Walmart-owned Flipkart on Friday said its Kirana partners across the country registered an increase of nearly 30 per cent in their average monthly delivery incomes in 2020.

Flipkart group works with Kirana or general trade stores in various ways - through its delivery programme, authorised buy zones, and Flipkart Wholesale.

The Kirana stores form part of an extended delivery mechanism for Flipkart to help deliver packages at customers'' doorstep, especially in tier-II and III cities, while providing kiranas with an additional source of revenue. The initiative was launched in 2019 and over 50,000 Kirana stores across the country are currently part of the delivery programme.

In 2020, there has been a nearly 30 per cent year-on-year increase in the average monthly delivery incomes for its Kirana partners, as per Flipkart.

"According to insights by Flipkart, the average monthly delivery incomes for Kirana partners in the South grew the most, followed by East, West, and North. Among the top cities, Kirana partners from Hyderabad saw the highest growth followed by Kiranas from Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Pune," a statement said.

The programme continues to benefit scores of Kirana partners, helping sustain them financially during the lockdown period, it added.

"As one of the oldest and most trusted forms of retail in the county, kiranas are an essential part of the retail ecosystem in India and we, as a homegrown organisation, have been engaging with them in various ways to re-position and re-invent them as convenience stores from an e-commerce perspective," Flipkart Senior Vice-President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar said.

Flipkart said it deploys a host of business processes and technologies to ensure the wide availability of shipments for deliveries for the Kirana partners to supplement their incomes. It also provides them with comprehensive training, including teaching the finer nuances of delivery, the functioning of the app, and customer service.