.
What to watch
- Announcement of commission/fee structure replacing free model
- Closure of Grofers/Dunzo/FreshtoHome talks
- Lockdown relaxation timelines by city tier
- Driver churn back to passenger rides
- Retailers building captive delivery fleets to reduce dependency
- Rapido formalizes SLAs and per-order pricing with anchor retailers before lockdown lifts
- Big Basket/Grofers negotiate exclusivity or capacity guarantees to lock fleet access
- Competing platforms (Dunzo, Swiggy, Zomato) accelerate own grocery pivots to defend last-mile share
- Rapido builds driver incentives to retain grocery-trained riders post-crisis