Rapido teams with BigBasket, Big Bazaar & Spencer's for lockdown essential deliveries
Bike-taxi operator Rapido partnered with grocers BigBasket, Big Bazaar and Spencer's Retail to run last-mile essential deliveries across 90 Indian cities during the COVID-19 lockdown. It deployed 70% of its driver fleet and charged no commission on the arrangement.
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
Grocers like BigBasket, Big Bazaar and Spencer's are proving that asset-light logistics partnerships can rapidly scale last-mile coverage, making mobility fleets attractive acquisition or long-term integration targets for omni-channel retail.
What to watch
- Whether zero-commission converts to a paid contract post-lockdown
- Bike-taxi regulatory reopening timelines by state
- Fleet utilization split between mobility vs delivery over next 2 quarters
- Grocer own-fleet or exclusive 3PL announcements
- New verticals (pharma, D2C, F&B) added to Rapido delivery network
- Rapido to introduce paid commission tiers on grocery deliveries once regulatory movement normalizes
- Grocers expand slot capacity and city coverage using redeployed gig fleets
- Competing mobility players (Ola, Uber) launch parallel essential-delivery redeployments
- Rapido builds a standalone delivery/logistics brand or B2B API to institutionalize the pivot