26th November 2019: The Indian market was destined to change with the unprecedented smartphone adoption that the nation experienced recently. Why wouldn’t it? These smart little devices empower every person with round-the-clock internet connectivity after all. Thereby, also driving them closer to digital services.
To give you a picture, the digital payments in India are expected to increase to USD132.2 billion by 2023, or more than double its market value of USD63.8 in 2019. Digital, surely, is the future! But how can businesses – especially the ones in tier II and tier III markets – make the most out of it? Well, their job is being made easy through an array of tech-driven tools and applications. Let’s have a look at some of the ultramodern approaches that are changing this market for good.
Shiprocket, making logistics more seamless: One of the primary challenges experienced by nearly all tier II and tier III sellers is that the digital market requires robust logistics operations. However, such sellers neither have a strong channel network as their larger counterparts do nor are they able to match the cost-effectiveness due to lower volumes. This challenge is being solved by logistics aggregators such as ShipRocket, which enables its customers to ship domestically and internationally at rates starting from Rs 27/500 grams and Rs. 100/50 grams respectively. The platform has active partnerships with top 17 courier companies, thereby equipping its customers with access to over 26,000 PIN codes in India and over 220 countries. Other than cost effectiveness and reach, Shiprocket enables these micro enterprises with ease to comprehend panels with in build support, ability to collect COD payments on their behalf and most importantly accept returns from their buyers. Solving for their cash flow problems, they have also launched a daily COD remittance service thereby cutting down payment turnaround time by almost a week.
OKCredit, making udhaar bahi-khaata digital: As we know, credit and business go hand in hand. This is why Indian retailers can be seen updating their ‘udhaar bahi-khaata’ or the credit book every day. And modernizing these credit books into a new-age, digital avatar is OKCredit. The bookkeeping application makes it easier for retailers to manage their credit by making this process digital. As an added benefit, the approach ensures that they are not on the receiving end of ‘wear and tear’ of their credit book – which can result in a significant financial loss. Moreover, the platform sends free SMS updates to a shopkeeper’s customers, thereby ensuring all transacting parties are always on the same page. This approach also results in faster credit repayments, thanks to timely payment reminders.
Shopmatic, making digital transition automatic: The party is about to begin but decorations are far from complete. You now know that you can’t go out to buy the cake. So, you pull out your smartphone and say “Bakeries near me” to the Google Assistant (or Siri, whichever you prefer). Then, you pick a cake online and call the shop to deliver the order on priority.Situations such as these aren’t limited to parties or bakeries, they prop up on a variety of occasions. It ultimately benefits local businesses to grab profits by merely having a digital presence. Here a platform like Shopmatic can help them with their digital transition. It provides an integrated e-commerce solution to its customers with cool graphics, interactive chat tools, social-media-based selling, and secured checkouts. There is a reason why more than 260,000 successful businesses trust the platform!
HAPPY, making credit more accessible: Credit is an indispensable element behind the growth of any business. However, relatively smaller businesses, and especially microenterprises, stay aloof from formal channels of funding. This is large because they cannot be assessed for their creditworthiness via conventional means. So, the AI-driven lender, HAPPY, solves the problem using unconventional ones. It uses data analytics alongside Artificial Intelligence to assess a microenterprise using its remittance data. The platform grants loans to its customers via channel partners in less than a minute. Its acquired expertise has further enabled the platform to enjoy negligible NPAs, despite operating in the high-risk ‘micro’ segment of the market.
CoutLoot, making anyone sell in just 30 seconds: It barely matters if you are an established business or a budding homepreneur, CoutLoot is a platform that enables anyone to sell online in just 30 seconds. The Social Offline-to-Online (O2O) commerce platform allows seamless interactions between buyers and sellers through its social-media-based model. It helps aspiring digital sellers from the tier II and tier III market (or any other market in that context) to automatically catalogue their products while also providing logistics, payment, and reconciliation support. Sellers can also share their end-to-end offerings over social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. with their prospective customers. CoutLoot, an acronym for ‘Couture and Loot’, surely does justice to its name!
