While ambience and scale are certainly eye candy, Indian shoppers are increasingly finding it frustrating to shop at modern retail for all their needs as these players are slipping up on replenishing stocks in real time.

The ‘stocking rates' or ‘fill rates,' of modern Indian retailers now is a mere two-thirds of the global average of 90 plus per cent, which even local kirana stores offer. For an average shopper who comes with a list of 20 items on a trip, this would entail another visit to the supermarket or a drive to the next one to complete the shopping, which is an additional cost incurred.

Mr Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India, points out the vendor to retailer system connects are yet not well established. Ms Saloni Nangia, Senior Vice-President (Retail), Technopak Advisors Pvt Ltd, agrees, “ Kirana stores are supported by a robust distribution network, while the modern retail channel is still new in India, both for retailers and brands.”

But Mr Viney Singh, Managing Director, Max Hypermarkets, says it is unfair to compare large supermarkets with kirana stores as the number of SKUs (stock keeping units) in modern retail is much higher. . According to one estimate, SKUs at kirana stores number around 700 compared with 25,000 SKUs at modern retailers'.

But modern retail chains also are working towards improving shelf availability through internal processes. For instance, Future Supply Chains Solutions Ltd, the supply chain services company of the Future Group, has opened an integrated distribution centre for FMCGs to increase fill rate to above 90 per cent.

“When you become large in size and your throughput increases, you need technology, automation, infrastructure, system, processes, knowhow and expertise. We have set ourselves an ambitious goal of achieving 95 per cent plus fill rate,” says Mr Anshuman Singh, MD & CEO of Future Supply Chains.

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