5 emerging hyperlocal star-ups to watch out for

Hyper-local, an inclusive retail model which is in vogue is slowly but steadily disrupting the entire online retail landscape. The segment (hyperlocal) has seen a spate of start-ups that has gained investors attention and nabbed high-scale funding as well. Not only start-ups but even the big boys of retail such as Amazon too have entered in this space while many others have plans for the same in their pipeline.
With increasing smartphone usage across the country, consumers now have become more aware and technology dependent. They feel much comfortable in getting everything with a click of a button. This change in behaviour has fueled the need of hyperlocal services in the country. Even some of the industry pundits are of the view that if the same goes on, soon eCommerce will be replaced by hyperlocal services. The service will hold stronger base in those areas where product demand is immediate such as pharmacy, gifts, grocery, etc.
As per recent findings, Indian retail industry is worth $500-600 billion and grocery account for about 65% of the total revenue. However, grocery along with FMCG account for even less 10% of the total sale. Hyperlocal segment is still at a very nascent stage in India, therefore, are still at a stage where they have to prove their business models as it is a habit change experience for the consumers.

Some hyperlocal start-ups like Grofers, Zopper etc. have hit the market with a storm while others like LocalOye, UrbanClap, UrbanPro, PepperTap and LocalBanya are on the verge of establishment. I on behalf of Retailer Media approached all these five emerging hyperlocal players to understand the ongoing revolution and their market position amongst the peer groups. Here’s what they shared:

LocalOye
On demand hyperlocal startup LocalOye which has recently nabbed funding from Tiger Global and Lightspeed Ventures offers more than 30 services to consumers across ten different categories such as education, event planning, health and fitness etc. The startup is now focusing more on building up their categories instead of expanding to more cities. Commenting on the same, Aditya Rao, Founder, LocalOye said “When it comes to a broader hyper local play there are food, groceries and other things involved. There are two things happening: E-commerce has done right in that they have completely established themselves, they have completely cracked the market and now they are going after consolidation.”

UrbanClap
Backed by SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Snapdeal founders, the startup has created a niche in the service providing hyperlocal segment. It claims to have more than 60,000 of its app downloads within a span of just two months. When asked about the journey so far, Varun Khaitan, Co-Founder, UrbanClap said “The journey has been exciting, and of course, not easy at all. The idea was, is, and always will be, to control the market place of service and make it very simple for a person to be able to hire a service provider to fulfill their service needs. We are currently driving 2,500 requests on a daily basis which is the coming months will easily take to 5,000.”

UrbanPro
UrbanPro, which started with just one category education, has now expanded its footprints in fitness, health, event services, hobby classes and many more. The startup helps consumers make the right hiring decision by quickly connecting them with matching service professionals in their locality or online, across different range of categories. When asked about 5 mantras for the success of a hyperlocal marketplace, Rakesh Kalra, CEO, UrbanPro said, “Hyperlocal services as a segment today is very dynamic.  While new entrants crowd the market every day, we believe that the stickiness for a brand should be derived from the following: Knowledge of target market, user friendly marketplace, easy accessibility, quality service and diversity of products or services.”

Peppertap
When we talk about the grocery market, hyperlocal services, in short time, has chalked out its route in no time. Peppertap, a road runner in grocery landscape has marked an exceptional growth with a few months of its inception. Started with 10 orders a day, the hyperlocal grocery service provider now bags more than 1,000 orders daily. When asked about the reason for stepping into hyperlocal grocery, Navneet Singh, Co-Founder, Peppertap said “We understand that there is a need of quick and convenient grocery delivery. Groceries are shopped for in every household almost every week and a visit to the local supermarket comes with a lot of pain points. Like waiting in long billing queues, driving and parking vehicles etc. Hyperlocal is going to be the next big shift in the eCommerce space and grocery is a hot category that can grab a major chunk of this prevalent market. On-demand fulfillment is in trend thanks to the proliferation of smartphone technology and escalating use of mobile applications.”

LocalBanya.com
Online shopping has shown good returns to these hyperlocal players that it would have been from the physical stores. When asked to comment on the eCommerce perspective, Rashi Chaudhary, Co-Founder & COO, LocalBanya.com said “The entire purpose for a hyperlocal grocery service provider is to provide families with the convenience of shopping online and avoid the headaches associated with regular trips to a crowded supermarket. First and foremost it adds value to people’s lives. E-Commerce has really taken off in India and your typical consumer is very comfortable transacting online. It was only natural that shopping for groceries and household items would eventually start moving online.”

Hyperlocal which was once not an in-favour category with Indian etailers, is gunning for an exponential growth with startups, existing retail giants and even investors betting big on the model. Pulling a neighbourhood mom-and-pop store into a technology driven delivery model or partnering with local professionals for building a technology driven service model , are the two successful modes in this space as off now. The industry is no doubt hooting up in the country. Though home-grown problems are being solved by local solution providers in a very unique and digitized manner but the coming years will decide on how sustainable this model is going to be. Retail is all about experimenting; hope this model turns out to be another blast like e and m commerce. 

[Note: This article was first shared on www.indianretailer.com under my byline.] 

Dear Facebook, don’t replace internet with social media!

A lot of us have changed our Facebook display pictures in tricolor lately to support the Digital India campaign launched by our honorable Prime Minister, a move towards making every city in India a “smart city”.
But a basic question that hits my mind is how can we support such an initiative by just changing our display pictures on a social networking site that has nothing to do with Digital India initiative (YET)?

What is Digital India? 
Firstly, we need to understand the real meaning of Digital India and that is nothing but making everyone connected through a medium called internet. But these days, the social media giant Facebook looks in a race to replace the word internet with itself. THE mastermind behind Facebook, Mark Zukerberg has been known for his smart stunts to gain traction and make dollars. Whether be it stealing the entire got damn Facebook idea from Howard University chaps or the clever internet.org program. He has yet again made it to the charts with his #ISupportDigitalIndia campaign.

#ISupportDigitalIndia- yet another diabolic scam!

The tool was first announced by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Sunday, ahead of the town hall meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The tool lets users change/ add a tri-colour layer to their profile picture and it says created using fb.com/supportdigitalindia. But soon after this campaign kicked off it was reported that Facebook had classified these pictures in the class tag internetOrgprofilepicture. Thus, it was alleged that Facebook would use these to show that it has support for the Internet.org program. Facebook has recently re-branded Internet.org as Free Basics app.

Such moves clearly indicate that the social media giant wants to replace itself with the term internet. The way we say that “I have internet access”, it wants us to say “I have Facebook access.” Facebook has about 1.4 billion users, same as that of Google. And you would be shocked to know that Google’s P/E ratio is less than half of Facebook’s and so, the stock prices are likely to increase in the coming years.

Beware of Internet.org it isn't internet

Internet.org was a very clever strategy announced last year built under the guise of a not-for-profit mission which of course it was not! And we “the devoted facebook users” welcomed it without knowing the real gig. Actually internet.org is not an NGO but a guise, a division of Facebook, an only-for-profit move. Hope you haven’t got an automated call telling you internet.org can get you free internet access, and press any key to support it. This was another cheap move by facebook offering a diabolical scam.

Such campaigns are not just about pushing Facebook to the throats of the unwired but to make sure people don’t use Google or any of such services to access the internet. Facebook is so desperate about changing the face of internet. In another words it is trying to replace the internet with social media which can make search restricted and prepaid. It won’t be wrong to predict that to have a Facebook account one must have to pay and then after some more time only high and middle classes will be able to afford Facebook as it will soon diverse from being a social media site to a high-end luxury service.

From electronics to mobile: Enterprise Mobility Solutions, transforming new age commerce

Rising from the ruins of the failed first attempt, mobile commerce (m-Commerce) has staged many industry pundits writing its obituaries. Format of retail in India has seen huge leaps and bounds over last 2 decades. From tradition retail to online and now mobile commerce, the model has evolved exponentially. These days a lot of retailers/ e-Retailers are shifting preferences to the mobile ecosystem. As number of people with smartphone and tablets continues to grow, mobile commerce growth is outpacing traditional e-Commerce growth by almost 200 percent. As more and more people are expected to shop through their mobile devices, building a mobile ecosystem for retailers is not at all a cake-walk. Mobile commerce needs a robust technology implementation and constant check on the updates happening within. Technology is a key factor that can make or break any business. “Many of our clients had a significant trust deficit when it came to technology vendors. Many of them had spent huge sums of money for very little tangible results. They were very reluctant to look at us as a partner and we faced a lot of scrutiny. But over time, we have been able to cement very strong relationships based on results we have delivered,” says Mangesh Panditrao, CEO & Co-Founder, Shoptimize

Technologies such as fast data transmission, better mobile devices that are equipped with improved computing capacity, enhanced data storage and better UI etc. are some of the check-points in m-Commerce strategy making. M-Commerce is a combination of technology convergence of Information Technology and telecommunication which together becomes information and communication technology (ICT). Every business, eyeing their spot in the mobile ecosystem has to have the best of above mentioned technologies. “More than ever, retailers are grappling with the dual mandate to drive not just better efficiencies, but also greater innovation for the needs of tomorrow. Retailers are increasingly moving from merely incremental levels of performance efficiency to building new digital business capabilities”, said Prakash Balasubramanian, Vice President, Retail Consulting, Cognizant. Understanding the right approach for a mobile strategy is crucial to drive cross-channel activity, user satisfaction and (ultimately) profitability of m-Commerce initiative.

The EMS era..

Mobile commerce is hot – in fact beyond impulse categories such as food ordering and cinema tickets booking, mobile commerce has strengthened its root as a significant source of revenue growth for retailers. With such elevated stakes, retailers either develop their mobile technology in-house or outsource it to a third-party solution provider. For big giants, building their own mobile technology mechanism is possible but SMBs don’t find it feasible. “In this fast growing retail industry, clients should focus on product innovation, ways and means to improve on the manufacturing techniques to reduce costs and improve product quality. For achieving this, it is imperative for brands to rely on outsourcing the internet retailing part to stay focused on their forte and make use of the industry expertise of the technology solution providers and rely on enablers like us to handle everything else”, said Mayur Karwa, Founder & Director, eShopbox.

An IDC report indicates that 20% organizations found it hard to maintain and support such solutions in-house and 40% faced integration challenges. Thus, many m-Commerce technology solution providers have come up to aid these retailers/ e-tailers to extend their presence on mobile ecosystem in order to keep them contending for the retail wrestle. Speaking on the same Abhinav Singh, Co-Founder, SaleAssist said “building a mobile technology is as important as managing a core website. These days’ smartphones have dramatically changed the face of commerce in India. Even an offline business needs to move towards having a mobile presence as millions of users engage with companies using their mobile devices.”

These mobile enterprise solution providers work as quickly as the technology demands. They offer a portfolio of tools and services to companies that moves with the speed of its customer. Such solution providers not only aid their clients to boost sales and profitability but also develop sound strategy to achieve other goals. This includes operations, logistics, data analytics, consumer relationship management, payment gateways, supply chain managements and what not. What they give is a “complete enterprise solution” to define the time, effort and cost required to mobilize a business. Speaking about the recent trend in mobile technology, Nitin Purswani, Founder & CEO, Zepo said “after Flipkart’s announcement to shut its desktop website and shift to app-only store, following largest fashion e-tailer Myntra, one can certainly sense the relevance of mobile technology in the current e-tail landscape. Moreover, the biggest breakthrough in mobile technology is the announcement by Google to rank the mobile-friendly sites higher than the non-friendly counterparts.  Almost every e-tailer has reported surge in its mobile traffic and is devising various schemes to bank on this trend.”

FarEye, a cloud-based enterprise mobility platform that helps companies such as Bluedart, Snapdeal, Bajaj Capital, Apollo Healthcare, Pepperfry amongst many others increases the efficiency and effectiveness of a retail brand by helping them schedule jobs, track execution and evaluate performances all in real time. It is very tough for companies to build such expertise in-house. “IT feels threatened as they face many challenges primarily because of enterprise integration and technological volatility. If built in-house the other worries would entail security issues, increased costs, restricted IT budget, increasing complexity”, said Kushal Nahata, CEO & Founder, FarEye.

These solution providers work more as a CTO (Chief Technical Officer) of the company handling all the technical aspects. But still many retailers think outsourcing is not a right decision as a third party won’t be able to understand the nitty-gritty of a business and thus things can get more complex.

The road ahead..

M-Commerce resulting out as the convergence between IT and TCT gives many value-added services to a customer on the move and therefore it has significant business opportunities for providers of such services. Many companies have started using mobility applications and solutions to improve the efficiency of employees. Such solutions are in high demand and mobile enterprise companies are largely focusing on these touch points. “The future holds a lot of scope for mobile enterprise solution industry and it will evolve a lot depending upon the growth of m-Commerce. There are a lot of things happening around iOT along with big data and right data. So, mobile devices, iOT and big data will affect enterprise mobility in a big way” says Abhijeet Kumar, Co-Founder, Winjit Technologies. As enterprise mobility is no more an option for retailers but rather a crucial business requirement, it will be interesting to see how the industry will find its way to become a catalyst for big small businesses. 

[Note: This article has been published in Retailer Magazine (August, 2015 Issue) under my byline.]