Chennai: Need an odd-jobs boy to ensure your newspaper, milk, water cans, ironed clothes, groceries, meat at your doorstep by 6 am everyday? A host of mobile apps like Daily Ninja, Morning Cart and Raincan are now stepping up to run your errands. Currently, in India daily services like delivery of milk, newspapers, pooja flowers and ironing clothes are handled by small vendors. Providing a connecting link between petty shops, vendors and push-cart services, mobile apps are now enabling convenience.
“If one were out on vacation and wanted to stop delivery of milk or newspapers or had guests and wanted three more packets of milk that day, app notifications keep the vendors clued in. Using the app would also mean you always have change or in this case your credit/debit card for micro payments,” said Anuj Bishnoi, Co-Founder, Morning Cart, which ties up with housing societies in Bangalore to cater to residents. Beating traffic and competition, these startups operate only between 5 am- 7 am and cater primarily to office-goers.
“We noticed that the biggest deficit with other online grocery delivery operators is the time factor that they don’t start working till 9 am-10 am, by which time everyone has already left for work. So we wanted to boost the existing network of early morning vendors with technology. And we don’t have any traffic to contend with, so we are never late,” said Sagar Yarnalkar, Co-Founder, Daily Ninja.
Daily Ninja, handles more than 10,000 orders a day across Bangalore; with more than 120 vendors on its platform. Morning Cart also operates in Bangalore, while Raincan, started by IIT alumni Munendra Singh and Abhijeet Kumar, operates out of Delhi. These startups have a hyper-local concept and have their own mini-warehouses from which vendors can pick up additional supplies.
“For distributors, they get an additional revenue stream when they tie-up with us. Say your milkman around the corner was only supplying milk. Today, if he ties up with us he can also deliver vegetables, eggs, personal care products – as he can see your needs realtime with the app,” said Bishnoi. With lack of change the biggest hassle with collecting your morning pack of milk, these startups offer payment options on a subscription basis. “We have a closed wallet system – we offer for customers and vendors. We also have cash on delivery as an option, but more than 90% of our customers prefer using our wallet and paying by cards,” said Yarnalkar.
“Earlier collection was a hassle for both customers and vendors. Not having the right change or not being able to meet the customer. It used to take minimum 2-3 trips to the same apartment for milk vendors to get payments from all tenants. Complaints of being over-charged or under-paid can longer happen – as everything gets tracked – every delivery, every payment,” said Bishnoi.
Another standout option with these startups is that there is no minimum order size. “We are not replacing any of the existing infrastructure with our own delivery boys. We are using technology to boost the local ecosystem already in place. So our logistics cost is as low as Rs 3 per order versus the Rs 50-60 that other delivery/logistics services charge,” said Yarnalkar. “We are the most sustainable and efficient players in the market as we are not operating on the ground. Its existing players who are rewarding us and customers because they are on our mobile platform.”
Source: Times of India
Image Courtesy: The Better India
