Grofers, an online and offline grocery startup has set up nearly 100 kirana and supermarket outlets to Grofers discount stores in Delhi-NCR region, reported Inc42.
With Grofers converting kirana stores, it will manage backend sourcing, inventory management and technology support on a revenue sharing model.
Albinder Dhindsa, cofounder of Grofers, said that this would help in having bigger purchasing power. He also emphasised that these stores will be a subset of its offline delivery system since they already deal with nearly 6,000 partner stores.
Founded in 2013 by Albinder Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar, Grofers offers products across categories such as grocery, fruits and vegetables. It operates in 13 cities.
The company recently closed a $200 million funding round led by SoftBank with participation from existing investors. This brings total funding of the company to $501.8 million in multiple rounds from investors such as Sequoia and Tiger Global.
Also, this round put the company closer to the valuation of $1 billion.
For the Grofers’ model stores, the company reportedly started testing the model in November last year and hopes to have 200 such stores by expanding network to Bengaluru in the next few months.
However, the company has also said that its “physical stores will not cannibalise sales from its online venture since it appeals to an older consumer base compared to a younger demographic online.”
While, a Goldman Sachs report has forecasted that the Indian online grocery market is set to reach $40 million (₹270 crore) by FY19, growing at a CAGR of 62 per cent from 2016 to 2022.
Further, there are over 12 Mn small stores in India and account for over 90% share of the Indian food and grocery market.
Some of the significant online grocery startups in India includes BigBasket, Pepperfry, Zop Now, Amazon Now, Godrej nature’s basket, etc.