#kirana store crisis

[dechnsign]

State of Kirana Stores and Quick Commerce

👉 This post talks about the rise of "Quick Commerce" platforms like Swiggy Instamart, Blinkit, Zepto, BigBasket and Swish. 👉 It also mentions the closure of 2,00,000 Kirana stores within a single year, as reported by AICPDF. 👉 The importance of startups and small businesses. 👉 The need to discuss a commercial balance in the domestic market.

[thewitagency]

Future of Retail After Pandemic-2020 | Marketing agency in Pune

Strolling around a store just a few months ago, few could have even begun to imagine what was coming.

As the whole world comes to a standstill and making lockdowns and quarantines becoming a usual thing, there is no saying where this wave of the disease will take us. Wherein, entire countries and consumers completely avoid human contact, the retail industry is struggling to adapt. It was right from the first day, they realized the grave impacts of this situation on the retail industry. The situation is changing daily giving everyone very little time to respond.

Over the past few weeks, we have been talking with all our retail sector clients about the impact this pandemic may have on their business. More importantly, perhaps, we have been helping them think through how to prepare for the longer-term implications and remediate the shorter-term shocks. The Wit Agency, a marketing agency in pune, is here to break down what the next stage of the marketing economy is going to look like!

The first response of the pandemic being fear and concern, the second one being taking serious caution. With digital marketing and advertising taking over, technology has given us a major channel for survival for commercial transactions. With people shunning physical retail in malls and shops, the global growth of online and multi-channel digital marketing, the Corona Virus has been one of the biggest catalyst and a boom for the digitization of the retail world.

To give you a deeper insight here is a little reality check :

Victoria’s secret has declared bankruptcy.

Zara has closed 1200 stores.

Chanel, Hermes, and Rolex have stopped production.

Nike is getting ready for stage 2 of redundancies.

Airbnb founder says that due to the pandemic 12 years of effort was destroyed in 6 weeks.

and

Starbucks has announced the permanent closure of 400 stores.

Let’s look at a few points to study the ways it has impacted the world.

Demand/Supply irregularity and inventory: Due to the lockdown some industries may be impacted by the inventory pile-up, some others may run into serious supply issues and thus stock out.

Manufacturing for various categories is almost at a standstill

and nothing can be delivered when nothing is being manufactured.

Shifting channels: Businesses that had established their businesses online and had already entered the digital marketing businesses before the pandemic had a great head start for the current times where consumers have instantly shifted their channels for buying. While others who are just listing their businesses and products online are struggling to make a presence and optimize through digital marketing.

Kirana or small standalone stores:

The impact for grocery shops can to an extent even be considered positive for their business, since online channels and digital marketing are not directly required for them to sell everyday items. Although the panic and concerns created have led to a lot of stocking up and overbuying of everyday products which can be a little problem for these sellers. Since the whole chain has been affected from top to bottom, manufacturing has reduced, distribution channels have become limited and hence getting wholesale stock ready for consumers cannot be easy. However, the consumption of essential products is not uniform. For example, panic buying of biscuits will not affect future purchases. But just because people buy extra shampoo, toothpaste or groceries, they are not going to brush their teeth four times or cook extra food. Therefore, not all essential products will see the same kind of sales pattern, post this crisis.

Electronics and durable products: One of the biggest changes brought about by the pandemic is the ban on Chinese products, while it was easy to ban them off our social media, it’s not going to be as easy to get rid of their physical assets owned by manufacturers and retailers. While they already were affected by seasonal changes, environmental concerns, and additions and subtractions in the industry, the pandemic is going to hit them the hardest. Due to a cash crunch all over, most of the people will also be putting off high ticket purchases for later. These companies can now also benefit from digitizing their businesses with websites and use social media to list out their products and their undertaken safety precautions.

Online retail: Online selling is the new thing and every business however small or big needs to up its game. Just having a mere online presence is not going to suffice, you need to be out there, it’s only your digital marketing that will put you on the forefront of this phenomena and possibly save your business.

There is also another perspective to look at the post-pandemic crisis, physical stores to likely see a surge in shopping. This can be due to the combined urges for outside experience and the psychology of retail therapy. Tired of looking at their screens amidst their couches, consumers are likely to be missing human interaction, the generosity, and pampering of customer service.

When looked at it from a bird’s eye view, the retail industry might not see a dramatic downturn for the industry cause in a way they have found their loopholes and started using digital marketing as their holy grail. In this situation, the businesses and brands that are quick to respond and adapt to the situation will thrive and the rest might get sucked in by the mammoth of a disease that is circling us.

The growing role of tech will be one of the most pronounced long-term impacts from the global pandemic. While the length of the outbreaks and the potential pace of recovery are still unknown and will differ across markets, technology is here to stay. Half of the industry respondents agreed that having a digital presence was an important part of their company’s value proposition, according to Euromonitor International’s Voice of the Industry: Digital Consumer Survey (November 2019). This sentiment would likely be even higher today. The coronavirus pandemic has underscored the important role technology plays in consumers’ lives as well as the role it serves for businesses that continue to adapt and operate under such conditions.

So retailers, decided to shift shop yet? We at The Wit Agency, marketing agency in pune, are completely equipped and available for you to help through this transition. With branding design, website development, and the complete digital marketing package everything you need to move online is sorted.

[agilisagilies]

Mukesh Ambani art of deal making – Agilis advisors

“The safest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it in your pocket” -Kin Hu Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) became the first Indian company to exceed market capitalisation of $150 billion. It is also the first Indian company to cross ₹ 1,00,000 crore in consolidated EBITDA. RIL’s seminal contribution to the Indian economy is immense as they continue to be India's largest exporter accounting for 9% of India's total merchandise exports, being India's highest payer of customs and excise duty in the private sector, highest payers of GST and VAT, amongst the highest payers of Income Tax in the private sector. The oil to telecom conglomerate breaks into world’s top 100 companies on the Fortune Global 500 list. The much hyped term ‘data is the new oil’ has been literally brought to reality when Mukesh Ambani shared the updates of RIL in its 43rd AGM. Jio Platforms which has been changing the telecom landscape in India in just over three years after launch has grown to be the top telecom company in India. At the end of year 2019, the dry powder or the unutilized capital has risen to $1.5 trillion. The private equity industry remains sought after by investors and most likely to have positive investor sentiment to see through capital flowing in year 2020.  Agilis advisors While COVID19 crisis continues to be the most disruptive event in modern human history adding up to global community's hardships. Asia's richest man believes that every adversity presents multiple new opportunities. As on March 2020, RIL had a net debt of ₹1,61,035 crore. RIL recently announced that it had become ‘net debt-free’ after raising the capital from global investors (₹1.15 lakh crore) and a rights issue (₹53,124.20 crore) totalling ₹1.69 lakh crore in just 2 months. The scale of investments is unprecedented and a clear win-win situation for Jio, US tech majors and other key investors. Besides huge investments flowing from top tech investors, the ₹ 53,124 crore Rights Issue is also the world's largest Rights Issue by a non-financial institution in a decade which was completed entirely on a digital platform during the lockdown period. Investment Journey: -> April 22, 2020: Facebook announces investment of Rs 43,574 crore for a 9.99 percent stake. -> May 4, 2020: Silver Lake announces equity investment of Rs 5,655.75 crore. -> May 8, 2020: Vista announces equity investment of Rs 11,367 crore for a 2.32 percent stake -> May 17, 2020: General Atlantic invests Rs 6,598.38 crore for a 1.34 percent equity stake -> May 22, 2020: KKR announces Rs 11,367 crore investment for a 2.32 percent stake -> June 5, 2020: Mubadala announces Rs 9,09360 crore investment for a 1.85 percent equity stake -> June 5, 2020: Silver Lake announces additional equity investment of Rs 4,546.80 crore -> June 7, 2020: Abu Dhabi Investment Authority invests Rs 5,683.50 crore for a 1.16% stake -> June 13, 2020: TPG invests Rs 4,546.80 crore for a 0.93% stake -> June 13, 2020: L Catterton joins Jio Platforms’ investors list with a Rs 1,894.50 crore investment for a 0.39 percent stake -> July 2020: Google to invest ₹ 33,737 crores for a 7.7 percent stake Oil to telecom business tycoon’s art of deal making has been the talk of India’s financial markets which is well lauded by top businessmen and market experts. Warren Buffett once quoted that “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing” and RIL Chairman’s strategic forward thinking and business acumen skills has immensely contributed to weigh down the risks and reap the potential benefits and opportunities from such huge investments. The massive debt that had mounted in recent years had pushed RIL at the high end of the debt-rating spectrum enabling to bridge the future prosperity and expansion of company. As rightly appraised by Kin Hubbard - “The safest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it in your pocket”, Mukesh seems to have did exactly the same by safeguarding his money on the first place and attracting the investor’s money yet keeping the returns intact. The timing of RIL debt reduction plan is paramount as investors are immediately attracted to write a cheque to own a slice of it. With oil prices depressing and digital being the new future, there are over 1.3 billion reasons for the investors to rely on Jio as they gear up to lead the digital eco-system and transformation. African proverb quotes “To walk fast, walk alone; to walk far, walk together”. RIL has chosen its partners such that future will be an interesting journey as RIL is poised to create its own roadmap in collaboration with its new strategic partners. The new announcements such as 5G technology readiness, the launch of new mobile phone, having Kirana store to the digital world and combing with RIL’s investment strategies will put Jio into a market leader position in digital and telecom sector.

[srbachchan]

DAY 3722

Jalsa, Mumbai                May 30,  2018             Wed 11:06 PM

Birthday - EF - Nadou Youssef ...  Rina Rajpal ... Thursday, May 31, 2018 ... our greetings to you both and may the glory of the day and the days to come be the harbinger of happiness and joy .. love from all the Ef .. 

The crisis of critical environmental needs bares its fangs and I get into its deliverance .. to campaign for an anti plastic usage .. to save electricity, water and find benefit for the environment ..

Stop the use of plastic and avoid the pollution into the waters of the oceans .. starting from the grocery shopping by house wives at the nearest ‘kirana’ store .. giving them instead a replacement - the cloth bag, preferably made of ‘khadi’ .. plastics are avoided, and the khadi weaver gets better employment ..

If plastic cannot be reused . .. then refuse it ! get a cloth bad instead ..

Switching off that extra light .. closing that flowing tap water .. and many more such small acts help in saving the Planet ..

A long way to go .. but I do feel that the elements of change are getting to people and the larger audience which now has become more conscious towards these very important and necessary matters, is indeed working individually on them ..

Bless them ..

Just delivering pertinent written lines and presenting a smiling celebrity face is not going to change the world, but an effort is made, a beginning is visible and form there it takes its own course ..

The ones that do the maximum work and who should be lauded and decorated the most should be the ‘workers’ who travel from destination to destination right into the interiors of the country propagating these campaigns to perfection. They are the true ambassadors, the true heroes of any such campaign .. and regrettably they are ones that get least attention ..

When after 8 years of working tirelessly on the Anti Polio campaign we were able to announce a Polio free India, a celebration was designed by the Government .. and various dignitaries from within and without, were invited into a large stadium in Delhi for the event ..

I was disturbed by this and expressed my displeasure ..

My displeasure was that the ‘worker’ who has worked the most in accomplishing this feat ; delivering those two drops of the vaccine to the remotest parts of the country, is the one that should be invited and decorated .. 

And that is what was done ..

The excitement and glee and joy on the faces of those workers was an emotional sight for me .. they never get any attention, any praise, any notice .. when in fact they are the ones behind the success story of the eradication of Polio in the Country .. give to them that are the deserving .. not decorate another pretty face and voice in front of the camera .. 

YET if my face and voice can assist, help, convince, the mass to follow the campaign, then I am ready any day any time .. !! Whether it is the Swachch Bharat , the Beti Bachao , the Tiger, the Elephant saves, TB, Hepatitis B, Diabetes and the many more that I work for .. it must never be forgotten that the one that delivers and finally conquers, is that worker !!! 

Be in love and with care ..

Amitabh Bachchan 

[jyotifestpost]

BharatPe enters gold loan segment; eyes disbursals of Rs 500 cr this year

Crisis-ridden fintech player BharatPe has entered the gold loan segment for its merchant partners, marking its entry into the secured credit category for a firm that hawks a slew of unsecured small ticket credit products.

The Gurugram-based company has been mired in a lot of scandals, which led to one of its founders being thrown out of the firm recently. It is also under various probes by enforcement agencies. The company is also the co-promoter of Unity Small Finance Bank.

For launching gold loans, BharatPe has partnered with a few NBFCs, and will be offering loans of up to Rs 20 lakh against gold pledge.

The service is already available to its merchant customers in Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and it will be scaling this to 20 cities by the end of this year when it hopes to disburse Rs 500 crore, BharatPe said in a statement on Monday.

Its interest rate at the lowest band is 0.39 per cent per month, working out to be 4.7 per cent per annum. The loan application and disbursal is all done digitally within 30 minutes.

It is also offering doorstep as well as branch collection facility and customers can take loans of 6, 9 and 12 months, Suhail Sameer, chief executive of the company said, adding it has run a two-month pilot and facilitated Rs 10 crore of disbursals.

Since its launch, BharatPe has been giving unsecured loans of up to Rs 7 lakh to offline merchants and kirana store owners. It has disbursed over Rs 3,000 crore to 3 lakh merchant partners so far and such loans have tenors of 3, 6 and 12 months.

[swarajya7793]

How COVID-19 Impacted on E-Commerce in ICT Industry?

COVID-19 Impact on E-Commerce in the Information and Communication Technology Industry

Imbalance of fulfilling the consumer’s demand with respect to groceries and other essentials item has made the e-commerce industry into limelight due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the people have two options either to visit the supermarket personally or to order their respective product via online.

It has led to the rise in popularity of digital e-commerce web platform like shipt, Walmart, Instacart, Amazon and many more as numerous people finds digital e-commerce services reliable and safe during this time. Almost every customers practicing social distancing rely on this home delivery service the most and are willing to continue this for the next time as well. This has also changed the shopping behavior of the consumers on the geographical level. For instance, it has been witnessed that as compared to U.S., countries like Germany, U.K. and Japan do lack in shopping criteria basically in essential food items and groceries. This can be due to the leniency of U.S. law towards this COVID-19

With respect to shopping behavior while purchasing the item, people have begun stocking the housing essentials including mask, sanitizers, toilet papers and others. This act has negatively affected the overall e-commerce industry to some extent as the companies are failing in fulfilling the huge demand. Thus, this results into an increase in the price of essential items in an uncontrolled way due to this panic buying pattern. It just looks like everyone has to be the leader in the ongoing race of purchasing up unnecessary and irregular items. Based on the gender, it has been noticed that men are less concerned towards the ill effect caused due to this Covid 19 but are active in online shopping. Not only in U.S. there is an increase in new users downloading the wholesale mobile app but it also has be seen an increasing trend from India too. From January 2020, there is almost 50% hike in users who have spent on online and e-commerce app. On the other hand, in South Eastern countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore among others, it has been witnessed a decline in the conversion rates in e-commerce apps. To overcome this e-commerce companies are taking initiatives to shift the consumer behavior towards at a quick rate and have reached more than 1million users on the daily baisis

For instance, Blibli, an e-commerce industry in Indonesia has been providing an easy yet outstanding online shopping experience to its users and has reached more than 1million users on the daily basis through their awareness campaign KarenaSehatNo1 through app push notifications and email.

Changes in the revenue Across E-commerce

·         GROCERY

Figure: Change in E- Commerce spending (2020)

·         OTHER E-COMMERCE CATEGORIES

·         Figure: E-Commerce Consumer Sale (COVID-19)   The e-commerce industry has been impacted on both demand side as well as supply side. Virus related products such as soap, sanitizes, mask, tissue and others has witnessed an enormous rise in demand. Due to the imposed of certain limitation, some companies are not able to respond the changes or adapt it quickly.

·         Apart from this, it has been witnessed a downfall in the sales of fast-moving consumer goods since this time. For instance, in 2020, as per the survey by Digital Commerce in March, out of 304 e-commerce retailers, around 36.0% believed that the business will face a considerable downfall.  Shortage in the number of staff is another big problem which makes difficult for the companies to fulfill the orders. For example, BigBasket and Grofers stated that they have the access of only 50% -60% of the staff due to which their frequency of delivery rate has been reduced which ultimately has made a pressure on them for unavailability of the consumer. Likewise, Amazon too permitted for restricted deliveries mainly the essential items and has suspended the deliveries of certain goods due to the shortage of staff and logistical crisis. Kirana shops which previously faced a stiff competition from digital commerce platforms but at this period of time it is considered to be important destination for buying daily and essential items. Thus, Reliance has planned of digitally connecting with the Kirana shops. This will take place soon with the government tapping logistics firms to link these stores with consumers.

·         Apart from this, many B2B services who are involved into the launch of new platforms in healthcare sector i.e., transporting goods from like vital medical care supplies and ventilators. Many retailers who are especially dealing in essential goods have noticed a boom in their business. Companies engaged into the healthcare amenities consider that customers are indulged into continuous monitoring of their families’ health and fitness which ultimately leads to higher customer engagement. Even the demand for products related to cold and flu has also increased.

·         Online food delivery platform like Swiggy and Zomato follows the contactless deliveries in order to alleviate the fear with respect to hygiene. But still fear of strict police action against the delivering staff has also created the problem. Such type of hurdle indicates of institutional sickness like unaccountability and in affective communication amongst the local authorities which later acts as a challenge to the flawless delivery of e-commerce products.

·         Moreover, it has also been witnessed an upsurge in the demand of gaming, new platform and Over the Top (OTT) media.  For instance, in the first three month of 2020, Netflix, an online streaming service has added a huge 15.8 million paid subscribers. This was mainly due to the social distancing and lockdown in different parts of the world.

·         Thus, it can be said that few sectors of e-commerce will definitely boost not only in this current time period but at forecasting period too. But in contrast to it, the challenge will be of balancing up the supply chain by keeping vital safety measures for this pandemic situation. In order to run the business efficiently, it take lot of manpower starting from warehouse management to goods delivering. So, there will be situation like out-of-stock and delay deliveries and others. But Amazon, as an early mover announced of hiring over a million of people for strengthening its delivery fleet globally.

·         Regulatory insecurity as well as knee jerk reactions in emergency circumstances, cause more harm than good, as obvious from the government’s approach for the supply chain management during pandemic. The government must also provide relief to the small e-commerce players by permitting g them to deliver non-essential goods while practicing social distancing and hygiene. Ensuring regulation, restructuring of foreign investment laws and with better regulatory unity will definitely helps in enhancing the smaller e-commerce players’ growth.

·         However, the growth of the e-commerce will depend upon only on its service efficiency and adaption level with respect to general consumer psyche in long run. Mostly at this time period, companies which will respond better can able to tap better with the shift towards online purchasing.

·         E-commerce has even offered benefit to the farmers by making them to avoid middle men and intermediaries and to sell their produce to the wholesaler buyers including agribusinesses, corporate grocery, restaurants and others directly. This has benefitted the farmers not only with enhanced income but also with wastage reduction and enable financial inclusion.

·         E-commerce is growing at a annual rate of 23% as India, china and U.S. are known to be the biggest contributor for this growth. In today’s scenario mostly these three countries are only highly impacted due to Covid 19. In U.S. till now 10,000 people died while India is still trying to combat the Covid 19 impact with the strategy known as lockdown whereas, China seems to have a control over this pandemic situation. The China’s biggest e-commerce player Alibaba has contributed over USD 2.0 Billion of medical supplies to different countries such as Sri Lanka, U.S., Italy and U.S.

·         U.S. government is yet to announce any lockdown but the e-commerce stores are still working on and continuously involved into delivering products to its customers. Ever since the outbreak of Covid in U.S. companies like Amazon, Walmart and Instacart have faced a rise in the online orders. It has been witnessed that in first few weeks of March, grocery orders has jumped to 210% and is also expected to remain the same in this post-pandemic.

·         European Union asked the e-commerce companies to focused on manufacturing, designing and selling the products which are repairable and recyclable in the March first week. But after the rapidly increase of Covid, the e-commerce players were asked to keep a hold on these request and to continue offer the essential services. It results into building pressure from the consumer’s side with respect to catering huge orders on time. This leads to black marketing and hoarding of products and thus to eliminate this, e-commerce site put a restriction on multiple items. Such type of attempt has helped the overall e-commerce companies and even ensures that each customer should have an access to the essential products only.

·         In U.K. before the lockdown initiation, people got panic and as a result it has raised the sale of specific items including toilet paper, board games, crafts equipment medicines, groceries, home appliances and yoga mats.

·         China being one of the leading manufacturing and supply hub of B2C players in Asia-Pacific region, now due to the Covid impact, e-commerce companies are trapped and are facing a decrease in the demand as almost every country are into same situation. This has resulted China with a small market as the production is totally stopped and even freight ships are put on hold. To normalize this problem, it would take more time to put everything back into normal.

·         Singapore’s Health Science Authority (HSA) has detached around 3000 products from an online platform due to fake product’s information and spiked numerical. This was majorly done to enhance its sales and to make money. But the local government sabotaged the evil attempts of the sellers and e-commerce companies are dedicatedly working on delivering the essential item without being overcharged. License of the sellers were suspended who had participated in this money making business. HAS is also working on coming up with a system who will restrict and identifies such sellers from selling online.    

·         In India, extension of the lockdown period has made the e-commerce executives to go to the government for help. A meeting was held amongst Honorary Piyush Goel, Commerce Minister of India along with leaders from DHL, Amazon, Swiggy, Zomato, Flipkart to grant them the permission of selling at least the essential items. In Australia, e-commerce players have adopted a defensive mode as they are continuously in contact with local municipalities and the government to deliver the essential items on time.

·         In 2020, the e-commerce industry was expected to do a business of around USD 6.0 trillion but due to lockdown and delivering of only the essential items seems that this number will not be achieved. B2C e-commerce companies can only deliver the essential products and services to their customer but in case players involved in B2B are under the lockdown completely. With the shutdown of the factories, in appropriate amount or nil of raw material, workers at home, blocked logistic services results into no product, no administration and no transaction. Moreover, the e-commerce organization has to keep their warehouse worker and delivery agent safe from this Covid infection. This can be done by taking proper measure like continuous sanitization of the workplace, access to mask, gloves and instant medical consideration to those agents with Covid symptoms so that the respective companies can serve their customers regularly and efficiently.

·         The coming month is considered to be tough time for the e-commerce industry as increasing number of death rate due to COVID-19 is making the government to release a curfew in many countries. The respective players have to work in close collaboration with the local authorities as well as the governments so as to run their business efficiently by offering in need with helping hand.

[payalk]

NoBroker launches grocery store in 4 cities to supply daily essentials

The service has so far been launched in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad and will soon be available in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai as well.

Online real-estate rental startup NoBroker launched grocery services on its integrated visitor and community management app NoBrokerHood to enable society residents to order groceries and daily essentials on the app and have them delivered at doorstep.

It is a community-level initiative and the service would provide last-mile delivery to society residents as most kirana stores are not doing door to door deliveries due to lack of delivery fleet. One single consignment for the entire apartment optimizes deliveries.

Planning to buy marathon nexzone, visit https://www.nobroker.in/marathon-nexzone-panvel_mumbai-prjt-5d1de707a88c427937e26266

Akhil Gupta, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of NoBroker.com said, “As the country is fighting the spread of the pandemic, we are glad to offer a service that would be of utmost use to our customers in the current crisis. We endeavor to ensure that our consumers do not have to struggle for essentials such as groceries and vegetables.”

“Through an online click on NoBrokerHood app, they can avail daily necessities from the comfort of their homes. NoBrokerHood was launched with the aim to make society living a hassle-free and comfortable experience. We have innovated this solution in record time and hope to solve a key problem that most residents are facing due to lockdown,” he added.

“The store was launched in one day and NoBroker’s tech team managed to build it overnight”, he further mentioned. The service has so far been launched in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad and will soon be available in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai as well.

Sources: https://www.retail4growth.com/news/nobroker-launches-grocery-store-in-4-cities-to-supply-daily-essentials-4951

[apruv10]

NoBroker launches grocery store in 4 cities to supply daily essentials

Online real-estate rental startup NoBroker launched grocery services on its integrated visitor and community management app NoBrokerHood to enable society residents to order groceries and daily essentials on the app and have them delivered at doorstep.

It is a community-level initiative and the service would provide last-mile delivery to society residents as most kirana stores are not doing door to door deliveries due to lack of delivery fleet. One single consignment for the entire apartment optimizes deliveries.

Akhil Gupta, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of NoBroker.com said, “As the country is fighting the spread of the pandemic, we are glad to offer a service that would be of utmost use to our customers in the current crisis. We endeavor to ensure that our consumers do not have to struggle for essentials such as groceries and vegetables.”

“Through an online click on NoBrokerHood app, they can avail daily necessities from the comfort of their homes. NoBrokerHood was launched with the aim to make society living a hassle-free and comfortable experience. We have innovated this solution in record time and hope to solve a key problem that most residents are facing due to lockdown,” he added. In Bangalore  properties are available for rent in purva skywood

“The store was launched in one day and NoBroker’s tech team managed to build it overnight”, he further mentioned. The service has so far been launched in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad and will soon be available in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai as well.

[princeworld]

E-commerce after Covid 19

As we all know e-commerce is a growing retail wedge that would reach all corners of the world soon. Now, with this there would be an increase in competition amongst the e-commerce or omnichannel companies and the one with the most widespread network along with crisis backup would prevail. Gone would be the days when brick and mortar stores or local retailers would be competing amongst each other as consumers shift to online shopping.

One of the major factors that come into play for the shift of consumers from offline to online shopping is crisis management. The biggest crisis that mankind is facing right now is the Covid 19 pandemic. It is unlikely for people to go outside and buy while risking their health. Hence, most of the brick and mortar and local retail stores have witnessed a fall in sales during this pandemic. The e-commerce or omnichannel organisations are the life saviors as they minimize the risk of going outside the house.

But, still there were some swaps that were being witnessed by many e-commerce and omnichannel companies during this pandemic which is likely to continue post Covid-19.

Many e-commerce platforms have started to target the niche segments by selling the niche products that aren't available on online stores and also taking advantage of the consumer's inability to buy from local retail stores.

Many local kirana shops are shifting from offline selling to online selling. E-commerce platforms like Samanonspot, CoutLoot, MyDukaan, etc. are some of the startups that form a link between these local Kirana stores and consumers.

Proper sanitation of the delivery guys has become a mandatory custom.

The survey conducted by UNCTAD and Netcomm Suisse eCommerce Association in collaboration with NIC.br and Inveon shows that online purchases has increased by 6 to 10% across most popular product categories electronics, DIY, gardening, education, furniture and so on. However average monthly spending per shopper has stopped markedly.

the shift towards e-commerce was happening before Covid 19 but according to the new data by IBM, the pandemic has accelerated consumer's shift towards e-commerce by 5 years.

Digital initiatives like BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store) have been crucial for big box retailers during this pandemic.

The number of smart phone food delivery app users is forecasted to rise 25.2% by the end of this year. So, many e-commerce platforms like Samanonspot have started to deliver food along with daily essentials and grocery.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Hence, these are the certain changes that e-commerce have experienced past the few months and this scenario is likely to continue in the future. These changes are predicted to be the new normal in the world of e-commerce and are likely to undergo certain advancements post the pandemic. There are other advancements (both technological and functional) that have come into picture during this pandemic but it is not possible to cover each and every thing in detail. So I have highlighted some major points which are the significant and I believe similar advancements are likely to occur in case of crisis in the near future as well.

I hope you guys loved reading this blog and found it insightful. I would come up with a new blog the next time and refine you guys with some extra knowledge. So goodbye for now and happy reading.

[opportunitywow]

2021 Hult Prize Challenge on Food For Good (US$1 Million in Seed Capital)

Application Deadline: December 2020

The 2021 Hult Prize Challenge will create jobs, stimulate economies, reimagine supply chains and improve outcomes for 10,000,000 people by 2030. Food defines the human experience. Family dinners, religious feasts, quick snacks eaten during breaks at work, and our many other relationships with food combine to shape our bodies, our minds, our communities, and the world we call home. Food is the ultimate equalizer.

Yet increasingly over recent decades, food systems have become machines of extraction that reduce our well-being, weaken communities, and impoverish the world around us. Once celebrated as pillars of society, community and the economy, today’s grocery stores and kiranas alike paint a dismal picture. Store aisles are filled with arsenals of cheap, addictive products that attack the soul through the hollowness of manufactured consumption. Even street vendors peddle what has become a legalized weapon of mass destruction. Parents wage a daily battle to nourish and nurture their children, while supply chains funnel massive profits to corporations and billionaires.

In 2021, the Hult Prize returns to the roots of the human experience – food. We are challenging you to transform food from a necessity for survival into a vehicle of change and prosperity for humanity. In order to do this, you will have to understand how our existing food systems work, and why they are failing humanity on a global scale. The good news is that you will have many examples from which you can draw inspirations—a veritable army of pioneers who are rethinking food for a better world. Your work will be drawn from these inspirations to build viable companies that will fundamentally change how we all think about food and food systems in the next decade and beyond.

In 2021 the Hult Prize is asking teams around the world to build viable food enterprises that will impact the lives of 10M people in the next decade while strengthening communities, increasing incomes, feeding the hungry and creating jobs.

Before you begin, you need to put aside your prior preconceptions of the failures in our food system. This is not primarily a challenge about global food security for example. This is also not a challenge about the exploitation of agricultural workers. It is not, in any other way, about abstract people “out there” that you’re trying to help. You need to go deeper. This is a challenge about food and the human experience. This challenge is about your own life, your own body, your own family and the possibility of turning a looming crisis into opportunity.

Together, the Hult Prize global community will reclaim the potential and power of the most basic and fundamental resource required to fuel humanity for the century to come.

How to Register

General Application

Participate on the global stage at one of our Regional Summits across the world for the chance to join the Hult Prize Global Accelerator. Didn’t make it? Stay tuned for the Wildcard Round for a second shot.REGISTER

Hult Prize OnCampus

Winning teams from each of the more than +2,000 Hult Prize OnCampus events bypass the general application round to participate in one of our Regional Summits. LEARN MORE

Hult Prize Regionals

Winning teams will bypass the Regional Summit and be directly admitted into the Hult Prize Global Accelerator.LEARN MORE

Hult Prize Wildcard Round

Participate in a Wildcard Round after the Regional Summit for one more opportunity to join the Hult Prize Accelerator.COMING SOON

For More Information: Visit the Official Webpage of the 2021 Hult Prize Challenge on Food For Good

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2HTA3BL via IFTTT

[arko006-blog]

Kiranas leveraged technology to stay relevant during the lockdown: EY Survey - ET Retail

Kiranas leveraged technology to stay relevant during the lockdown: EY Survey – ET Retail

[ad_1]

Bengaluru : The Covid-19 crisis propelled the kirana ecosystem to adopt technology to maintain the supply of essentials amid nationwide lockdown, said the latest report by consultancy firm EY India. The survey, which took a deep dive into the impact of the pandemic on kiranas, showed that about 20% of kirana store owners started leveraging online deliveryplatforms and nearly 40% want to…

[vsplusonline]

Thriving during the lockdown: Game plan of small Indian brands

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/thriving-during-the-lockdown-game-plan-of-small-indian-brands/

Thriving during the lockdown: Game plan of small Indian brands

By Harsh Vardhan

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going — it’s probably the most overused phrase among millennials, but never has it carried the weight that it does in the current situation the world is caught up in. Almost a global lockdown and a constant threat to life has pushed everyone inside four walls of their homes and made people rethink their movements and actions. Brands aren’t unscathed either. Some of the top business organisations and retail chains have crumpled under pressure, leaving many wondering if these corporate giants even had any plan of action for such an emergency. Surprisingly, some of the local and rather new-age companies have risen up to the occasion and managed to deliver well.

“Local brands have a more local supply chain – that makes it easier for them to manage disruptions in times like these. I believe it is not a matter of less or more trusted choice, but the fact that there was no choice in some cases. Hence, availability trumped everything else,” Abheek Singhi, senior partner and managing director at The Boston Consulting Group tells Brand Equity.

In India, the sudden enforcement of nationwide lockdown on March 25, left many big brands with stocks stuck in the pipeline.

Gaurav Baheti, founder and CEO of supply chain management company Procol, says, “Considering the fact that more than 95% buyers purchase essential goods through their network of sellers and brokers, there is a need to discover new reliable vendors who could help with required fulfilment. Availability is the key right now. Smaller brands have been able to capture that aspect well.”

Retailers say smaller and regional consumer goods products have been outpacing larger market leader brands in sales in nearly a dozen key categories as consumers pick availability on shelves over loyalty. Be it the city-based snacks companies or some better known ones such as Garden (owned by CavinKare) and Baggrys, munchies and ready to cook items have been flying off the shelves fast. With most meat shops shut and consumers becoming increasingly hygiene conscious, demand for packaged and frozen meat from companies such as Mumbai-based Zorabian Chicken has also seen a significant surge in demand. Easier availability of local players at the next door kirana stores has played a big role in this demand and experts feel this could lead to a larger shift in consumption patterns as people could get used to a comparatively lower priced brand.

According to Nielsen, share of the top three brands in the hand sanitiser segment dropped from 85% in January and February to 39% in March after 152 new players entered the segment. In packaged rice in modern trade, top three brands cumulatively lost their share from 72% in February to 64% in March.

“What worked for us is that we own our entire supply chain and have a robust distribution network. One of the key decisions we made during the lockdown was to scale down the operations and provide only the essential products, like idli dosa batter, chapati, parotta, paneer etc in all markets,” says PC Musthafa, co-founder and CEO, iD Fresh Food.

Brand positioning and social image, too, has been a focus area for most of these companies at this point as it could go a long way in creating a positive impression on the consumer’s mind.

Rohan Mirchandani, co-founder and CEO of yogurt brand Epigamia says, “We realised that despite the restriction imposed on the movement of people and goods, we had to resume our supply lines to ensure the availability of food in the retail stores. We re-engineered our operation and resources and worked closely with state authorities to gain the requisite permission to run our supply infrastructure to service the stores. Realising that many of our consumers are still unable to find us in-store, we set up a direct to consumer platform for them to order from us directly.”

Licious

Even meat delivery platform Licious has been rather active when most e-commerce chains have been facing delivery challenges. “Given that we own, control and manage the entire supply chain, Licious has been in a position to respond swiftly to the changing ground realities in the wake of the pandemic. We have been airlifting some part of the raw material, especially for cities where local sourcing is difficult at the moment. Across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune and Chennai, we have witnessed a 200 per cent surge in demand during the lockdown period,” Licious co-founder, Vivek Gupta, tells BE.

Startups such as food brand Soulfull, owned by Kottaram Agro Foods, have brought tech into use to work around the situation well. Says Prashant Parameswaran, MD & CEO, Kottaram Agro Foods, “As a startup, we do not have regional HR teams for every city/state and our leaders from the sales team moved into being the CEO’s for the region and took on the spot decisions. Our sales team not only collected orders via phone or with our app but also ensured delivery by taking their vehicles or distributor vehicles. We had set ourselves into a war-zone mentality. Some of our regions delivered sales which were as much or if not more than the pre-Covid times. We even enabled a store locator on our website for our customers to know which stores are open in their area and what products of the brand they had in stock.”

Snacks company True Elements’ co-founder Puru Gupta, who anticipated the crisis says, “Thanks to our China learnings and connections, we anticipated this situation to some extent in the middle of January itself (though not this level of scale.) We worked out a detailed business continuity plan. From the first week of March, we moved our migratory population to live inside the factory with their food and entertainment taken care of. As a result, we had zero production loss in our plant – the only loss was due to a broken logistics system which we managed in Pune and Mumbai through our vehicles.”

But the question to be asked is whether consumers would continue opting for these newer brands in the long run or is this surge in demand just a manifestation of the panic in the air?

“In the first two weeks of lockdown, anything that was available, sold. Many smaller and new brands gained sales in that period. But I would wonder, if consumers were making a choice for a brand at all. People panic bought categories – atta, soybean oil, biscuits, noodles, ghee, hand wash and not brands. Some new brands ended up going to new consumer homes. Very good for them,” says Damodar Mall, CEO – Grocery, Reliance Retail.

Nielsen has slashed its 2020 growth outlook for India’s fast-moving consumer goods sector to 5-6% from its earlier projection of 9-10%, but big brands, with their financial strength and larger distribution chain, can bounce back aggressively once supply chain disruptions ease. This, in turn, might again hurt the smaller brands.

“I would not see this (fall in demand during lockdown) really as an issue with big brands. They finally have the capability to reorient the supply chain quickly,” says Pinakiranjan Mishra, partner & sector leader, Consumer Products & Retail, EY India.

In the long run, numbers will still be in favour of corporate behemoths, but younger brands are well aware of how this situation can serve as an opportunity for them to make a lasting impression.

Srini Vudayagiri, CEO, Unibic Cookies, says “We have been utilising this time to get back to the drawing board and come up with a sound post-lockdown plan. Our strategy is to tap into this opportunity to reinforce our brand messaging and help connect with new customers. Furthermore, the plan is to continue to stay connected, especially in these times of physical distancing. Another focus area is staying connected with over two lakh trade partners and business associates, as we help each other weather the storm.”

“Given that there are no fixed formulas to surviving a pandemic or doing business in a lockdown situation, we have to be quick on our feet … The biggest lesson has been to be adaptable to the fast-changing ground realities,” he concludes.

Founders Speak “There is no template to follow. We wanted to spread the message of love and hope. That’s the reason we launched an early Mother’s Day Campaign – for what can be more comforting than a mother’s love? The most important lesson we have learnt is not to take anything for granted… If you had told me two months ago that the company can be run remotely, I wouldn’t have believed it. But we are doing it now! We have decentralised the decision-making process to help cope with the changing dynamics of each region. Flexibility has been the key.” PC Musthafa, CEO & co-founder, iD Fresh Food.

“We need to be super nimble, yet wedded to long term objectives. Our business models were re-engineered to meet the times and we did the same, be it the way we now supply to stores or the new D2C model. All of this was done with a clear thought on how it met our big picture of the long-term goals.”- Rohan Mirchandani, CEO & co-founder, Epigamia.

“As a young company, we pride ourselves in our agility and that’s what allowed us to make a few quick amends in our delivery model to suit the situation. Other than moving to the slotted delivery models and forging quick partnerships, we also initiated consolidated delivery to large apartment complexes. This reduced the pressure on the delivery system while allowing us to serve a much larger number of consumers. Our decision to hire hotels to house all employees working in the processing plants during the lockdown, adhering to stringent safety measures, has strengthened our sense of team spirit. In fact, most of our new recruits have come through references from our current employees.” – Vivek Gupta, co-founder, Licious.

Expert Take “Post the panic buying stage, things are different in our stores. Let’s talk about instant noodles as an example. As a supermarketwala, I love all the brands of noodles I sell, including our private brand SnacTac. However, as a student of consumer behaviour, I have to say, in these otherwise disturbed times, a bowl of Maggi feels safer, warmer, cosier than a bowl of SnacTac or any other brand! When many things are uncertain and tad scary, people like to reduce variables around them and seek comfort in the known and trusted. I wonder if I would go for a newbie gluten free idli mix with unfamiliar credentials, or a trusted rava idli mix from MTR.” – Damodar Mall, CEO Grocery, Reliance Retail.

“The thing that has mattered the most in these times is the 4th P of marketing – that is ‘place’. Our research has indicated that availability at the retail point has been the most important element of marketing. In light of that, all FMCG companies have pulled all stops to ensure last mile availability. Consumers are concerned and cautious about the future – due to both the virus and the economy. Our research clearly shows that they expect to spend less across most categories. Consumer choice at these times is driven by a set of interrelated factors – trust and security is more important than ever; the sense of minimalism and desire for small pleasures will co-exist.” – Abheek Singhi, senior partner and managing director, The Boston Consulting Group.

“I would say the winner would be the brands that can understand the shifts in consumer behaviour quickly and reorient their product range and channel to meet their demands. While smaller players are nimble in this, the big companies have an advantage now of not working full steam and hence a lot of management bandwidth available to address these issues. In fact the larger players who are cash rich have a great advantage in using their scale and might to change much faster this time.” – Pinakiranjan Mishra, partner & sector leader, Consumer Products & Retail, EY India.

ROAD AHEAD

5-6% – Nielsen’s growth outlook for FMCG sector for 2020

9-10% – Projection before Covid-19 pandemic happened

The sector saw early signs of recovery in Jan and Feb

March 25 – Nationwide lockdown came into effect

May 18 – Date till which lockdown is to last as per current directions

Possible government stimulus, cheap crude oil and low inflation may help post Covid-19 business

Lockdown leading to a drop-in consumption and shift in preferences

People are moving away from discretionary spend and focusing on financial security: Nielsen report

A McKinsey study shows about 65% of the consumers have tried new or alternate brands, of which nearly 10% intend to not switch back

if(geolocation && geolocation != 5 && (typeof skip == 'undefined' || typeof skip.fbevents == 'undefined')) !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '338698809636220'); fbq('track', 'PageView');

Source link

[monicasharmalove]

Covid-19: Kirana stores would see a resurgence, says Godrej Consumer CEO

The Covid-19 pandemic has upended the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market, prompting firms to redraw business strategies. Godrej Consumer Products' (GCPL’s) Managing Director and Chief Executive Vivek Gambhir talks to Viveat Susan Pinto about the change in consumption habits and what lies ahead. Edited excerpts:

GCPL recently said that the March quarter would be impacted due to the pandemic and lockdown. How fast do you see the situation improving?

We are trying to be as agile as possible and are adapting to the evolving situation. Both distribution and production have been significantly disrupted over the last couple of weeks, and our operations have been curtailed. This is not surprising given the unprecedented nature of the lockdown. The government is aware of the challenges and is working closely with the industry to get the supply chain back on track.

Over the past few days, we have been ramping up production of essential items, but this ramp-up is at a reduced capacity. Our factories are at 20-25 per cent production levels. 60-70 per cent of our depots are open and about 25-30 per cent distributors have the permission to operate. The big challenge is labour shortage, some of which was driven by fear and social pressure, and some of it by migrants moving back. While permissions are gradually being given, adequate workforce is not available yet.

With the lockdown now likely to be extended, do you see the pain getting worse for the industry?

There has to be a balance between containing the spread of the virus, providing safety across the supply chain and reviving economic activity. We will need to approach the re-opening (of plants) post lockdown in a staggered manner, given how important social distancing is. Our hope is that we could start with 50 per cent capacity ramp-up, thereafter, in 2-4 weeks get to 75 per cent and 100 per cent in 8 weeks, if the pandemic is under control.

The fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry is working closely with the government on establishing standards for each node in the supply chain. These include hygiene protocols, social distancing norms, sanitisation and deep cleaning, along with awareness sessions with workers.

How far away is recovery of the market?

This could be a story of two halves, depending on how long the crisis lasts. Even if the lockdown is lifted, it doesn’t mean the crisis is over. The pandemic could last much longer. From a planning point of view, what we are assuming at GCPL is that the impact of the virus will be acutely felt in Q1 FY21 and there could also be some impact in Q2. But if the crisis subsides then you could see the second half being very different from the firsT

[payalk]

NoBroker launches grocery store in 4 cities to supply daily essentials

Online real-estate rental startup NoBroker launched grocery services on its integrated visitor and community management app NoBrokerHood to enable society residents to order groceries and daily essentials on the app and have them delivered at doorstep. It is a community-level initiative and the service would provide last-mile delivery to society residents as most kirana stores are not doing door to door deliveries due to lack of delivery fleet. One single consignment for the entire apartment optimizes deliveries. Akhil Gupta, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of NoBroker.com said, “As the country is fighting the spread of the pandemic, we are glad to offer a service that would be of utmost use to our customers in the current crisis. We endeavor to ensure that our consumers do not have to struggle for essentials such as groceries and vegetables.” “Through an online click on NoBrokerHood app, they can avail daily necessities from the comfort of their homes. NoBrokerHood was launched with the aim to make society living a hassle-free and comfortable experience. We have innovated this solution in record time and hope to solve a key problem that most residents are facing due to lockdown,” he added. In Bangalore properties are available for rent in purva skywood “The store was launched in one day and NoBroker’s tech team managed to build it overnight”, he further mentioned. The service has so far been launched in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad and will soon be available in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai as well.

[arko006-blog]

15% margin is not going to be 20% in a hurry: Britannia MD - ET Retail

15% margin is not going to be 20% in a hurry: Britannia MD – ET Retail

[ad_1]

By :Nikunj Dalmia

I do hope that companies will take a leaf out of this crisis and start to taper down all the extraneous spends, says Varun Berry, MD, Britannia. You spoke about the supply chain. It is clear now that a lot of purchasing will shift from walk-in stores to online. The kirana wala may have got a bump up right now but eventually once the lockdown normalises, that edge may go…

[arko006-blog]

Kiranas in crisis, disruption tough to reverse, fears FMCG - ET Retail

Kiranas in crisis, disruption tough to reverse, fears FMCG – ET Retail

[ad_1]

KOLKATA | MUMBAI: Leading consumer goods companies said over 600,000 kirana outlets may have closed during the lockdown, hurt by a liquidity crunch or the return of owners to villages, and fear that most of them may not reopen.

The stress is also felt in the handset sector, with the All India Mobile RetailersAssociation estimating that close to 60% of the 150,000 stores selling…