Why should all Kirana owners use a digital khata?

Some may argue that the Kirana store is an easy-to-open venture, but keeping a sale udhar khata is another task at hand that one must perform. One may put in the best sales strategy but if you are not able to monitor your sales, expenses, udhaar, or inventory, you may never be able to study your business growth or do the future planning.

Through this article, we would like to bring forward the idea of how a digital khata helps these local Kirana stores to keep up with the changes induced in the system by the pandemic. 

What is a Kirana store?

Kirana store is a local departmental store that offers groceries and other daily use items. It is a small set-up or a shop opened near a society or residential area to cater to the needs of the local people. Most of them followed the old way of keeping sale udhar khata, however, the pandemic changed the way they maintained their accounting. 

What happened during the pandemic?

The pandemic affected the supply chain and during the lockdown, the local Kirana stores were the only resort for people to get their daily needs met. On a daily basis, they would get multiple order requests which they took over the phone. These orders were fulfilled manually and their records were not kept in a digital khata book. Rather all these order records were maintained manually. The huge inflow of orders and the rising udhaar lending gave inspiration to companies like Digichal, to create a platform that would offer digital udhar khata online. But before we talk about the benefits and did the Kirana stores switch to digital khata business, we would like to share what made the Kirana store fetch so much business.

What made the Kirana stores successful during the Pandemic?

Although many e-commerce giants and supermarkets experienced a drop in sales during the pandemic, Kirana stores did surprisingly well. The reason behind their success was:

1. They were easily accessible in the locality.

2. The long-term relationship they established with their customers.

3. The bond of trust was established over the years by selling goods on credit to the customers. Even without a digital udhar khata book, they were lending goods on credit.

4. Customers were given flexible payment options.

5. Minimum order amount for delivery or delivery charges were not levied due to the proximity of the store.

What happens to these stores post-pandemic?

When the dust settled these stores were found competing with the big giants again. The pandemic was a lesson learning spell for them too. So the big giants reviewed their strategies. Post-pandemic, the biggest challenge was to stop scribbling on registers or chits and start an accounting method that would be a digital khata book. A platform that would help them stay updated on the business growth. 

It was time to go digital. The daily sales records needed to be maintained in a way where it was easier to check and compare the sales. Sale digital Khata helps to store the daily sales transaction just like a digital expense khata that helps track 

Why should all Kirana owners use a digital khata?

Kirana stores can be opened with a reasonable amount of money, but maintaining the accounts isn't easy. So here’s a list of why we feel it’s time for the Kirana stores to leverage technology to grow their business. 

Using the Sale digital Khata will help keep track of credit and debit and one would not miss any transaction. 

Digital udhar khata book will help you keep digital records of all the transactions along with the status of customers' due payments. The real-time view of dues helps easily identify the payment due. Apps like Digichal help send payment reminders for timely payments. Once a due date is set, a digital udhar khata book sends payment reminders to the customer who hasn't repaid.

Even while staying up-to-date with the business accounts, apps like Digichal offer digital dukaan app features. Using this feature even a local Kirana store can create an online store and start selling their goods. Using the feature they can also offer discounts. 

Digital accounting apps help Kirana stores to have a clear view of all the transactions. Digital khata book help generate interval-wise reports that give insights into the store's performance. Eliminating the traditional hand-written transaction receipts and storing the transactions in an app can provide insight on how to increase profitability by analyzing data.