Kirana King: Transforming Traditional Kiranas into Superstore

Abstract
Jaipur-based retail-as-a-service (RaaS) startup Kirana King is transforming traditional kiranas
into superstores by leveraging tech and revamping the look and feel of the shop. Currently,
Kirana King has transformed more than 300 stores in Jaipur and is looking forward to expand its
operations pan India. The case examines the initiatives and business model undertaken by Kirana
King to help the traditional Kirana Stores. The case deals with relevant aspects in Retail
Marketing as well as Business to Business Marketing.

Keywords:
Retailing, Retail Marketing, Business to Business Marketing, B2B Marketing, Retail as a Service,
Kirana Stores, Superstore
Introduction:
Retailing is a global, high tech industry that plays a major role in the global economy as well as
Indian economy. Over the last decade, as per the study, the Indian retail market size has
witnessed a massive growth of 3X, contributing to 10% to India's GDP In FY 2019-20 and 8% to
the total workforce with more than 35 million employees. In India, retail is the second largest
employer after agriculture. In USA also, about one in five workers are employed by retailers.
India’s retail sector is worth $836 billion in FY 2022, where a whopping 81.5 percent of the
contribution comes from traditional retail, and only 12 percent from organised brick-and-mortar
retail , followed by a smaller chunk of 6.5 percent from online sales channels. Overall, the food
and grocery retail constitute for 63.3% of the total retail market of India in 2022.

The organized retailers are often well schooled in marketing and take up resource-and-data
heavy strategies to run their retail business. On the contrary, the traditional retailers are neither
schooled in marketing, nor aware and exposed to modern technology, nor have they got the
resources to formulate and execute resource-heavy marketing strategies, and therefore they really
face a tough challenge from their counterpart organized retailers. The challenges that these
traditional retailers often face include--- managing back end operations (e.g. inventory
management etc.), and the front end activities (e.g store display etc.). Since, these retailers often
manage both of them on their own, it becomes a herculean task for them, and they really need
someone to help them out in managing their show. Here is where the Kirana King comes in as a
facilitator offering various retailing services to them.

Grocery Retail Formats

In India, the food and grocery category is primarily dominated by traditional unorganized
retailing. The traditional retail contributed 93.7% in this category, while organised brick-and-
mortar retail only contributed 4.9% of the overall retail market, followed by online sales
channels at 1.4%.
The unorganized sector is predominantly dominated by kirana stores, general stores and street
markets. There are nearly 13 million Kirana stores, or mom-and-pop shops, in India and they
play a crucial role in the $530 billion grocery retail industry of the country. The organized sector
includes the department stores, discount stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, E-Tailers and cash-
and-carry formats.
Changing Face of Retailing
In the last few years, the way of doing retail business is evolving at lightning fast speed. Now we
are in the era of growing organized retailing as well as online retailing. Online platforms like
Blinkit and Zepto through their dark stores, are delivering food and grocery within 10 minutes to
the consumers’ doorstep.
So, 'Everything around the Kiranawalas has been changed and even though consumers have been
changed, the Kiranawalas remain same.' The consumer buying behavior has undergone a massive
change with the time. Similarly the retail landscape has also changed. But the traditional kirana
stores has remained unchanged over the years.
Now the biggest question is “How traditional kirana stores are going to survive and sustain in the
future?”
Challenges faced by Traditional Kirana Stores
Mr. Anup Kumar was also looking out for a meaningful answer to the question as to “How
traditional kirana stores are going to survive and sustain in the future?”
This question led him to do market research to find the right answer. He started with a thorough
field research in and around Jaipur. Then he also moved pan India to understand the local
grocery retail at length. He also studied the traditional and modern grocery systems in various
parts of the world.
During the research, Kirana King found the following challenges that inhibit the growth of
1
Kirana Stores
1. Infrastructure
Majority of the stores still have the same old infrastructure with a shabby look, unorganized
inventory and the traditional packaging. However, the consumer mindset is shifting towards a
more hygienic and organized infrastructure. Visibility of products is important for consumers to
buy them.
2. Managing Operations
Even small in size, a Kirana store involves a lot of operational tasks. From cleaning the store to
managing the inventory, catering to the customers, dealing with the sales representatives,
maintaining the account ledger and more. It is not easy for one person to concentrate on business
with so many tasks done manually every day.
3. Understanding the New Mind Set
With urbanization and globalization, the food preferences have evolved and even changed to an
extent. As the kirana stores are still accustomed to the traditional food basket requirements,
customers look for grocery supermarkets for the additional supplies. Majority of the store owners
find it difficult to match the requirements as keeping such a large inventory is not possible for
them. Thus, they lose the business in the long run.
4. Inventory Management
With the change of time, the traditional inventory management is outdated. Today's generation is
more aware of hygiene and cleanliness. Also, their food cart choices are getting global now. So
they like to buy from stores with updated inventory that is lined clearly to see and order. Good
packaging with proper labelling of manufacturing and expiry date is what they prefer now.
Certainly, this level of inventory management is difficult for a local kirana store.
Thus on the whole, after significant research, Anup Kumar found that the problem wasn't with
the demand, but it was with the unorganized way of doing business. Then he tried to change
the way Kirana stores were doing business.

Kirana King: The Beginning

In 2017, Anup Kumar founded Kirana King with the premise to help traditional Kirana stores to
become organized. He went on to create a system of doing retail business, by helping Kirana
Stores through the supply chain, merchandise management and visual merchandising. This
robust ecosystem involves the retailers, suppliers, and consumers with Kirana King as the main
connecting link.
His goal was to create the largest offline marketplace that operates nation-wide through its
centralized format and help the traditional kirana stores reach the international retail standards
while making profits and offering delighting services to consumers.
While the traditional Kirana Store will remain:
 An entrepreneur driven standalone entity,
 They will benefit from the scale and scope of a large retail chain along with their existing
identity remaining intact.

In this way, Kirana King created a unique identity of revolutionizing traditional Kirana stores,
also known as Mom & Pop stores in India, by delivering delightful experiences and convenience
to the consumers. Its core mission has been to encourage retailers to adopt transformation of their
Kirana stores and to bring them on an organized retail platform. Kirana King primarily focuses
on standardization, digitization & centralization of traditional Kirana system. Thus Kirana King
started their operation as retail-as-a-service (RaaS) startup with an objective of transforming
References:
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