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Kanpur-based Lakshita Singh, 38, believes that online shopping is a godsend feature in these pandemic times. But she prefers buying from the nearby Kirana store, especially now that she does not have to go there and make payments in cash.

“I buy most of the stuff online but for essentials, online stores can’t beat next-door Kirana shops. Being an old customer, I get attractive discounts. Only the mode of shopping has changed as now I just have to give a call and they deliver things at my place even on a short notice,” Singh said.

Even in these Covid times, the Kirana shops still retain a special connect with customers. These stores have now started offering home deliveries and have customised payment solutions for their regular customers, thus bringing them at par with app-based outlets. These stores, which earlier did not accept digital payments, now accept digital payments.

“Online shopping has picked up for non-essentials and people are preferring to order online. However, many standalone offline stores have created an online presence for themselves by listing themselves on a marketplace or created an online store for themselves using smart solutions,” said Ankit Bhatnagar, head of product, Mswipe.

Amid the current crisis, where moving out of the house comes is fraught with risks, this transition has immensely benefitted people.

Home ordering has increased considerably for essentials and food. Cloud kitchens have become considerably popular and many popular food outlets are now available on home delivery and mobile listing apps. 10% of all MSME merchant payments are now being collected via solutions like pay by link indicating remote payments for home deliveries, according to Bhatnagar.

Human touch

On the contrary, Bhatnagar still believes that the human touch brings more trust and people prefer interacting with known shopkeepers as these shopkeepers provide personalized service to known customers. He said, “Large e-commerce players are employing technology solutions like AI to provide similar personalized service to their customers. Similarly, local shops have now started to deploy technology solutions that provide similar ease like online stores for ordering, payment and tracking to their regular customers at the same time retaining the benefits of offline stores. Thus, technology is now reducing the gap between online and offline stores.”

Arya Verma, 26, Bhopal, still feels that during the current crisis, ordering online is the best option but Covid-led restrictions and lockdowns are causing delays.

“If I order from reputed online stores, I am always assured of quality and I also get a lot of variety. For me, online shops are a game-changer, especially amid this mayhem. But my mother still prefers ordering from local Kirana shops. I guess it is all about trust and personalised touch. Also, returning process becomes easy with them as you are known to them. Ordering from online stores is easy but nowadays I am experiencing major delays in delivery. Earlier we also used to get tokens which increased the waiting period for essential deliveries. In such a scenario, next-door Kirana shops come to rescue,” she said.

Guidelines

Several e-commerce firms have issued new guidelines with respect to deliveries during the second wave. For example, a note in Amazon’s website says: “We are following the latest government guidelines to enable delivery of essentials and non-essentials in all permitted areas, and the delivery timeline may be impacted due to local restrictions.”

Earlier, BigBasket also used to distribute tokens due to significant demand. But as per the new guidelines, the e-commerce company has completely withdrawn this policy.

The convenience of simply walk in for immediate purchase, touch and feel before buying, personalized service and bargain for discounts, make brick and mortar shops the preferred shopping option for people.

“Now, these neighbourhood stores are adding the convenience of home deliveries and ‘order from home’ have made their offerings at par with online stores adding to their customer delight and retaining their traditional base,” Bhatnagar said.