Kiranas, or mom-and-pop stores, are in many ways the lifeblood for much of India’s retail ecosystem. As family-owned stores that sell daily items at low prices and know their customers as neighbours, kiranas offer a comfortable space for rural buyers with low basket values to shop in.
Today, there are over 12 million kirana stores in control of about $100 billion worth of business - a number expected to go up as the Covid-19 pandemic drew customers out of the large supermarkets and back to the neighbourhood grocery stores for their essentials.
It is unsurprising, therefore, that all eyes are focused on this retail powerhouse as the key to unifying the rural FMCG market.
Historically, kirana stores have been slow to keep up with the tide of change in the FMCG business. Part of this is owing to a preference for the status quo and a discomfort with technology, but the fragmented nature of the kirana ecosystem is also to blame.
Most of them are located in remote villages and receive supplies from wholesalers in the nearest big town, which adds to the travel time and restricts the catalogue of goods they can stock. It also leaves them with few or no options if the transport network is disrupted or if the wholesaler fails to deliver what the store wants.
That an upgrade to this ecosystem is necessary has been evident for a while; it is the pandemic, however, that demonstrated beyond doubt the need for streamlined logistics, alternative suppliers and an online presence to accept digital payments and place orders in advance.
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