India’s Grofers to convert 200 partner stores into its own brand network

Indian online grocer Grofers will convert around 200 service-partner stores into its own offline branded outlets.

The move is intended to expand Grofers’ business without affecting online sales, and has already been put into effect in around 100 such “kirana” outlets, providing training in point-of-sale, retention and loyalty schemes, among other areas. Plans are also underway to expand the network into southern Indian markets.

“We have converted several grocery stores into our own branded offline stores,” said Grofers VP and offline business head Yeshu Bansal, “around 100 kirana stores in Delhi-NCR have been a part of this effort that started somewhere in November last year. Our target is to have 200 such stores in the coming few months.”

The firm is aiming to double sales to ₹5000 crore (US$726.7 million) this financial year and is planning an IPO within three years.

“Using our forecasting tools and data science, we help the offline stores understand what items are selling more and what should he stock for,” added Bansal. “We are taking our experience and tech to the offline store … We are entering kirana stores in residential areas that has middle and the lower middle class population. The goal is to help the retailer scale up his business by getting more footfalls, and for us, it helps push their homegrown brands (private label products) as well.”

Grofers partners with more than 6000 stores that deliver groceries to its customers.