Info-tech

List of platforms facilitating Kirana stores to digitise their operations

Prashasti Awasthi Mumbai | Updated on June 01, 2020 Published on June 01, 2020

There are around 12 million Kirana stores across India and account for around 95 per cent of the country's roughly $500 billion food and grocery market. While online food and grocery retail have made headway in the country, it still counts for just 0.2 per cent of sales, according to consulting firm Redseer.

From buying more efficiently to selling more efficiently, companies, large and small, are helping Kirana stores across the value chain. List of a few start-ups who are facilitating Kirana stores to digitise their functioning.

Shopmatic

Shopmatic is a Singapore-based technology firm that provides e-commerce solutions to small businesses and individual entrepreneurs. The company claims to empower millions of aspiring entrepreneurs with a digital footprint. It recently partnered with Singapore-based retail management solutions company Octopus to address the gaps that exist for offline businesses in going online.

CoutLoot

Coutloot aims to make anyone sell in 30 seconds. The Social Offline-to-Online (O2O) commerce platform allows interactions between buyers and sellers through its social-media-based model.

It helps aspiring digital sellers from the tier II and tier III market (or any other market in that context) to automatically catalog their products while also providing logistics, payment, and reconciliation support.

Sellers can also share their end-to-end offerings over social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. with their prospective customers, the company mentioned.

Khatabook

Khatabook, co-founded by Ravish Naresh, Ashish Sonone, Jaideep Poonia and Dhanesh Kumar, is a mobile application that enables small and medium businesses to record and track business transactions safely and securely.

The app is available in 11 languages and has an automatic backup that keeps user data secure in case of damage or theft of the mobile phone. Khatabook claims that its iOS and Android interfaces have the distinction of being one of the most user-friendly in the market.

Recently, Khatabook has closed a $60 Million Series B round of funding led by B Capital Group, it noted.

Dotpe

DOTpe is a Gurgaon based O2O commerce platform that enables offline merchants/retailers to digitize their store in a few minutes and start accepting contactless orders.

The platform recently launched a QR-based contactless commerce and payment solution and is striving to tap the $1 trillion retail market in India.

The contactless retail solution will allow the shoppers to scan a QR code by using the mobile phone camera and get access to catalogs of retail brands and menus of restaurants on a browser.

DOTpe plans to replicate this solution across shopping malls, restaurants, QSR Chains, eateries, large format & small grocery stores. DOTpe is live with a gamut of big food outlets and cafes at the moment and will soon launch the solution in a big way across large format retailers, leading shopping malls and retail brand stores.

Published on June 01, 2020

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