Big Bazaar Direct Franchisee Model : Decoding the Economics
September 26, 2013 2013-09-26 12:22Big Bazaar Direct Franchisee Model : Decoding the Economics
Big Bazaar Direct Franchisee Model : Decoding the Economics
[Editorial Notes: Future Group has launched Big Bazaar Direct, a direct selling platform for which it will use a tablet based e-commerce backend. Reproducing this piece of analysis on Big Bazaar Direct Franchisee Model, from NextBigWhat Forum, a melting pot of entrepreneurs, doers and geeks. This analysis has been done by Sandeep Reddy,Co-founder of Groffr.com.]
It’s great to see big companies think like startups and then executing it on a massive scale!
After seeing full page ads in TOI, i was trying to think how the economics would work for a franchisee. Did some google search but did not find any…so did some thinking and those thoughts are presented below. Hoping that others on this forum will contribute to this thought process and it would be great if some prospective franchisees benefit from this! 🙂

Clearly it is a great business for Big Bazaar because they are targeting 1 lac franchisees across India and are asking for an investment of Rs 3 lacs (Rs 1 lac as security deposit+ Rs 1 lac as advance for goods to be sold + Rs 1 lac for tablet/training/branding etc)
* Source
Big Bazaar Direct Franchisee Model : The Big Deal
Big Bazaar gets a cashflow of whopping Rs 3,000 crores! So for Big Bazaar this is a negative working capital business! (I am not going into the profitability of the business for Future Group and i also hope all this cashflow does not go into reducing the debt of Future Group!)
Let’s look at the franchisee now.
Assume I take a franchisee of BigBazaar Direct in a tier II city like Nashik. Now I have to go door-to-door and sell goods on the tablet and Big Bazaar Direct will ensure the delivery of goods in 3-7 days
(Source)
Assuming I can sell to 10 families in a day and the order size is Rs1,000-1,500 (rationale is that since the delivery is 3-7 days, these typically would be planned purchases mostly groceries which are repeat purchases and this could get higher in case of consumer durables and apparel, but lets be conservative for our analysis)
Daily average value of goods sold per franchisee= Rs 10,000-15,000
Monthly average value of goods sold per franchisee = Rs300,000-450,000
Now the important stuff, MARGINS!
Big Bazaar has Gross Margins (values of goods sold- cost of goods) of close to 25%.
Now, this margin already captures the lower price of goods that Big Bazaar has compared to mom-and-pop stores which would entice a household to buy from a Big Bazaar Direct franchisee.
Assuming the franchisee gets 10-12% margins on the goods sold which will give Big Bazaar Direct also margins of 13-15% [25%-10%=15%]
*Rationale: Big Bazaar in its retail format has EBITDA margins of 8-9%, so i am assuming higher margins of 13-15% for Big Bazaar Direct since real estate costs will be significantly lower but employee costs may increase as they will have more delivery men.
Now going back to calculations:
Monthly average value of goods sold per franchisee = Rs 3-4.5 lacs
Annually each franchisee could potentially sell goods worth Rs 36-54 lacs.
Margins of 10-12%= Rs30,000-54,000/- per month
So, a franchisee can make an income of Rs 30,000-50,000 per month or Rs3.6-6 lacs per annum!
So basically on an investment of Rs2 lacs (since Rs 1 lac is deposit), you can start making Rs3.6 lacs annually.
I believe Big Bazaar Direct will have a strong focus on Tier II/III cities where internet penetration and credit-card penetration is much lower and therefore a direct door-to-door selling by a brand could be hugely successful.
Since each franchisee is going to sell Rs3-4.5 lacs of goods per month. Imagine what 1 lac franchisees would do!
Yes…Rs3,000-4,500 crores per month or Rs36,000-54,000 crores per year~ US$5-10 billion!!
The fact is that this is not additional/incremental consumption in the economy…so who is going to LOSE!
I believe this business model may turn out to be one of the major shifts in a massively fragmented retail market where the mom-and-pop/kirana stores are going to lose market share to an organised Big Bazaar Direct scheme. Therefore I feel it would be BEST if local kirana store owners themselves become Big Bazaar Direct franchisees making it a WIN-WIN for everyone involved—consumer, kirana store owner/franchisee, Big Bazaar!
I am hoping that if Big Bazaar can educate the Kirana store owners to treat this business model less of a threat and more as a business opportunity, it would not be difficult to find 1 lac such people. And these people will be best equipped to sell to 10 households/day with their existing relationships and the entire calculations/scenario may just come out to be true!
[Follow Sandeep Reddy on Twitter @hsrdce.]
Comments (20)
shanthakumae
Building is situated in the heart place of chintamani. Chickbalapur District karat aka. Space is 15000 Sq building ready to occupy . I am intersted to start business. Pls help me to start business Just like bigbazar store.I am ready to startbusiness with in 3 months. contact no 9845651699.
Harkesh saini
Dear sir i want big bazar frenchiee in
Tijara (alwar).
I have 2400sqft land.
Plz connecte on 7737585846
.
.
Thank u
Pramod Kumar
Thanks for a nice post. After reading through this post I got a good opportunity to start my own business.
I have 7000-10000 sq.feet area in the prime location of District Samastipur, Bihar. Could you please send me more details about this opportunity (ie. initial expenditure for establishments, man power, running cost and equipment required) and process to start this business.
my emailid: pkumarjee@gmail.com
Thanks.
ravi kumar mehra
sir i have a space approx. 2000×2 on prime location in front of 24 mtr road in lucknow i am interested to open food baazar pl help me thanks
Gurjeet
8960630380 puranpur dist pilibhit
shiv shankar tarway
Sar,
I am interest your plan sar plice tell us what do
dr aarti jain
Have 5000sq feet land , want to open food bazaar, as required by the people of the area
dr aarti jain
Have land, and want to open food bazaar as required by the people of the area.
himanshu negi
I wanna started in uttrakhand
..
Himanshu negi
..
8126293795
Niraj kishor
i am interested Franchisee Big Bazaar, so pls call this no
7091592144
Niraj kishor
Pls call 7091592144
Kalyanasundaram Venugopal
how to start big bazaar direct please call me my number 9944930789 tamilnadu,Nagapattinam
Kalyanasundaram Venugopal
how to start big bazaar direct please call
isaq
please provide me some details regards frenchisee
Rabi Prasad Shaw
Please give details about it.
Gaurav Pratap Singh
Hi All,
Please provide me the details for starting big bazaar frenchize in aligarh (U.P).
Basic details like minimum investment, minimum area required to startup and all the other details.
Thnaks..!!
shailesh kavidayal
sir I want big bazaar franchise .What are the norms to get the franchise? And please also tell the franchise cost?
s m . sharma
Hello big Bazaar, we are from Rahata Dis. A. nagar near to Shirdi, Maharastra. WE are intrested to
in your offer. We are having very big plot on poona Shirdi road near bus stand. in prime location.we will be greatfull to you to call back us. our mob. no.9420602020
Naveen kumar
Hello big bazaar,I am from jhumritelaiya jharkhand and I want to open franchise of big bazaar. Please can you provide me with procedure ,area required to open and other terms and conditions of company. It will grateful to you , if you provide me above information .
Akash khanna
I want franchise…please revert asap