After Flipkart acquisition, Walmart to work with local kirana stores
Just a month after acquiring India's largest start-up and e-commerce platform Flipkart, Walmart is now planning to take hold of the country's kirana store business. Walmart intends to make its kirana store programme called 'Mera Kirana' mainstream, by empowering and training the local kirana stores' owners. The global retailer is also planning to open its second fulfilment centre in India. Here's more.
What is Walmart's 'Mera Kirana' initiative?
Under the 'Mera Kirana' initiative launched in 2014, Walmart creates a replica of a modern kirana store in its Best Price stores. The idea is to enable the mom-and-pop store owners to understand the ways they can incorporate to modernize their stores. Walmart also sends its team to these stores to educate them with right assortment, placement and display of products in their shops.
Further, Walmart plans to open fulfilment centres in India
Notably, Walmart opened its first fulfilment centre in India last year at Bhiwandi, to speed up its retailing operations in the country. A fulfilment centre is housed in a warehouse run by other third-party logistics firms. It helps Walmart to provide kirana stores with door-step deliveries of merchandise. With these steps, the US giant is working towards organizing this largely unorganized sector in India.
But, are we heading towards a price war?
Although Walmart says that it sees Indian kirana stores as its partners and not competitors, Walmart's full-fledged presence in the segment could trigger a price war between the global giant and the traditional stores which do not fall under its ambit. Walmart's attempts could also intensify competition in the Indian online grocery space, affecting Indian start-ups including BigBasket and Grofers.
