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Welcome to the latest edition of 'Kirana Club Insider' - your monthly dose of insights from kiranas of India. A must for every FMCG enthusiast.

Let’s dive, shall we?

Retailer’s Top Picks

Festive season = Binge season! 8 out top 10 are food brands

In our country, the festive season is about enjoying delicacies of various kinds. No wonder that food brands have seen a lot of UGC from kiranas this month. 

Parle leads the pack with 5,71,000 organic impressions followed by Haldiram's, brands under Tata Consumer Products Limited (TCPL), Fortune from Adani-Wilmar, Everest, Britannia, Cadbury, and Balaji Wafers, completing the food pack. 

The point to note is that Everest and Balaji have made it to the top 10 for the very first time in 5 months!

Not to forget that the festive season is being accompanied by the Cricket World Cup. Binging while enjoying the matches is also a big trend, which could have prompted kiranas to choose brands like Parle, Haldiram's, Britannia, and Balaji for creating content. 

Kiranas favorite Patanjali and Dabur always seem to find a place in the top 10.

Kirana Ki Adalat

Everest becomes the favorite brand of the month

With the festive season comes the trend of socializing and hosting guests. Obviously, this fuels demand for food-related categories. Fresh food preparations are a big part of festive celebrations and categories like spices, 'masala' as we call them, see a surge in demand. 

Last month saw a lot of kiranas creating content on Everest.

Emerging Brands

Most emerging brands come from categories revolving around the kitchen

Household cleaning brand Vim enjoyed an unprecedented increase in the number of organic impressions in the month of October, with a 97.7% increase in impressions. The criteria of selection were brands that garnered a minimum of 50K organic impressions in September and saw the biggest jump in the month of October.

KC Update

Launching ‘Kirana Conversation Tracker’ 🚀

With a growing community of 15L+ kirana retailers, the conversations on the Kirana Club App never stop. For FMCG professionals to be able to tap into these Kirana conversations we’ve launched a free tool, Kirana Conversation Tracker.

It’s a tool that provides real-time updates of posts and conversations happening on the Kirana Club App about brands.

It’s the only tool available in the market that gives FMCG professionals a first-hand account of what the kiranas think about their brands, and it’s absolutely free.

Survey Insights

Only 22% kiranas are optimistic about business prospects this festive season

Recently, there have been a lot of reports on FMCG companies experiencing subdued consumer demand and a fall in rural consumption amid food inflation and uneven rains.

We at Kirana Club wanted to gauge the impact of these factors on kirana businesses and the implication on kirana channel sentiments this festive season. The comprehensive findings from the ‘Mood of Kiranas’ Survey, collated from over 5000 kiranas owners were also featured in Business Standard, Media Avataar, Media Brief to name a few.

At an overall level, the usual upbeat mood that we see in the festive season seems to be missing. Only 22% kiranas said that they are extremely optimistic, about 37% are somewhat optimistic and about 30% said they were not sure (neutral) about this season’s business prospects.

Leading the ‘extremely’ positive sentiment is Bihar (27%), whereas Maharashtra and UP are showing the ‘weakest’ positive sentiment (19.2% and 19.8% respectively). However, MP seems to be ahead for overall positive sentiment i.e. somewhat optimistic and extremely optimistic (63.3%) followed by Bihar (60.6%), Raj (59.3%), Maharashtra (58.6%) and UP (55.9%).

Last month, our ‘Small SKUs Survey’ also indicated that consumers are trading downwards and are experimenting with newer and smaller variants, brands and (sub)categories. This also correlates with muted sentiments during the festive season, indicating that consumers are cutting back on spending. In such a scenario brands will have to work even harder to be ahead of the competition.

KC Insights

Winter is coming, and so is the demand for winter essentials

The onset of winter sees an increase in demand for products like moisturizers, cold creams and hair oils. The Kirana Club App saw an increase in conversations around brands like Parachute, Vaseline, Boroplus, Boroline and Nihar.

Looks like kirana owners will be stocking up on these products given the surge in demand and relevance of these products.

KC x Brand

How a popular pasta brand made a mark in a loose pasta-dominated market

Go to any kirana shop and you will see colorful ‘fryums’ that kids love. Stored in steel or plastic containers, it’s a very popular snack, especially for kids. In the last 10 years or so, a similar demand has been generated for pasta. Just like fryums, kirana owners stock loose pasta for parents to buy for their kids.

Problem

For a brand selling pasta, loose pasta is their biggest competition. Kiranas are hesitant to stock branded pasta due to the weak demand and higher purchase price for kirana owners. A well-known pasta brand came to us with the task of convincing kirana owners to stock the brand and influence their customers to choose the brand over the ‘cheaper’ loose option.

Solution

To begin with, we created the brand’s profile page on the Kirana Club App, which quickly got 3,000 followers. At this point, we proposed the brand to launch an offer - a Buy One Get One scheme for kirana to knock down the high purchase price entry barrier.

The offer was then communicated through an impactful ‘Kirana Display Campaign’ which received very good traction from kirana owners on the app. 

To incentivize customers to buy branded over loose, we designed a pitch for the kirana owners to target mothers, urging them to buy pasta for regular use, not just for special occasions. The pitch also highlighted the nutritional value of loose pasta (100% maida) v/s the brand’s pasta (made from Durum Wheat).

A ‘Kirana Influencer Campaign’ was devised using the top 20 kirana influencers on the app who developed video content communicating this sales pitch to other Kirana owners and how they achieved success using the pitch in convincing the women shoppers. 

Outcomes

The combination of a BOGO offer and a new sales pitch designed to target mothers shopping for regular-use pasta made a remarkable impact. The brand saw significant increase in the intent from kiranas to stock its various SKUs.

Kirana Influencer of The month

Meet Kirana Club’s Influencer of the Month, Manohar Ji

The story of Manohar Ji and his shop Pari Kirana is nothing short of inspiring. Opened in December of 2022, in Duriya District of Maharashtra, Pari Kirana was a huge leap for Manohar Ji given his humble background and responsibilities. Now a shop that’s grown to a 600-square-foot store, Manohar Ji shares with us some learnings from this experience.

How did your journey of running a kirana store start?

My family and I lived in a very small house where my wife also ran her tailoring business. Because of the crowding, we decided to set up a small tailoring shop in front of our house, and it turned out to be quite successful. My wife suggested we start selling biscuits and chocolates as well due to the nearby school, and it worked well. That’s how my kirana journey started.

What is your vision for the future of your kirana store?

From a small 10x10 space to a 600-square-foot shop, I’ve come a long way. I have expanded into both retail and wholesale. I started wholesaling with brands like Balaji Wafers and Kurkure and I am still learning the ropes of it. Although wholesale is still in its early stages, I aim to grow my customer base in both segments.

What are the important traits for a kirana store owner to succeed?

Patience is crucial. I always try to handle customers with patience, even when they are upset. Maintaining a positive and energetic attitude is very important to attract more customers.

It's essential to build positive relationships with customers, so they come back and spread the word. Availability is another key trait. I open my store at 6 AM and keep it open until 10 PM to serve my customers. 

From a business perspective, even though my business is only ten months old, I constantly strive to offer competitive rates. I stay updated on market prices through the Kirana Club App and often rely on customer feedback to ensure I am competitive.

What are some of the challenges you face in your business?

Dealing with difficult customers can be challenging at times. Managing the store single-handedly can also be tough because I have to temporarily close it when I need to step out. Deciding on stock quantities and prices can be tricky, but joining the kirana Club community has helped me access pricing information and more insights on these matters.

How has the Kirana Club benefited your business?

I primarily rely on Kirana Club App for information on branded products. I dedicate around 16 hours to my store and spend about 12 hours on the Kirana Club App. I really like the commodity expert's videos and the insights from newer retailers who provide valuable information. The app also provides updates on schemes and price information which has made me more price-conscious, and I feel more confident making informed decisions. I've learned a lot about what to buy, where to buy it, and current market prices, making stocking decisions very easy for me. 

Manohar Ji stands out as a dedicated Kirana entrepreneur, ready to embrace newer ways to stay ahead of the curve in a competitive kirana channel.

Feedback & Support

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Reply to this email with your suggestions, ideas or feedback and help us make this an even better read for you. We’ll be back with more insights and learnings from our exciting Kirana community.

Until next month,
Team Kirana Club