New Kirana stores opening and thriving amidst the recession? Yes, it is happening!

With the country reporting its worst economic performance (23.9% decline in GDP for FY 2020-21 Q1) due to the lockdown imposed by the national government in March ’20, we have seen several companies of all sizes scaling down, winding up their businesses and laying off employees. India’s unemployment rate and overall joblessness worsened with urban unemployment rate shooting up to nearly 10% in August ’20. This means that one in every 10 people in urban areas cannot find a job!

Amidst all this doom and gloom, there are two traditional sectors that are defying this trend – Agriculture and Kirana Grocery Trade. Over the past few months, we have seen that kirana stores remained open inspite of the several lockdown related supply issues and servicing the needs of 1.4 Billion people in India; they have an extremely high fill rate (% no of products/SKUs that the store is able to provide to the customer) – much higher than the e-commerce players. Additionally, they are one of the biggest and currently, one of the most active employers in the country with each kirana store hiring 2-5 people for store operations. But what is really worth noting is that we are also seeing new kirana stores being opened in every nook and corner of the country – in the midst of the recession! Based on the initial reports, these new stores seem to be thriving and attracting new customers with their hyper local assortment, proximity/reach to the customer, enhanced in-store/ personalised customer experience and in most cases – online presence with their very own mobile app/e-commerce store.

Amidst the pandemic, new kirana stores are being opened all over India.

In the midst of all these new store openings, SnapBizz has been playing an important role in enabling first-time new store owners to kick-start their store operations smoothly right from day one and take on the bigger established organised players. Here is how we have been helping them:

  • Attract new customers by enabling store owners to send unlimited free push offers/promotions SMSs.
  • Influence consumer behaviour favourably and Increase sales inside the store and showcase merchandise/offers with the use of SnapVision TV screen.
  • Effectively manage the inventory inside the store and ensure no oversupply/out-of-stock situations.
  • Enhanced check-out/billing experience with easy, quick and accurate billing.
  • Take their store online instantly with SnapOrder – with their very own branded mobile app and receive online orders from the newly-acquired customers.

We are also providing the newly-opened kirana stores with inputs/ideas on how they can improve all aspects of their store operations – right from day 1. It is indeed a great feeling for all of us at SnapBizz when we see new kirana store owners placing their trust in us to help them embark on a new entrepreneurial journey during these challenging times! This only drives us to push our limits to make our solutions even better so that these store owners can fully leverage their strengths to gain a competitive edge and improve profitability.