Impact of Deep Discounting Strategy by Organised Retailers over Kirana Shops in Pune City Area

Abstract

Retailing has been undergoing various transformations worldwide. Typically, a retailer is a nearby shop providing all sorts of daily requirements for the families. These brick-and-mortar shops are small in size which is less than 500 sq. ft. and mainly operated by a single family. In India, you may find such 14 million shops serving the society from morning 7 till late evening. The last century saw the uprising of large-scale retail shops trying to change the way people purchased their daily requirements. The frequency of purchase changed from 2-3 days to a week a fortnight or a month. Today these largescale retailers are also named organised retailers and can have nationwide or multinational operations. For almost the last decade we have seen the transformation of the physical transaction to online transactions. Orders can be processed online as well as the payments can be transacted online. This technological advancement of Online technology, has created an opportunity for organized retailers to buy in bulk. These retailers offer the items nationwide with extremely heavy discounts. These deep discounts attract customers because the prices are too low but at the same time expect to buy more than usual quantities. The mall culture has led to a weekend affair where the customers buy their monthly utilities in a mall spending half or a full day in a mall with family. This becomes their family outing where they enjoy meals and some entertainment in these big malls. This has led to heavy business reduction for the traditional grocery shops threatening their very existence. We are trying to see how the Kirana shop owners look towards these threats and adopt strategies to counter this threat.

Keywords: Deep Discounting, Retail Industry, Technological Advancement, Kirana Shop, Digital Economy.

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