To strengthen its supply chain and delivery capabilities ahead of the upcoming festive season, Walmart-owned Flipkart has onboarded more than 50,000 kirana shops.

In preparation for the festive season and the ‘Big Billion Days’ sale, Flipkart has significantly expanded its kirana onboarding program to make deliveries to customers in more than 850 cities.

“With more than 50,000 kiranas onboarded, Flipkart aims to provide a fast and personalised e-commerce experience to millions of consumers while creating opportunities for digital upskilling as well as additional income for kiranas.

E-commerce companies see a large chunk of their business coming in during the festive sales and they make significant investments ahead of time to ramp up capacity to be able to handle the spike in orders.

Also Read: Flipkart acquires parent Walmart’s wholesale business

In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, Flipkart said its team initiated contactless onboarding of kiranas through online application forms where kirana partners directly uploaded details along with copies of required documents to complete the process. These procedures are followed by a detailed verification check of kirana partners before they can deliver shipments, it added.

The team also organised digital training on various tools including app-based dashboards and digital payments, helping kiranas transform their business from traditional general trade stores to modern convenience stores, it noted.