Kiranas bank on consumer connect to take on q-comm

Kirana Club, an online community of the neighbourhood shops, in a recent study covering 900 mom-and-pop stores in 10 cities where q-commerce is live, found that 35 percent of the base (or 315 retailers) had seen a 10-30 percent impact on sales due to the growth of q-commerce in their areas.

“When viewed from a larger perspective, the number of retailers coming from these 10 cities registered with us is just about 4 percent,” Anshul Gupta, founder and CEO, Kirana Club, told FE. Kirana store owner Suresh Kumar’s phone won’t stop ringing as he mans his shop in Santacruz, Mumbai. “I’ve increased my home delivery service to customers. I have two extra hands for the purpose. And I’m hoping to counter these online platforms that claim faster delivery,” he says in between calls. Kumar is among a growing tribe of last-mile retailers looking to leverage their relationships within their catchment areas to cut sales loss to quick commerce players. The online players, who promise to deliver consumer goods within an hour, are gaining ground in cities.

In the suburb of Bandra, for instance, Darshan Patel, who runs a general store selling grocery and food items, says he has set up a WhatsApp group of his loyal customers, sending them regular updates on new products, offers and discounts. Home delivery is free of cost and Patel also puts in that extra effort with his distributor if a customer insists on a new flavour or variant of a product.

“I find that my customer base appreciates this engagement. We waste no time when orders are placed on WhatsApp or phone,” he says of his strategy to counter q-commerce. Patel knows that time is of essence when it comes to tackling this emerging retail segment.

Kirana Club, an online community of the neighbourhood shops, in a recent study covering 900 mom-and-pop stores in 10 cities where q-commerce is live, found that 35 percent of the base (or 315 retailers) had seen a 10-30 percent impact on sales due to the growth of q-commerce in their areas. “When viewed from a larger perspective, the number of retailers coming from these 10 cities registered with us is just about 4 percent,” Anshul Gupta, founder and CEO, Kirana Club, told FE.

He says that 35 percent of this 4 percent base (or 72,000 retailers), works out to about 25,200 retailers. This is just about 1.4 percent of Kirana Club’s registered base of 1.8 million, Gupta says, arguing that the impact of q-commerce on kirana sales is limited at the moment. But experts argue that there is no room for complacency, since fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are now getting almost half their e-commerce sales from q-commerce.