[Abbas]

Starting My Own (Little) Amazon !

Surat, March 24th 2020

"Screw It .... Let's do it!" - Says Richard Branson in his book titled Losing My Virginity where he writes how he started the music record sales business out of sheer necessity.

Well, here's my story of Starting an Online Grocery Delivery Portal (later Moved to a full fledge Marketplace) during lockdown out of sheer helplessness.

I know it sounds crazy that, at a time where most of the Online Giants such as Big Basket, Grofers, Amazon, etc. have failed. It's almost impossible to fathom how delivery logistics can be worked out during severe restrictions in movement.

So my wife is visiting my in-laws and i go to my cousins home for dinner where we plan to hear the PM's address. He drops a bombshell that the whole country needs to be locked down for the next 21 days. I call my wife and we workout options of getting her back home. But we realise that it's going to be a long wait untill she is back. Nevertheless, we both know that we are at our own homes and can stay apart for sometime. We quickly decide rationing and i make a list of things i need to stock the next day.

I wake up in the morning, and there`s pandemonium on the streets. People are just rushing to the grocery stores and there are huge cues lined up outsides the stores. The big departmental stores are giving our time slot tokens where people have to wait over 4-5 hours before they enter the store. I try online portals, but none of them are accepting orders, and even if they do, the delivery slots are a few days away.

That night myself and two of my cousins gather at my place after dinner (We stay in the same gated society) where i hear similar experience they faced while buying groceries. With our individual professional lives on hold for the next 21 days, we decided to solve this grocery issue not only for us, but for everyone in the society. This was our "Screw it, Let's do it" Moment.

So, we make my home our office (In which i am alone) and start working. We first made a google form and listed some essential ration which generally people require. Circulated the same within our society asking people to fill out their requirements. Had an overwhelming response and we were flooded with calls. We noted each requirement and two of my cousins personally went around the next day buying for everyone, while i managed the tech side and accounts. Everyone thanked us and asked us to keep it going.


My living room turned into office until my wife is back

Word spread around other societies and soon we were getting orders to deliver across the city. Now the big question was, how do we manage logistics of delivering to far away places. We brainstormed for a couple of hours and came with this. We approached a guy who was a Daily Wager and had lost his livelihood being a Samosa Kart seller. We told him that we would pass on the order in his area along with the amount (Received by the customer who paid online). All he has to do is buy groceries from his regular kirana store and delivery to the customer during curfew relaxation period (which is for 3-4 hours depending upon the area) and keep the margin as his profit for himself.

Advantage here is that he knows the area well and is already buying from his local kirana store for himself. So why not buy it for someone else in his area and make some money. The idea worked and he was able to deliver close to 10 orders daily for the next couple of days. Since the order volumes grew, the delivery guy himself got his other friends (similarly displaced by the lockdown) onboard for delivering in other parts of the city.

The traffic was too much to handle on a google sheet and we decided to move to a ECommerce Store platform which works just like any other online grocery portal and launched our own E-commerce Platform.

Soon we were getting close to 1500 hits on the website daily and many people reaching out to us to sell their products and "Ready to Eat" items like Samosa, Ras malai, Dahi Wada etc on our portal. Lot of positive feedbacks from customers helped us improve and grow our product listings.

April 20th 2020

By this day, we have executed more than 250 orders in about 20 days, delivered more than 2000 items, Created a network of 7 delivery guys who earn thru us. Empowering them by giving a job rather than giving out free ration. Buying from local kirana and helping them by generating sales for them (They are our lifeline today where all these so called online giants have packed up and fled when we needed them the most). Supporting and buying food items like rotis, parathas, etc. from women who cook at home.

June 2020 - Shifting Gears to Marketplace

During Late May and early June, we saw that our groceries orders had dropped tremendously (upto 80 %) as the big daddies (Big Basket, grofers etc) of the business got back into the game. We knew we couldn't compete on scale with them, but as the saying goes, "One door shuts, the other one opens". Interesting things were in store for us.

When the orders dropped, we started calling our regular customers taking their feedback as to why they stopped placing orders on our website. Almost everyone said that they have got back to ordering from Big basket / Grofers etc. One of them however, asked us if he could sell his products through our portal. That led to us brainstorming on the Idea of moving to a Marketplace Model.

For people who are not aware, An online marketplace is a type of E-commerce site where sellers can list their products or services and the portal acts like a storefront (just like Amazon) to channelise sales and accept payments. Soon more sellers came on-board to sell through us and we shifted our focus to growing the marketplace.

Also, the need of the hour was to have a Mobile App. So we quickly went about developing our own Google Android & Apple IOS Mobile App and launched it by June end. Today 90 % of our sales are from the Mobile App and hardly any traffic on the website.



Present Day

Today we have over 250+ Sellers selling 2000+ products and delivering across india. We are getting close to 50K hits through all our sales channels and have multiple revenue streams thru Listing fees, Sales Commision, Advertising etc. And the Biggest thing of all is that we are PROFITABLE since Day 1.

I don't know where this is going to lead us once normalcy returns and we get back to our professional lives. Because we can't compete with them on scale and ours is a self funded initiative. But it brings a smile on our faces when one of our delivery guys say "bhaiya, aapne sahi time pe support kiya, lockdown khatam hone ke baad bhi yeh jaari rakhna" (You supported us at the right time. Please continue the support even after the lockdown ends)

We have become a small family of 10 members and it will be very difficult to let go of them. Perhaps, we can handover / sell off equity of this venture to someone (with a sound financial backing) who can take care of them and scale this venture where opportunity is tremendous. What happens here, only time will tell.

Lastly, I am happy that, me along with my 2 other Co founders Murtaza Taskeen & Murtaza Saifee (Also my cousins) were able to add value to people's lives and if not much, were able to make a little difference to it. The Online store is also a testament to what Focus & Dedication can achieve when you are cut off from your routine and huddled under one roof for so long.
Hats off to the team !

I am glad we took the plunge that night ...... "Screw it .... Let's do it"

Abbas Taskeen
Co-Founder

The Team

[srini1785]

Let me be the first to congratulate you on this initiative. All great companies that rule their spaces now were started at " Screw it...lets do it" moments. If there is something that this country is know for it is this : There are no " applicable for all " rules here. So probably you will find your niche in some product space that should be good for you and your team.

While there is Amazon , BB. Grofers etc. There is also the local GP stores which still does good business. Since this Pandemic is nowhere near its logical end, your company has all its favorable incubation time. Some hard decisions regarding management would have to be done eventually though.

All the very best Abbas.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Abbas

But it brings a smile on our faces when one of our delivery guys say "bhaiya, aapne sahi time pe support kiya, lockdown khatam hone ke baad bhi yeh jaari rakhna".

This is such an amazing story! Kudos to you guys!

Thank you for sharing, very inspiring.

[praveen789]

Excellent work guys! This brought a big smile on my face! By the way, isn't this what Jio is also planning on? To tie up with local grocers and connecting them to customers online?

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Shifting Gears Section. Thanks for sharing!

Congrats Abbas . Wish you guys all the success.

[R2D2]

Congrats Abbas, a reading about brand new venture always brings a smile to my face especially one that helps others in need. Wish you all the best and hope you expand to other cities in the country!

Cheers!

[Abbas]

Update

I am going to document the journey of this Venture here. So the Latest Update is, one of our Co-Founder (out of the 3) have left us to get back to his profession. He made good money while exiting and got his fair due of his efforts during the crucial initial setup days of the Venture. This was expected at one time. However, the good news is that myself and my other co-founder are damn serious about taking this venture.

Infact, couple of our friends have shown interest in taking up equity in our venture. Lets see how it goes.

What do our Tbhp members think about selling equity at this stage? Industry and Domain experts here, please do post your views.

Originally Posted by R2D2

Congrats Abbas, a reading about brand new venture always brings a smile to my face especially one that helps others in need. Wish you all the best and hope you expand to other cities in the country!

Cheers!

Thanks. Since we have now moved to a market place model. We have sellers who are shipping across India. We have tied up with a shipping partner who is serving all pincodes.

[ninjatalli]

Excellent thread. Good luck Abbas on your initiative as it grows. I read about your working model and the "potential" benefits for the manufacturer and delivery agents on your website - good job on that.

In this current time where every individual in the local market isn't sure about how he'll be able to get work, initiatives like yours are definitely a breath of fresh air.

Just to understand - a lot of your products are low cost / daily usage products which one might purchase locally. So if someone like me (in Mumbai) purchases from your store, do I understand the products are delivered from a local representative / warehouse?

And for the higher ticket items, how do you handle damaged goods and other issues?

[Abbas]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Just to understand - a lot of your products are low cost / daily usage products which one might purchase locally. So if someone like me (in Mumbai) purchases from your store, do I understand the products are delivered from a local representative / warehouse?

And for the higher ticket items, how do you handle damaged goods and other issues?

Yes, Certain Items like FMCG is procured locally and delivered to you. However, if the product that you are purchasing is listed by a seller, then the seller ships the item to you, which may take few days to deliver. Since we have now moved to Multi Vendor Marketplace system, seller gets notified and they ship and deliver.


As far as damaged good are concerned, we take it up on case to case basis. Plus we don`t have a COD payment method. We realised early on that COD increases return %. By removing COD, we now have only serious buyers. Yes, we do loose out on some business by not offering COD, but then our peace of mind is paramount to us.

[Lalvaz]

Congratulations Abbas, As they say every problem brings along an opportunity, simply love the way you and your cousins took the initiative to do something for society.

Wish you guys success in this new venture. With this mindset and work ethic, it won't be too long before you guys really make it big.

[crdi]

Congrats on the venture! Don't you need permits from a plethora of offices? How are you planning to manage the taxes?

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by crdi

Congrats on the venture! Don't you need permits from a plethora of offices? How are you planning to manage the taxes?

Good point. It would be nice if you could list down the steps involved in cerating a marketplace.

[Abbas]

Originally Posted by crdi

Congrats on the venture! Don't you need permits from a plethora of offices? How are you planning to manage the taxes?

Yes we do. Actually we already have another business. So it was easy to bring it up under its umbrella. This Venture is owned by the Parent Company, so we already had most of the compliance in place.

[Zinda]

Congratulations Abbas and your Team. What an energy and motivation! Did you use open source technologies to implement your case?

[PearlJam]

Congratulations on the venture! Thanks for sharing.

Could you please go into the technical/software related details, the technologies used, etc. Thanks!