What's the difference between modern trade and general trade, and which should I start with?
The short answer
Modern trade (organised retail chains, supermarkets) is the easier entry point - it works like ecommerce, chains buy direct, absorb some cost, and even help drive sales with in-store promotions. General trade is India's 12+ million-store unorganised retail network, reached mostly through wholesalers and distributors on cash or short credit cycles - harder to enter but the market that can genuinely take a brand 10x if you crack it. Most brands start in modern trade and metros for controlled learning, then use a distributor to crack general trade once the product-market fit off Instagram is proven on shelf.
A quick summary to orient you. The real value is below: the resources worth your time, from people who've actually done it, not us.
Here are the resources
Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time. India-specific ones carry a badge.
3 resources3 India-specific2 link-checked
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📄 Article
✓ Link checkedIndiaFreeIntermediate
Why we picked it
A government trade-commission guide to how India's distribution system is actually structured - the three-tier distributor/wholesaler/retailer model - written for outsiders entering the market, which makes it unusually clear and structural.
Why we picked it
A retail-tech platform's practical framing of the 'click to bricks' transition, useful for the operational questions of what offline actually opens up beyond raw sales - new SKU testing, geo-targeted launches, B2B entry.
Why we picked it
A practitioner's operator-level walkthrough of scaling offline distribution specifically for a D2C-born brand, distinguishing modern trade from general trade with the practical trade-offs of each.
