Most consumer brands in India sell through at least two very different routes to the shelf. General trade (GT) is the kirana store, the chemist, the hardware shop and the wholesaler — reached through distributors and stockists, visited on beats, and ordered from in person. Modern trade (MT) is the supermarket chain, the hypermarket, the cash-and-carry and the large key account — which buys centrally, through purchase orders, against agreed terms.
The two channels look nothing alike day to day. Yet they draw on the same products, the same warehouses and the same finance team. That is where most of the friction comes from.
How general trade works
In general trade, the order starts at the counter. A salesperson — the brand's own, or the distributor's — visits outlets on a planned beat, checks what is on the shelf, and books an order. The distributor delivers, often the next day, and collects payment in cash, UPI or cheque, sometimes against old outstanding.
What matters in GT:
- Coverage. How many outlets are visited, how many of them order, and which never do.
- Order capture at the shop, including when the network is weak.
- Distributor stock and secondary sales — what actually moved from the distributor to the retailer, not just what the brand billed to the distributor.
- Collections, because credit in general trade is informal and easy to lose track of.
How modern trade works
In modern trade, the order starts in someone else's system. A chain's buyer raises a purchase order — usually a PDF by email — against your vendor code. You confirm it, deliver to a distribution centre or stores within an appointment window, and invoice against the PO. Payment follows the chain's terms, minus deductions for promotions, listing fees, short supply or damages, which then have to be argued out as claims.
What matters in MT:
- Turning purchase orders into sales orders quickly and without typing errors.
- Delivering exactly what the PO asked for, with proof, because a short or late delivery becomes a deduction.
- Tracking claims and deductions against each invoice.
- Margins and schemes agreed per account.
Where running them separately breaks
Brands typically end up with a field sales app for GT, a shared inbox and spreadsheets for MT, and accounting software that only sees the final invoices. Each works on its own. The trouble is everything between them:
- Stock is promised twice. The MT team commits a chain's PO against stock that the GT team has already sold through distributors.
- Prices drift. A scheme for general trade and a margin for a modern trade account are maintained in different places, and nobody can see both at once.
- Nobody owns the full customer picture. Outstanding, open orders and disputed claims for the same customer sit in different tools.
- Month-end becomes reconciliation. Finance rebuilds the month from exports instead of reviewing it.
One system, two ways in
The fix is not to force both channels into one process. It is to let each channel create orders its own way, and land them in one set of records.
In Zaqnet:
- General trade orders are booked in GroundLink, the mobile app, at the outlet — online or offline. Visits, orders and collections are tied to the customer and the person who recorded them.
- Modern trade orders come in through the PO Inbox in ControlRoom's Orders app, which reads purchase orders from a connected email inbox and turns them into sales orders for someone to review. (More on that in processing modern trade purchase orders.)
- Both become sales orders in ControlRoom, against the same product catalogue, the same stock across locations, and the same customer records.
- Distributors and dealers — the backbone of GT — are managed with their own territories, schemes, claims and ledgers, so secondary sales and payouts are visible next to primary sales.
- Day-end closure brings orders, deliveries and collections for the day together, and AutoSync can pass supported records on to TallyPrime or BUSY for accounts.
The test of a two-channel setup is simple: can someone in the office answer "how much of this product can we still promise this week, and to whom?" without opening a spreadsheet.
What to measure in each channel
| General trade | Modern trade | |
|---|---|---|
| Order source | Outlet visit, phone, distributor | Purchase order from the chain |
| Key number | Outlets ordering vs outlets covered | PO fill rate and on-time delivery |
| Money risk | Unrecorded credit and collections | Deductions and unsettled claims |
| Where it goes wrong | Missed beats, stock-outs at the distributor | Retyped POs, short deliveries |
A practical way to start
You do not need to move both channels at once. Most teams start where the pain is sharpest:
- If modern trade POs are being retyped, start with the PO Inbox — it removes the most error-prone step first.
- If general trade visibility is the problem, start with GroundLink for the field team and a clean customer list.
- Then connect stock and pricing, so both channels draw from the same numbers.
Bring one real general trade order and one real modern trade PO to a demo, and we will show you both going through the same system.