Before we go into detail about how old supermart stores turned to online hyperlocal business in this COVID, let’s understand first what exactly we mean by old supermarkets here. Supermarkets are large stores and establishments that sell a variety of food items, groceries, and other items that pertain to day-to-day needs. They are self-service shots. They mostly sell all household goods. Due to this pandemic, people refrained from going to the supermarkets to buy food items or other household goods due to the fear of crowds or disease being spread vastly. But every supermarket owner was aware that each item that he or she sells in their store is of essential need and is a necessity. People can not live without food, grocery or personal hygiene even if there is a disease outbreak in the world. They were quite smart to tap into this opportunity to deliver the goods and items at their doorsteps and make it more convenient for customers to buy more and more products while they are staying in their homes.

The online business helps the old type of supermarkets to turn their business into online hyperlocals. A hyperlocal market refers to a market that offers multiple varieties of products to customers but catering to a specific geographical area or a focussed region. The hyperlocal market is a new concept in e-commerce. Online Hyperlocals refers to systems such as online food delivery business which means delivering restaurant and prepared food items to customer’s doorsteps, grocery delivery which allows the customers to order fruits and vegetables and even dairy items while they are sitting at their homes, personal services at home and much more. This type of market provides a wide arena to the offline stores and establishments to reach new areas and new customers through the help of the internet. A lot of hyperlocal businesses were already in the run before covid entered such as companies like Swiggy, Zomato, Uber eats, big basket, Grofers, etc who delivered food and groceries to customers with just one click, but with the advent of Covid, supermarkets also turned their businesses to sell online, which was quite beneficial for them. They utilized the opportunity that people, especially in India prefer buying from their nearby Kirana stores because of ease and convenience. So they offered convenience to the customers.

The supermarkets that turned their business online saw a sharp growth in their sales and their overall profits. To understand more about this, below are some examples that can help one reflect on the growth of supermarkets that turned into online hyperlocals during a pandemic.

The most important examples when we talk about old and traditional supermarkets are Big Bazar, D-Mart, Easyday, Marks and Spencer, 24seven and other stores like these.

Offline big supermarket brands like DMart and Big Bazaar scaled-up their delivery business and started online commerce for the ease of the customers. These are the organized offline business which also sells electronics and fashion products such as Dmart and Spenser’s, who offered digital ordering channels and home delivery services during the pandemic with the help of a partnership with e-commerce platforms.

The second-largest supermarket brand in India by Reliance i.e Reliance Retail also announced the on-boarding of Kirana stores for e-commerce initiatives. They planned to digitize the Kirana stores with the help of merchant POS machines. Under this initiative, Reliance started JioMart which is a food and grocery delivery platform for customers. JioMart was launched in May 2020 in around 200 cities in India to cater to the essential needs of the consumers during COVID.

Flipkart which is owned by Walmart now, started its own hyperlocal business during the pandemic by the name of Flipkart Quick. The company tried to digitize Kirana stores by onboarding them onto the e-commerce marketplace. They launched a 90 minutes delivery service which started with the delivery of groceries, dairy and meat products, mobile phones, electronics items, stationery, and home accessories. This was first launched in Bengaluru and planned to expand to other cities.

Similarly, back in April-May, Paytm Mall decided and planned to partner with more than 10,000 Kirana stores, small stores and shops, and businesses in over 100 cities for hyperlocal deliveries.

Another important entry into the online hyperlocal market was done by popular food delivery app Swiggy, which launched a 45-minute delivery service through “Instamart” of groceries and day to day essentials. This was launched in Gurugram.