O2O Grocery Platform Kirana11 Re-brands to Avenue11 to Become A Virtual Shopping Street

Kirana11, a Bengaluru-based online-to-offline (O2O) grocery platform, has changed to Avenue11 to reposition itself in the e-grocery segment. As an O2O marketing platform, Kirana11 leveraged the offline presence of local stores in an area to serve customers better while reducing the delivery cost at the same time. As Avenue11, the startup aspires to deliver a better O2O experience to consumers by temporarily shifting away from tie-ups with local stores.

“Transition from Kirana11 to Avenue11 is a strategic rebranding move that represents our shift from a hyperlocal model to an inventory based model that will also allow us to offer premium products to consumers," says Nakkyun Chong, CEO of Avenue11.

Avenue11 is an e-grocery platform which aims at redefining the grocery space in the Indian market. Founded by Korean expat and serial entrepreneur Nakkyun Chong, Avenue11 is owned by Planet11 E-commerce Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. Currently operational only in select parts of Bengaluru, Avenue 11 claims to have a monthly GMV of INR 2 Crores. As of today, the company is reported to have raised funds amounting to $9 million from various South-Asian investors.

Kirana11 to Avenue11:

As Kirana11, the company was helping kirana stores connect with the digital community. Over the last year of its operation, the company realized that not all local stores are ready to cater to online consumers today. They aren't willing to invest in technology and in improving customer service quality - keys to an excellent consumer-experience. The company has now decided to first build a strong base of online consumers before approaching select kirana stores. The strategy will help in increasing market share and strengthening Avenue11’s brand recognition among consumers and businesses alike.

Avenue11 provides doorstep delivery of a wide range of products from world-renowned brands. Kirana11’s makeover to Avenue11 will make the grocery shopping experience more exciting and hassle-free for its customers. Avenue11 has a user-friendly interface, offers a variety of payment options and allows customers to choose convenient delivery slots.

The e-grocery market in India:

The online market for grocery and food items is becoming one of the fastest-growing segments in India. As per reports, only around 2 million people in India are currently using e-grocery platforms. The compound annual growth rate is expected to have a 141% growth by the year 2020 according to a report by Morgan Stanley. Market leaders, like Big Basket, and Grofers are tapping the growing potential of the segment with their entry into Tier II and Tier III cities.

Targeting Bengaluru first, Avenue11 plans to expand its online as well as the offline presence in the food and grocery segment. Avenue11’s future strategy is to establish a unique O2O, Online-to-offline, model. The online orders will be serviced by offline partner stores which will help cut down the current logistic cost to almost half. To cater to the continuous customer demand, Avenue11 will associate only with local stores that meet key criteria such as floor space and number of stock keeping units sold.

Avenue11 is continuously innovating to enhance their customers’ shopping experience. The Avenue11 app comes with exciting features and experimental discount methods. The company is ready to operate through an omnichannel system and is ready to launch around 100 offline stores of Avenue11 in the near future. Avenue11 also plans to bring the quality and infrastructure of Korean standards to the Indian grocery shoppers.

Formerly named as Kirana11, Avenue11 is an O2O grocery platform. It has a total backing of $9 million from various angel & institutional investors from India & abroad. Avenue11 sells high-quality fresh produce and grocery to online customers, while its B2B arm supplies fruits and vegetables to merchants and institutions. Currently operational only in Bengaluru, Avenue11 already has a pool of about 60,000 customers. For more information, please visit, https://www.avenue11.com

Nakkyun Chong is the founder and CEO of Planet11 eCommerce Solutions, the parent company of Avenue11. Mr.Chong, a Korean expat, has around 28 years of global experience in e-commerce and telecom industry. He is a serial entrepreneur and has founded 8 companies with a total investment of nearly USD 1 billion. With his South Korean expertise in e-Grocery shopping, Mr. Chong aims to redefine the Indian way of grocery shopping.

An Idea to Replicate S.Korea & Japan's Model of Virtual Grocery Stores for Kolkata Metro

Kolkata Metro, a rapid transit system serving the Kolkata metropolitan area, traces its root since year 1971 when its first master plan was envisaged. With 300 metro services daily carrying over 650,000 passengers, Kolkata Metro is the second busiest metro system in India however for quite some time its running in losses so much that the it has to spend Rs 300 to earn Rs 100 of revenue.

To revive the business of Kolkata Metro, a group of few noble students from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta, have come up with an idea in which they have suggested that e-commerce majors like Flipkart or Amazon should be roped in to start India's first of its kind virtual grocery stores on station walls.

This idea coming from IIM-Calcutta is a result of commissioned request from Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) where the later has asked IIM-C to restructure its revenue model. A team of 3 MBA students -- Alan Shaji Idicula, Urjaswit Lal and Tushar Kumar, came up with this idea of installing wall-length billboards designed to look like a series of supermarket shelves.

Alan Shaji Idicula, who's one of the members of IIM-Calcutta Team proposing the idea of virtual grocery store, explained the idea as -- the digital billboards will display product images along with the QR code. Passengers can scan the code to order daily-use products like groceries and FMCG items. The concept marries the two distinct models of traditional brick and mortar shops and e-commerce.

Around 20 teams of IIM students studied different metro stations to find additional sources of revenue after which Alan’s team was selected as the winner by KMRC.

Alan Shaji Idicula said their proposal is to bring Flipkart/Amazon on board and start India’s first virtual grocery stores on Metro walls.

Notably, the idea is quite similar to what European supermarket chain Tesco (known in South Korea as Home Plus) -- in 2011 -- had done in South Korea by putting grocery store shelf mock-ups on subway platforms to launch the world’s first Virtual Grocery store.

In 2012, Tesco had also opened the UK's first interactive virtual grocery store in Gatwick's North Terminal, which is in southeast of England.

Comparing the proposed plan of IIM-Calcutta with the Tesco's virtual grocery store in South Korea's Seoulleung subway station, then Tesco's virtual grocery store too comprises of pictures of products that are posted with QR codes underneath. Shoppers use their smartphones to scan the QR codes of the items they want. The products in their virtual shopping carts are delivered right to the customers’ homes at their selected delivery time.

Indrani Banerjee, who is Kolkata Metro spokesperson, told LiveMint, "We are trying to implement it. The idea is to increase our non-fare revenue so that there is no burden on passengers. We are trying to utilise our space in the best possible manner". She however did not divulge any details whether they have approached any e-commerce company to implement this idea.

The team also proposed to earn revenue through train wrap ads, hoardings and digital kiosks and paid wi-fi services inside Metro trains.

Additionally, the team of IIM-Calcutta also calculated that KMRC can easily earn an additional revenue of Rs 20 crore just by renting/leasing out 68,478 sq. ft. of un-utilised space, at 20 Metro stations in Kolkata, for shops and advertisements.

Notably, such virtual stores are also gaining attention in stations of Japan as well as in the U.S. In 2012, a leading Internet grocer of the U.S., Peapod.com, launched more than 100 virtual grocery stores at commuter rail stations in Boston, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.

News sourced via Live Mint.