Myntra partners with neighbourhood kirana stores for logistics

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jun 11, 2018

Flipkart’s fashion arm Myntra is using kirana stores as part of its delivery network in order to reach more rural areas as customers from Tier 2 and 3 locations increase and it has found the service to be mutually beneficial.

A kirana is a small neighbourhood retail store which can be found across India and Myntra is using them to help with order fulfilment. After Myntra launching its “Mensa Network” in April 2017, Myntra has now expanded it to cover 6,200 stores in 50 cities across India and this network now fulfils 60 percent of orders from the online platform. The network includes kirana stores and Apollo pharmacies among others.

“Unlike what is said about ecommerce impacting the small kirana store, this programme has helped find a new use case for them, where they can also get predictability of revenue,” Myntra’s head of supply chain, customer experience, and human resources, Manpreet Ratia, told ET Bureau. Ratia said that participating kirana stores earn Rs 15,000 per month on average which can supplement their income significantly.

Calling the Mensa network a success, Ratia explained said: “We have shared our learnings from the Mensa Network with Flipkart.” As India’s large e-commerce platforms are all working to reach a greater number of locations, BigBasket and Amazon India are also working in a similar fashion.