Local Kirana Stores Reinvent Themselves to Take on E-grocers
They now focus on faster deliveries and better engagement with
customers
Aarif Aigwan started working at the Raja Oil Centre, a kirana
store in the Parel area of Mumbai, when he was 10 years old. That was forty
years ago. Till today , he goes through the same daily grind -selling everyday
items for a small profit. He is coping with a new threat of late. The emergence
of e-tailers such as BigBasket, LocalBanya and MeraGrocer means that Aarif and
other owners of local stores may potentially lose customers who prefer to order
their month's supplies online.
Kiranas are keen to reinvent.They are stepping up faster home
deliveries, improving face-to-face customer engagement and buying retail
technology where they can afford it.The key to kiranas' sustainability might
lie in the finer aspects of their day-to-day operations.
“Improving the customer experience could prove to be vital for the
kiranas in their battle for survival,“ says Arvind Singhal, chairman of
Technopak Advisors, a management consulting firm. “Small, but significant,
changes could see an increase in the influx of customers. These days, more and
more kirana stores have started improving their home delivery stores in order
to keep up with the completion,“ he adds. Singhal believes technology could
make a difference.“Small and mid-level kiranas don't have much of an idea about
their customer base due to an absence of data analytics,“ he says.
Atul Karani, a shop owner, says, “As a shopkeeper, I must engage
in a face-to-face interaction with my customer.Someone who comes into my store
wishing to buy a single item might peek into my shop and remember that they
have to buy something else.“
For the mid and high-level kiranas, technology has already started
playing an important role. Digital balances for accurate weight measurement,
computers with inventory management software and billing systems, and CCTV's
for moni toring purposes are just few of the ways in which kiranas have changed
over the past 10 years.
Chandrakant Gala, secretary, Bandra-Dahisar Grain Merchants
Association, believes that kiranas will survive. “We survived the growth of
supermarket and the other modern retail chains. Kiranas have already upgraded
to a point where a customer ordering a solitary packet of bread over the phone
has it delivered to his doorstep.“ orstep.“
Predictions of doom and gloom are farfetched as a few of the
online retailers such as BigBasket, have teamed up with kiranas in order to fa
cilitate smoother distribution.“Our partner (kirana) stores receive new
business from us through express orders as well as the fee they earn for acting
as order collection points,“ says BigBasket co-founder Abhinay Choudhari.
“Stores also get access to our wide range and benefit from buying from a single
source as they become our B2B customers and thereby they save time and
resources in sourcing from multiple vendors,“ he adds.
While BigBasket seems to have found an advantage in tying up with
these kiranas, others such as LocalBanya CEO Karan Mehrotra are apprehensive.
“We don't envision an improvement in the delivery system; in fact we see
inherent challenges of working with kirana stores as hyper-local hubs for
delivery.“
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Arka Bhattacharya
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ET9JUL15
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