Flipkart onboards 13,000 kiranas in eastern region

Homegrown ecommerce giant Flipkart on Friday said it has onboarded over 13,000 kiranas in the eastern region to make faster deliveries to customers ahead of the festive season.

The company also said this is part of a programme to onboard 50,000 kiranas across the country to provide a faster and personalised ecommerce experience to its consumers.

"Flipkart's team initiated contactless onboarding of kiranas through an online application. This enabled seamless onboarding without them having to step out during COVID-19 times," a company statement said.

The expansion of the company's kirana programme across cities in the eastern states includes Kolkata, Guwahati, Silchar, and Shillong, making ecommerce more inclusive by connecting small retailers and consumers to the digital commerce, it said.

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The programme is part of the company's efforts to drive growth for millions of small retailers across the country.

This also includes Flipkart Wholesale, a digital B2B marketplace with an aim to connect local manufacturers and MSMEs with retailers and other businesses, it added.

Earlier this week, Flipkart Wholesale announced the expansion of its operations into 12 new cities, enabling a one-stop digital marketplace solution for the retail ecosystem, that will offer small businesses a wide selection of products at a significant value. Expanding with the fashion category in these cities, Flipkart Wholesale is looking to digitally transform kiranas and MSMEs to help them grow faster, retain their customers, and improve their profitability.

Adarsh Menon, Senior Vice President and Head - Flipkart Wholesale, said, 

“As we enter the festive season, we are excited to be scaling up our offerings across 12 cities, aiming to create more opportunities for MSMEs and Kiranas. From trendy Jaipuri Kurtis to evergreen Mysore Silk Saris, we aim to help small businesses embrace the digital transformation and emerge as more robust businesses."

"Since the launch, we have partnered with several leading brands and enabled ease of doing business digitally for SMBs and Kiranas by helping them leverage micro-market level B2B and B2C insights from the Flipkart ecosystem to better understand customer demands specific to their area, so that they can buy and sell the right products. We’re excited to see our initiative contributing to the prosperity of MSMEs, Kiranas, and creating lakhs of new and exciting livelihood opportunities in India,” added Adarsh.

Ahead of the festive season, Flipkart Wholesale will be operational in Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Mysore, Chandigarh Tricity, Meerut, Agra, Jaipur, Thane-Bhiwandi-Ulhasnagar, Greater Mumbai, Vasai-Virar-Mira-Bhayanadar, Thane (Kalyan-Dombivli), and Thane (Navi Mumbai).

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)