India’s expanding retail landscape is changing fast, with global and domestic retail behemoths fighting tooth and nail to woo shoppers. While many consumers opt for big, clean supermarkets over the local stores, most of India’s grocery retail still happens at kiranas which account for 75-78% of the consumer goods market.

Kirana stores have had many transformations in the last couple of years. With the sudden advent of e-commerce solutions and multinational online retail players, who offer numerous easy payment and delivery options, the next-door grocery stores have been put to various tests and have had to face massive competition. However, in recent times, belief in the kirana stores have been strengthened due to the global pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, these conventional brick and mortar stores have stood tall as a formidable witness to last mile connectivity by meeting Bharat’s everyday needs. Where large e-commerce giants were left incapacitated due to constrained movement, incapable to supply and home deliver goods to people, Indian kiranas emerged as the true corona warriors. During this time, the local kirana stores held the fort, maintained a near-steady supply of daily items, and ensured that people are not devoid of essential commodities. Besides in the wake of restricted bank operations, these kiranas acted as efficient digital touchpoints offering essential financial services.

While many kirana stores have won new customers during this lockdown, there still exists a large number of stores that need a technological upgrade to support this increasing demand. And, aiding these retailers is BPRO, India’s largest branchless banking and digital payments network. In line with BPRO’s credo of ‘Zidd Aage Badhne Ki’, we are completely transforming the kiranas and making them future-ready. Backed by technology, BPRO transforms a kirana outlet into a local mini bank offering a host of financial services to the natives. We have enabled more than 41+ lakh retailers across 17, 600+ PIN codes to have a strong online presence and ensured small and local shops are not left behind in the transforming digital world.

Echoing this sentiment is BPRO’s store management app – BPRO NeoDukaan. BPRO NeoDukaan is a first-of-its-kind holistic store management tool aimed at digitizing the retail stores and accelerating digital adoption at the last mile. With multiple digital payment options, digital ledger for credit management and online wholesale procurement options, BPRO NeoDukaan looks to create a thriving ecosystem for its retail partners by empowering them digitally, helping them modernize their stores, simplify their lives and bringing them at par with the current times. With this app, we intend to make our retailers future-ready and take them to the level where they can compete with the e-commerce giants and large format superstores. The store management app enables stores to go online with a single click to be able to service customers in their neighbourhood and beyond to avail the digital store at their convenience. With this platform, BPRO aims to digitally empower the local retailers in India whilst enhancing their efficiency and opportunities to serve their customers better.

Today, it is crucial for stores to have all formats of digital payments. This all-new platform will enable retailers to offer wide-ranging payment options such as UPI QR, Aadhaar Pay, mPOS and SoftPOS to the customers in the local community. Besides being cost-effective and easily implementable, retailers will not lose customers due to limited payment options and will be able to offer digital financial services seamlessly. BPRO NeoDukaan will help retailers provide a slew of choices to their customers and will help accelerate digital adoption in the country, especially among the underbanked spectrum, reducing the demand for cash and cash-led transactions. Besides, in the wake of COVID, it will enable customers to make safe, contactless payments too. NeoDukaan, thus, aims to democratize digital payments, ensuring the availability of form factor agnostic transactions at the last mile such that digital payments become as seamless as exchanging cash.