Kirana Club aspires to be ‘LinkedIn’ for mom-and-pop stores in India

India’s 1.2 crore-strong Kirana stores, which account for 90% of the Indian grocery retail market, have continued to coexist with the massive boom in the e-commerce space. These stores too have benefited from the digital boom as they have begun taking orders on WhatsApp or phone, accepting digital payments, and using several fintech apps for purposes like inventory, employee resources, and credit-debit.

From Khatabook to ElasticRun, there are a bunch of startups catering to different purposes of the Kirana store owners. Among them is Bengaluru-based Kirana Club, which has taken a rather unique approach to this space – building a community-driven platform to exchange information about a range of things: market trends, commodity price fluctuations, new schemes, and offers, among others.

We spoke to the co-founder and CEO of Kirana Club, Anshul Gupta, to better understand what he calls "LinkedIn for Kiranas", how his startup works, and much more. Here are the edited excerpts:

What problems Kirana Club is trying to solve? How does it work? 

In an era of diverse consumer choices, FMCG companies face challenges ensuring product placement over competitors. Kirana Club acts as a trusted influencer, bridging connections between FMCG brands, Kirana store owners, and consumers. By facilitating campaigns and showcasing SKUs, Kirana Club empowers store owners to make informed decisions, enabling brands to directly influence purchase choices.

Additionally, the platform enables kirana owners to engage with each other and strengthen bonds between them. The platform is more like a social media channel such as LinkedIn for retailers who are constantly engaging on the platform. 

Unlike social media platforms, the app caters specifically to Kirana store owners in India. Users can access a unique feed featuring short (2-3 minute) videos and posts (textual as well as photos) in local languages. These personalized feeds showcase content relevant to each user's geographic location, fostering a sense of community and knowledge sharing among Kirana owners across Bharat. The platform supports vernacular languages with Hindi being the main languages followed by Gujarati, and Marathi. 

Unlike social media platforms, the app caters specifically to Kirana store owners in India. Users can access a unique feed featuring short (2-3 minute) videos and posts (textual as well as photos) in local languages. These personalized feeds showcase content relevant to each user's geographic location, fostering a sense of community and knowledge sharing among Kirana owners across Bharat. The platform supports vernacular languages with Hindi being the main languages followed by Gujarati, and Marathi. 

How do you generate revenue from this community-driven model? 

Kirana Club leverages its freemium model for kiranas and retailers can access the platform at no cost, and actively engage with other kirana owners. The company monetises from brands that create visibility through campaigns and posts. This includes impressions on promoted content, communication via social media channels and push notifications, banner ads as well as engagement posts that are used by brands to conduct qualitative and quantitative market surveys. 

The platform offers Kirana retailers unfettered access to valuable resources while generating revenue through partnerships with established FMCG brands. Traditionally reliant on expensive feet-on-the-street strategies, these brands have long struggled to reach millions of Kiranas effectively. Kirana Club bridges this gap by providing a digitally immersive platform for brands to directly engage, inform, and influence Kirana purchasing decisions. 

For FMCG brands, Kirana Club is more than just a platform and acts as a new media channel for them to ‘influence the influencer’ – kirana owners. The company disrupts traditional marketing paradigms and helps FMCGs leverage the strong community to gain an increased market share in this fiercely competitive space.

This approach to general trade has attracted over 15 leading FMCG companies, including Coca-Cola, P&G, and PepsiCo, who recognize the platform's transformative potential.

What are your short-term and long term goals in terms of product and business expansion and diversification?

Kirana Club is rapidly expanding and has been successful in penetrating 10-15% of the market in India. With 15 million kiranas in India, the platform has already onboarded more than 18 lakh kiranas in the last two years. This reflects on the company’s growth of 50% in terms of users on a QonQ basis and envisions to grow 5X in this year.  

The company is looking to penetrate deeper into the existing markets, with plans to also enhance its footprint in the southern states of India including Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. The company aims to invest in R&D and scale its AI capabilities to serve kiranas and brands better by enhancing its recommendation engine. The company aims to be the World’s largest community of retailers, helping kiranas not just in India but also across Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America, etc.