The small mom-and-pop stores also referred to as Kiranas have evolved drastically over time, especially in a country like India where they significantly contribute to the growing economy. In India, close to 12 million small mom-and-pop stores dominate domestic grocery retailing with a whopping 90 percent share.
 
Considered to be the one-stop solution for an individual’s day-to-day needs, the Kiranas can be considered indispensable but with technology seeping into our lives, Kiranas are not far behind. 
 
Numerous brands such as 1K Kirana, OhLocal, Jumbotail, etc. are working towards digitizing these Kiranas, allowing them to stay relevant through time. 
 
Transforming Retailers Digitally
 
OhLocal is aiming to bridge the gap between online and offline commerce, through its next-gen hybrid commerce platform. It is digitizing India’s local sellers while focussing on their strengths. 

“Through our flagship platform, we have digitized local sellers across India, where they can provide their real-time prices, alternate products offerings, and store deals, run ads, manage their inventories, and get analytics under a single dashboard without even relying on any third party and other resources for doing the same,” said Devashish Goyal, Founder, and CEO, OhLocal.

While, Jumbotail is using its tech power to democratize both supply side and demand side capabilities, making it available to small retailers and helping them get into the level playing field with big retailers and other online players. 1K Kirana through its three arms-B2B, B2C, and Inventory Management arm is enabling the Kirana businesses to be digitized. 
 
The Need of the Hour
 
India has over 12 million Kirana stores that act as the economic engine of the country, however, digitizing Kiranas has been the need of the hour for the past 7 to 8 years.
 
“We needed a solution where all services can be integrated into one allowing one to make money while providing Kiranas more revenue, thus allowing its income to improve even though brands like ours continue to make margin on the value chain that is available,” commented Kumar Sangateesh, Founder, 1K Kirana. 
 
Therefore, India has always been a price-sensitive market, and with the change in behavior towards convenience, it is now the need of the hour to ensure that our country’s local sellers are able to provide the same kind of convenience for customers that other online portals provide, and at the same time, they do so by playing on their strengths.
 
The 10-minute Delivery and Kiranas
 
Kirana stores are the lifelines in a neighborhood locality and have proven to be irreplaceable through changing times. With the onset of 10-minute delivery apps flooding the market, the relevance of Kiranas for the larger portion of the demography stands unparalleled. 
 
According to Jumbotail, the comfort Kirana stores provide to a large part of the demography that consists of people belonging to the middle-class section cannot be changed. Moreover, the familiarity of the store and store entrepreneur is the biggest selling point.

“Jumbotail helps Kirana stores to transform into J24 branded modern convenience stores, which are omnichannel and provide tech and operational assistance to the store owners to offer home delivery to their customers. In fact, they even provide omnichannel integrations with hyper-local platforms wherever possible,” stated S. Karthik Venkateswaran, Co-founder and CEO, Jumbotail.

The Future of Kiranas
 
According to the Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) survey released by Axis My India, 86 percent of households prefer to get daily groceries from local grocery Kirana stores, while 2 percent use internet apps for the same. This shows India will continue to remain a Kirana-dominated market, with more than 90 percent long-term market share.
  
The Covid-19 pandemic has further highlighted the resilience of Kiranas, putting them back in the mind of the masses like never before. 

“Kirana stores will continue modernizing their operations, and we believe that a major part of India’s modern retail growth will be from the unorganized Kirana stores transforming themselves to the small format modern convenience retail format.  In this digital age, manufacturers will look to be part of new digital platforms for connecting with Kirana stores, platforms that offer a wide selection, and best service at competitive prices will emerge as clear market leaders,” said Venkateswaran. 

However, Goyal added, with disposable incomes increasing in India, a larger majority will look forward to buying better appliances to increase their convenience, and strongly believes that the local retail ecosystem would require a major boost through technology and digitization. 
 
In conclusion, it can be clearly stated that Kirana stores are an integral part of the Indian retail world, operating on lower operational costs, making them more sustainable. Having proven their adaptability over time, they are here to stay. Moreover, the future of Kiranas depends on how digitization can complement mom-and-pop stores as both online and offline will continue to thrive in different ways.