E-commerce in India: Local heroes

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UK Only Article: 
standard article

Issue: 

Migrant men and European women

Fly Title: 

E-commerce in India

Rubric: 

Online grocers are offering small shops a lifeline in the age of smartphones

Location: 

MUMBAI

Main image: 

20160116_WBP003_0.jpg

AS PERSONAL service goes, few big retailers can match the tailor-made offerings of India’s 15m or so tiny, family-owned shops known as kiranas. In addition to selling all manner of goods, most are happy to cut and deliver small amounts of fresh food—1kg of onions, say—and let customers buy on credit.
The steady advance of home-grown supermarket chains has so far done little to dim the kiranas’ prospects; and successive Indian governments have been reluctant to let in foreign grocers, for fear that many households would lose their livelihoods. With more than 200m Indians now able to access the internet on their mobile devices, e-commerce might appear a bigger threat. A clutch of Indian and …
Source: Retailing
E-commerce in India: Local heroes