Q: What are your views on the current market dynamics, such as inflation? How is that affecting the grocery sector in India?  

Damodar Mall (DM): If you are a value retailer, like Smart Bazaar, then your play in the market actually increases when the consumer is worried about inflation. If you’re a good value provider, people find it worthwhile to travel that half a mile extra to come to your store, or they look for you online. The inflation that a Smart Bazaar customer sees is always lower than the inflation on the street.

But when I think about India, I think of a three- to five-year horizon and rising incomes. And from here, incremental income increases are significantly going toward discretionary spending. Therefore, opportunity is starting to kick in for many categories.

In the medium term, also, as overall consumption increases, overall premiumization becomes a trend. Then, short-term inflation is less and less of a bother to this aspirational consumer.

So, during these periods, we talk a little louder about money savings, but our long-term bet is on India’s consumption and the three- to five-year trend. When I go to a smaller town, what I’m actually selling is aspiration—newer products that people otherwise didn’t have access to. We are the theater of choice and the premiumizer in those markets.

Q: How do you see the role of data, tech, and AI in helping address the increasing trend toward digitalization?

DM: There’s definitely a role in making work more efficient for large-scale businesses like ours. We are testing the waters and starting to work with AI, as well as the Internet of Things (IoT), in different parts of our business. For our fresh produce procurement, there’s sorting, grading, traceability, and produce quality checks with visual, AI-driven tools. For our operations, we’re doing more with IoT, like utility management based on temperature sensing and time of day. We’ve started working with more personalization, trying to get from cohort-based targeting of consumers to segment-of-one. For us, it’s imperative that we get both smarter and more efficient with the increasing use of technology.

But I always keep in mind that the most convenient and personalized way the consumer in India is served is by the kirana store. The mom-and-pop shop has accumulated learnings that are very rich and real about the preferences of families. There’s personalization—of the language to speak, the products to suggest. In practice, it becomes predictive as well. But it’s not modern.

So, two things will happen with the democratization of digitalization. I believe mom-and-pop stores will also get modern and digital. And the larger corporate store providers will aspire to be as personalized and as convenient as the mom-and-pop stores, at scale, with the use of technology.

Q: In India, given its diversity, what sells in Delhi is very different than what sells in Bangalore. When it comes to localization, as a scale business, how do you cater assortment to taste preference?

DM: When it comes to food, fashion, and entertainment, consumers assert their preferences. Therefore, even within Mumbai, different localities could have differing food choices for rice, snacks, etc. People are going for uptrade and premiumization. But they’re not giving up what they like. They seek modernization in what they like. So, first, for us, is to find ways to not only tune in to the local preferences, but also be the force that modernizes and premiumizes what people want.

At Smart Bazaar, we say that culturally licensed products and festival occasions are good to bet on. People prefer when we modernize things that are very popular in India, even though they’re not globally well known: idli dosa batter, bhel, buttermilk, and lassi. What the customer is saying is, “My grandmother told me coconut water is good for me. Can you give it to me in today’s form?”

Working on Indian sweets, Indian savories, Indian preferences—which are regional—requires working with smaller entrepreneurs. We, in our strategy, as well as in our organization, help such brands. It’s complicated going in, but it becomes a competitive edge over time, once you are able to do that. Working with the customer to not just localize, but also modernize, upgrade, and brand their cultural preferences, is the path we have taken, and I think it’s worth the effort.

Q: Is that where private label can play a role, or would you still work with regional brands?

DM: Given that we are the prime movers and catalyzers in working with small regional players in food, the equation stays in our favor. Doing our own brand is an option, but not a commercial imperative. These small entrepreneurs are grateful that we are giving them a platform. They learn to work with us, and they stay loyal.

I also believe it’s fine when these local players take their distribution beyond us, over time. New product creation becomes a phenomenon, and then we can move on to the next thing, and the next thing. Any opportunity that we have cracked in regional food, once it becomes large enough, it becomes worthwhile for our private brands to take a shot at it.

Q: Another trend we’re seeing, especially in India, is the rise of quick commerce. Do you foresee a saturation point for quick commerce in grocery, or does it still have a long way to go until it gets to that point?

DM: For all modern retailers or digital platform retailers, the kirana is the professional grandfather. Kirana stores, because they were located close to people’s homes, always provided quick delivery. The modern stores and supermarkets modernized the physical store, made it self-service, made it a theater of choice, but even during the kirana days, only half of groceries were bought in store. As far as the families of India are concerned, they always used to get half of their groceries home delivered. These days, we call it “quick commerce,” but as far as the customer is concerned, there’s no dichotomy in being omnichannel.

When you have modern models, you have to solve for the business model as well. There are things like order density, fulfillment costs, cost of labor—there is a lot to figure out. Everyone is learning.

One thing is for sure: Quick home delivery, in one form or the other, will be significantly more digitized. It is already. The eventual model—whether it is built out of dark stores, existing supermarkets, or kirana stores participating in fulfillment—will play out downstream. And who will win—that will also emerge downstream.  

The unknown is: Is the Indian customer, in large enough numbers, happy paying for convenience? Yeah, we saw it in the very early days of quick commerce. These are still early days, but as customers have more options, they’ll start calling out value.

Beyond the early adopters, if you want to go deeper into India, the value delivery is vital. The charm of quick delivery, for an aspiring customer, is collapsing the time between desire and fulfillment. That’s a clear, distinct value add. But the business model has to play out and evolve.

Q: The grocery market in India is growing very healthily. How long do you think the phase can continue before plateau or maturity kicks in? Do you see another 10 years of growth?

DM: When you have 1.4 billion people, averages don’t make sense. There are people in India whose incomes and habits have started reflecting the global top end, but there is a lot of India that has to rise up in incomes and consumption behavior. And our belief is that, when you, as a family, have a higher income, groceries are the most everyday expression of your wellbeing. You are eating better. You are buying new things. You are celebrating better. These are simple, everyday expressions. People will take to air travel, but once in six months. But people will upgrade their fruits and biscuit choices every week. So, groceries are the most frequent expression of higher incomes.

We believe we are running platforms that are inclusive, and we really look forward to this rising consumption. And we also look forward to shaping it—in ways people buy, in the products that succeed, in the modernization of products. I think that’s a very interesting place for us to be in. I don’t see progress slowing down. There will be blips here or there. But for the businesses we run, the formats like Smart Bazaar and JioMart and Reliance Retail, we stay very bullish on the medium-term horizon and the consumption opportunity in India. Tomorrow’s consumption will be shaped on these modern platforms. And that will keep increasing our importance.