Flipkart to strengthen last mile delivery, partners with 27,000 kirana shops

New Delhi: Walmart-owned Flipkart on Monday said it has on boarded nearly 27,000 'kirana' shops across 700 cities to strengthen its pan-India supply chain ahead of the upcoming festive season.

This will further strengthen and personalise e-commerce experience for its existing 160 million customers, help deepen its reach to newer geographies and consumers and support 'kiranas' by enhancing their income, a statement said.

It will also help reach out to millions of new consumers during the upcoming festive event, The Big Billion Days, it added.

"The nationwide kirana on boarding started about six months ago, undertaken keeping in mind the massive scale of the upcoming festive season, which witnesses heightened demand from customers from across the country, and also grow the business of our kirana partners," it said.

Flipkart already has a large supply chain network, currently delivering over one million shipments everyday across almost all pincodes in the country. The move will also help Flipkart scale up its reach across the country, especially in tier II and III towns, it said.

"Kiranas are the oldest and most widely spread retail format in India which exhibit the modernness of the supply chain and deliver a successful customer experience management model...After digital payments, the next big revolution in kirana is going to be ushered in conjunction with e-commerce," Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said.

This will also re-position and re-invent kirana stores as convenience stores from an e-commerce perspective, while offering them a new source of revenue, making it a win-win situation for all, he added.