India is witnessing e-commerce revolution. And in order to succeed, startups are trying out all kinds of unique and innovative business ideas. One such startup called Aaramshop has tied up with your local kirana stores in your neighborhood and let you purchase your groceries online. They then send your order to the store which delivers it to you.
Shopping at aaramshop is a 3 step process:
- Add all your items to your cart
- Select your nearest aaramshop
- Get the items delivered at your doorstep at a time of your convenience (currently, only cash on delivery payment is supported)
It sounds like a win win situation for all the parties involved and, if implemented properly, can actually convince people to buy groceries online. The primary concern people have with buying groceries online are that the products are not fresh and not all the items are not available at one store. However, with this model in place, I believe the stores will thrive to keep a fresh and full inventory as they will be competing for customers in the virtual world in addition to the real world. Also, the logistical headache of delivery, fulfillment & inventory management is taken off from the site so that they can concentrate on technology and adding more partners.
As long as aaramshop keeps their product database updated and makes sure that their customers get everything they ordered in one shipment, I believe they will keep getting more and more customers. Also, in my opinion, they should also introduce other forms of payments like credit/debit cards and net banking as the young India does not keep much cash at home. Also, new gadgets like wireless card payment machines should be introduced to let the customers pay at the delivery time using credit/debit cards. This will help their customers trust the site more quickly.
