Published
Sep 26, 2018
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Metro Cash and Carry to digitize over five lakh kirana stores in India in the next three to five years

Published
Sep 26, 2018

The German wholesale retailer Metro Cash and Carry Private Limited will make over five lakh kirana stores in India digital over the coming three to five years as part of the business’ omni-channel strategy.

Metro Cash and Carry Private Limited will make over five lakh kirana stores in India digital over the coming three to five years - Dharmesh Siddhapura- Facebook


In order to focus on the business-to-business section of the market, Metro Cash and Carry will offer point-of-sale terminals and marketing tools to kirana stores to help modernise their working. “We are looking for growth through both through physical store expansion as well as e-commerce omnichannel players,” Metro Cash and Carry’s India Managing Director and CEO, Arvind Mediratta, told Mint in an interview.

“The focus is on the omnichannel strategy and digitization of kirana stores. The stores need to look much better and inviting, and we want to transform them into self-service stores… It is an ongoing journey, and we cannot do this in a year because there are 12 million kirana stores, including those in rural areas.”

In order to roll out this initiative, Metro has partnered with EasyPay, a business that provides kirana stores with point of sales devices that allow them to track purchases and has so far set up 500 such terminals. Metro competes on a global scale with Walmart which is also scaling up its kirana store initiative in India, called Mera Kirana.

Metro’s digitisation plan is part of the business strategy it launched last year entitled “OPD” (order processing, payment, collection, and delivery). The business also intends to continue expanding its retail footprint in India and will open a store in Ghaziabad by the end of the month. The business aims to open 50 brick-and-mortar stores by 2020.

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