Understanding neighbourhood grocers’ move to digital ordering

What is shaping retail

Retailers and D2C brands compete across stores, apps and marketplaces. Store experience, availability and convenience decide where shoppers go next.

• Shoppers move freely between online and offline
• Store experience is a key differentiator
• Loyalty programmes and personalisation drive repeat

A B2B e-commerce platform for small retailers, working in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar & Madhya Pradesh. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

A B2B e-commerce platform for small retailers

Sector

Retail

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Business panel, Offline data collection (CAPI), Qualitative research

The platform offered small grocers a way to order stock through an app, but adoption was uneven, and many stores ordered once and returned to traditional distributors. The company needed to understand retailers’ needs and barriers in smaller towns.

• Deliver on the brief: understanding neighbourhood grocers’ move to digital ordering.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of kirana stores.
• Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
• Give the client evidence it can act on within 8 weeks.

The work focused on 1,500 kirana stores.

• kirana stores1,500

Audiences we typically reach in retail

ShoppersStore staff and managersOnline customersLoyalty membersFranchisees

Coverage: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar & Madhya Pradesh. Market: India.

• India

A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Retailer survey in stores
3. 3In-depth interviews
4. 4Insight

Interviewers visited stores during quieter hours, speaking Hindi and local dialects, to ask about stock ordering, credit, delivery expectations, app use and relationships with distributors. In-depth interviews with retailers who had stopped using the app explored their reasons in detail.

Business panelOffline data collection (CAPI)Qualitative research

kirana stores

1,500

• Business respondents were screened on role, company size and involvement in the decision before being invited.
• Respondents were selected across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar & Madhya Pradesh using quotas set in advance for each location and respondent type, so no single area or group dominated.
• Online respondents were drawn from verified panel members who matched the screening criteria, with quotas on key profile attributes.
• Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.

interviews

30

• Trained local-language interviewers conducted interviews in person on tablets (CAPI), with time and location recorded for every interview.
• The online survey was mobile-friendly and offered in respondents' languages.
• Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.

• Back-checks on a share of completed interviews
• Time and location checks on field interviews
• Supervisor accompaniment in the field
• Digital fingerprinting and duplicate checks
• Attention, speed and straight-lining checks
• Review of open-ended answers
• Recordings and transcripts for every session
• Re-screening of qualitative recruits
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
• Significance testing on the differences that mattered
• Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
• Journey and decision mapping

• Credit terms and reliable delivery of small, frequent orders mattered more than app features.
• Many retailers relied on distributor credit they could not get from the platform.

Digital adoption followed trust and credit, not technology.

• Build on the core insight: digital adoption followed trust and credit, not technology.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: credit terms and reliable delivery of small, frequent orders mattered more than app features.
• Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.

• The company introduced small working-capital credit, guaranteed next-day delivery and sales representatives who helped place orders.

What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Interview summaries and key verbatims

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: where does the online funnel leak?