Grofers – A Growing Kirana Store Franchise

India’s largest low price online supermarket in the grocery space, with a network of 5000 partner store enabling fast delivery of groceries and a lean supply chain, catering to customers in 27+ cities and delivering over 25 million products to consumers every month is aiming to expand its operations through offline grocery stores.

Yes, we are talking about Grofers!. Wouldn’t you want a hand on one of its retail stores and benefit from the widespread value it creates for its customers ?

About Grofers

Founded in December 2013, Grofers is an Indian online grocery delivery service. In the recent 2018, it’d raised capital worth $535.5 million from leading investors including Sequoia capital, SoftBank and Tiger Global.

Grofers is a portmanteau of the words “ Grocery gophers”

Key Facts about Grofers :

• Founded                           : 27 December, 2013
• Founders                          : Albinder Dhindsa, Saurabh kumar
• Headquarters location  : Gurugram
• Revenue                           : 176.7 crores INR (2020)
• Employees                       : 2000(2021)

Everything you need to know about Grofers:

Unique selling point (USP)

The main value that comes with owning a Grofers retail store is the already established brand name  and the reputation and loyalty that would come to your store because of

• It’s availability of products in variations and association with 5000+ brands
• Diversified product line at reasonable prices, bulk deals which would now be experienced without having to wait for the delivery.

Grofers grocery store business model

Every business model comes with 4 variants which defines the business and the scope of its operations. Here’s one for Grofers

Value proposition : The value which grofers retail stores holds is not only limited to the brand reputation. The value it’ll propose would be :

Brand loyalty: Labelling it as discount grocery store which will give the consumers a reason to chose Grofers retail over every other  retail shop.

Target consumers : The potential consumers for the grofers retail can be identified as follows :

Conservative shoppers who still prefer brick-and-mortar over online stores for grocery shopping ex : Aged between 40-65

• Restaurants, fast food chains, street food pedlars, caterers who require fresh groceries, condiments etc could use a Grofers retail shop
• Rural areas where people aren’t mobile friendly a retail store like grofers could help

• Competitor review : The major competitors to your grocery store would be big bazar, ratnadeep, reliance fresh etc

• Marketing strategy: There’s no target vise marketing strategy that could be used by your franchise to attract your target consumers but few basic ones could be :

• Bulk deals, seasonal discounts
• End of season sales
• One + one offers etc
• Highlighting the stock availability through ads, billboards etc

Benefits of starting a Grofers grocery store franchise :

The benefits of starting a grofers grocery store franchise could be as followed :

First mover advantage : The grofers retail store has opened all of its 100 stores in the Delhi NCR region itself. So if you take up this franchise in cities other than Delhi, the initial sales will be increasingly high for two reasons

• Because it’s the only Grofers retail store in the city
• And because the scarcity created by this store until others take up a franchise for the same

The Indian demand : When it comes to Grofers retail store the consumers don’t have to move from shop to shop because of lack of availability because your store will have something for everyone: fruits, vegetables, snacks, dietary snacks, dairy, fish, chicken, pasta etc

• Quick breakeven
• ~15% return on investment
• Opportunity to join India’s fastest-growing grocery startup

Perk of online unavailability : Manier times it happens that the :

• online website/app is out of the stock consumers want to have or  
• No delivery slots available
• Products are needed for immediate consumption

 In these specific cases your store will come to the rescue

Minimal requirements : A Grofers retail store comes with a reasonable investment with less than operational staff and a decent margin on sales of 10%

Also read:

• How to start Dmart Franchise 
• How to start Hyper Supermarket Franchise

What are the requirements and qualifications for a Grofers grocery store franchise:

Requirements

• A space requirement of 1000-2000 sq ft. carpet area
• A staff requirement of 4-5 members with adequate training in sales and customer assistance
• A skill requirement of the owner it’s terms of management, entrepreneurship and customer service.

Qualifications

For one to qualify to run this grofers grocery store franchise has to meet with the following requirements:

• Standardised franchise agreement
• Aadhar card, PAN Card, bank details
• GST registration
• Store rental agreement
• Financial and educational background status

 Assistance provided by Grofers :

100% back end support to run the store incl.

Full safe stock capital: Total Inventory management from sourcing to supply, return of unsold inventory.

Single point supply of inventory – benefits: no need to negotiate terms with multiple distributors, will stock only selling items, pick back non-selling items

• Business insights to run the store – what products to stock, how to price them, where to place them in the store, how to promote the store
• All softwares to run the store – billing, inventory ordering
• Training of manpower
• Offline Marketing support through designs and guidance on implementation Additionally, online orders from the vicinity will be passed on to the store and delivered by the store partner itself.

• Day to day coordination through a dedicated Grofers Market – Area Business Manager, who will be the single point of contact from the time of lead generation, onboarding, and running the store operations.
•  What we expect from the partner? Day to day store operations – managing manpower, selling products according to targets Customer experience – store hygiene, customer interaction, etc.

Investment required to run a grofers grocery store :

• Funds needed: ₹30-₹40 lakhs (setup costs + brand fee + working capital)

Grofers grocery store profits

How to apply for a Grofers grocery store franchise :

One can apply for the Grofers grocery store franchise in the following ways :

• Email to the grofers franchise officials on the address mentioned in the grofers website with your contact details and query to acquire one of their franchise

• You can also contact the grofers franchise (zonal) offices and put forward your query and details for them to revert back to you regarding the same.

Suggestions :

If you are still ensure of your decision to take up this grofers franchise or not, we’ve got some facts for you :

• Firstly, the demand for groceries means a demand for essential goods which is eternal and is not subjected to any economical or political constraints. So your store will probably never run out of business

• Secondly, the brand bane and loyalty grofers has accustomed among its consumers is likely to do good business to you

• Lastly, all your marketing efforts and plans are made and paid for you by Grofers itself so you don’t have to worry