E-gifting gives local kirana stores a chance

The venture will offer consumers looking for virtual gift cards a choice of more than 150 online and offline brands across 1,500 cities in India.

Local kirana stores that are affected by the pivot to digital may now be able to showcase exclusive offers with their own digital gift cards, courtesy of a planned partnership by Google Pay and Pine Labs-owned Qwikcilver.

In the process, local groceries can get a toehold on the digital ladder. (Shankar Narayan/HT file photo)

The venture will offer consumers looking for virtual gift cards a choice of more than 150 online and offline brands across 1,500 cities in India.

In the process, local groceries can get a toehold on the digital ladder. Under the arrangement, Qwikcilver’s consumer arm Woohoo will list on Google Pay’s in-app store Spot as the two entities look to create exclusive offers while helping impacted brick-and-mortar retailers recoup demand.

The companies will seek to boost offline demand by introducing gifting solutions for the kirana economy and local SMEs, a space largely untouched so far by gift cards, said a top executive at Qwikcilver. Qwikcilver, which counts 700 companies and 1 million consumers as clients, powers a billion transactions a year through its gift cards.

A Google Pay spokesperson did not respond to email queries.