Understanding Kirana Stores. Beating A 20% Margin

We need to learn about kirana stores, those small shops that still make up the majority of India's nearly $1 trillion retail economy.

Little is published about them. Here’s a few snippets from CBI Insights:

• The kirana store continues to represent 75-78% of total consumer goods sales in India, according to Ambit Capital estimates

• Estimates vary significantly, but there are 12-20M kirana shops in India
• Just over 90% of FMCG sales in India happen via kirana stores

We wanted different insights. Could we work with them on a refill solution? Would they be up for it? If so, what margin would they need to make? What space could be available? What would make their business run better or be more profitable?

We weren’t sure, so we went to find out. In recent weeks and months we've conducted interviews and demonstrations with a wide range of kirana stores and learned a lot about their willingness to pilot a refill reuse scheme, along with their various concerns.

it's been a productive and useful exercise.

And on that margin question, we learnt they typically earn about 20% on sachets. Our objective is to deliver a refill and reuse system that beats that without making the consumer pay any more.