E-commerce marketplace Flipkart has said its kirana partners reported about 30 percent increase in average monthly delivery incomes last year.
The incomes 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 their counterparts in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune.
More than 50,000 kirana stores across the country are currently part of Flipkart's delivery programme. These stores form part of an extended delivery mechanism for Flipkart to help deliver packages at customers' doorstep, especially in tier two and tier three cities.
"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," said Flipkart Senior Vice-President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar.
The e-commerce platform deploys a host of business processes and technologies to ensure wide availability of shipments for deliveries for kirana partners to supplement their incomes. It also provides them with comprehensive training that includes teaching finer nuances of delivery, functioning of the app and customer service.
In addition to kirana programme, Flipkart also serves close to 10 lakh kiranas across nine states through its wholesale's Best Price cash-and-carry business.
Through the year, Best Price worked closely with supplier partners on transportation and logistics which significantly ramped up e-commerce and delivery capabilities, ensuring that members can order and receive products conveniently amid the pandemic.
