With the technological advancement and globalization of economics of India, the food retail industry of India is seeing a great boom. This has been a fascinating proposition for many investors since it has made it possible to reach as many customers as possible from all the corners of the world. Indian food retail industry accounts 20% of the GDP of India. Online food delivery chains, supermarkets, grocery markets, all play a big role in this. E-commerce, however, largely depends on item delivery. When it comes to delivering food items, OddyUniwraps has provided a hand in all this by ensuring that the products delivered are wrapped in high quality and durable papers to bridge the health gap in the market.
This concept mushroomed to a large degree during the 2014-2015 period where many firms collapsed with a few ones like Zomato, Swiggy, and Grofers surviving. The reason behind all the failures experienced was the numerous operational challenges such as the intensive workforce involved and maintaining the expected health standards while delivering the products to the clients. This has made it complex for the food industries such as zomato and Swiggy to avoid exploiting the grocery sector, especially in India.
Impact of Technology on The Retail Industry
This is the biggest game changer in recent past in the retail industry. The advancement and development of technology, including the websites, applications, ease of ordering, visual orientation, the process of notification, check-out experience, etc. all are the real game changers. Some technological factors that are playing a big role in the retail industry are:
In-store operation
From minimizing waiting time to the smooth check-out using mobile payments, Kiosks, etc. are all in-store operation that leave a mark on the customer’s mind. All the successful retailers use high-end technology to manage inventory, keep their products in the store, deliver their product on time and also let the customer be a part of their journey.
Supply Chain
Supply chain management is one of the essential parts of any business’ success. Proper management of the supply chain using technology let’s all these retailers maintain the flow of products, fulfil the requirement and process same day delivery.
Customer Outreach
Technology plays a significant role in customer outreach, and this is backed by analytics and big data. These are capable of collecting, storing and analyzing all the information they receive from the customers or subscribers.
Food retail industry of India is growing at a very high rate due to some factors such as the improved layout of products and stores, better availability of products and raw materials, the adaptation of modern technology, Government revenue, etc. However, food retail in India is continuously dominated by the traditional food and the format of grocery retail market due to the Indian sentiment attached to the habit of food and nutrition.
Two most significant trends that are emerging in the Indian retail food market are:
- Growing interest in imported food products and categories.
- The increased popularity of gourmet food market.
Now, let us talk about the modern retail industry of food in India.
Modern Retail
Plastic money, mobile wallets and digital platform all are the pillars of the modern retail market. Many food processing units are now using modern trade to develop new products, establish brands, to enhance customer awareness, etc. However, the modern retail food industry of India still faces some issues such as trained workforce, food hygiene, proper food packaging, dedicated logistics and so on. OddyUniwraps is trying to demolish the concern of proper food packaging by producing the best quality food wrapping and packaging papers.
Some big names of modern food retail and their existence
Organizations like BigBasket and Grofers are dealing in Grocery market and competing with modern retail. BigBaskethas an average basket value of Rs.1,500 with an average of 26 items. However, the value rises in cities like Mumbai to Rs.2000-2500. Nonetheless, the company relied on the technological improvements in retail industry and the increased number of warehouses together with the increased funding to control the cost where it acquired large volumes of products from the suppliers and then pushed the consumers to acquire more of the products online. The Gurugram based hyperlocal delivery, Grofers raised its VC funding to $45 million within its first eight months of its platform’s operationsand it has made them thinking big to sustain in this industry.
GrocerMax which is a Gurgaon-based hybrid online grocery store learned from the experiences of the failed stores by avoiding the venture into diverse cities until it had the right unit economics and model figured out. The store procures vegetables and groceries where it sources most of its products from the provisional stores and supermarkets and keeps only a 10 percent of the inventory.
A company such as the PepperTap founded in January 2015 as a hyperlocal grocer was already operating within nine cities where it owned approximately ten stores.However, there exist large volumes of low-value orders which poses a threat to the firms in such a line of operations. With all the roaming threats, the company started to operate at a debt leading to its failure.
Online retail
Online retail or E-retail largely drive modern retail industry. Some of the big names in Online food retail of India are Bigbasket, Swiggy, Grofers, PepperTap, TinyOwl, Grocermax, Zopnow, Mygrahak, etc. Best price, on-time online delivery, and best supply chain are the crucial factors for some of these companies to survive in this market competition.
Three pillars of online food retail market
The growth of the food retail market is going upwards, and the three components that are must have for this growth are:
- Supply
- Fulfilling Demand
- Proper Regulation of the operation
Some Big Names of Online Food Retail and Their Existence
The organizations like Swiggy, Zomatoo are changing the game of online food retail market and making going to a restaurant a second option. Their extraordinary supply chain management, technological advancement, multi-channel marketing and infrastructural development made them the pioneer of this industry.
TinyOwl co founder, Harshvardhan Mandad said that the delivery mechanism of products, as well as third-party logistics players, are some of the factors that matter most in the hyper local ventures. He noted that the number of orders delivered per day by any restaurant is dependent on the mechanism of delivery. The poor mechanism has a negative impact on the consumers which leads to a decline in the market. The company has over 10000 restaurants in Indian cities, and the profit margin from food and medicine rises every day due to their high recurring revenue.
Conclusion
Grocers Max is currently competing with the likes of Soft Bank-funded Grofers, ZopNow, Milk Basket, and Bigbasket. Bigbasket mostly employs the inventory-led play while Grofers has been working on a hybrid model derived from all the existing models. While the real competition exists between the Big basket and Grofers, Grocer Max has the potential to rise to the top of the chain in the long run.
However, the success of such firms largely depends on how much they use modern means to differentiate, for instance,high-quality wrapping papers which can only be offered by UNIWRAPS. With the advancement in technology, people will be able to accept the changes in the market and order groceries vegetables and food from the online stores and restaurants which can then be delivered to their doorsteps within a very short period.
Author
Mr. Atul Garg
