V Arundhati, 52, helps her son Srinivas in running a small kirana store in Himayatnagar in Hyderabad. Apart from selling soaps and sugar, she has begun placing orders on an e-commerce platform for her customers, who have never bought any product online. The duo has increased average daily revenue from ₹1,500 to ₹5,000.
They are among the 600-odd street-corner outlets that have become part of the e-commerce platform for the uninitiated, giving ‘offers’ on products that range from home appliances to electronic gadgets.
This model, developed by tech start-up iPay, is going to make a foray into Indonesia where it has tied up with a major telecom player to replicate the idea there. Set up by serial entrepreneur Krishna Lakamsani, iPay’s platform ‘dukanline’ works on the premise that there is a huge potential in the retail industry in India that is not yet tapped by the e-commerce players.
“They (the e-com players) reach only a small portion of those who have access to the Internet. There are about 1.3 crore mom-and-pop stores across the country who have built a loyal customer base over a period of time. These customers too are becoming aspirational and are willing to buy things that their urban peers buy,” Krishna Laksamsani, Chief Executive Officer of iPay Tech, told BusinessLine .
Set up two years ago, the firm has just completed one year of operations, after doing market research and studying the pulse of the market in the 12 months preceding it. The stores buy kiosks priced at ₹8,888 that comprises a tablet, which gives an access to its e-commerce platform. It throws up a list of offers available for that particular day on the homepage. Besides, it gives a full list of products that can be bought online.
Store payment “Customers pay cash at the store after surfing. They will get an SMS after the product is delivered to the store,” Krishna said.
Krishna built and sold two firms in the United States before moving to Hyderabad to set up iPay. It is now planning to expand to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. He has invested $2 million so far, including $1.2 million on technology. In the first year, it registered a gross merchandise value of $10 million through a network of 3,900 stores.
“We have tied up with an Indonesian telecom player. It wants to use our technology platform to provide the e-commerce channel to its customers,” he said.
The firm is planning to raise $15 million in the next few months to fund its expansion in India.