Online selling is now stretching itself to reach those who don’t shop online. The fairly new concept of assisted ecommerce is doing the rounds in the online sales sphere. Enterprising start-ups are looking at how best they can increase the potential of online commerce.
Those who are promoting assisted ecommerce are trying to engage buyers who don’t normally shop online and expand the reach of ecommerce platforms, with the assistance of kirana stores. The intention is to bank on the comfort level most shoppers have with their local store keepers, whilst offering a wider range to the customer.
Kirana stores to double as online shoppers
The fact remains that most offline shoppers prefer to go to their friendly neighbourhood kirana seller.
Krishna Lakamsani, founder CEO of iPay, an assisted ecommerce company simplifies it with the following words, “More than feeling the products while buying, Indian customers want to buy from someone they trust and to whom they can go back and ask in case of any problem.”
Assisted ecommerce is all about leveraging that trust factor. The kirana shops will purchase goods online for their customers. iPay helps to connect the local stores with the product distributors thereby minimising the geographic distance. The retailers are given a commission of anywhere between 2 to 14 percent, based on the product.
Aiding ecommerce to reach out to offline buyers
“E-commerce is only for the top pyramid. Only 50 million people in India buy online. Even in an advanced country like the US it is hardly 20 percent,” says Kiran Gali, founder CEO of NumberMall, another assisted ecommerce company.
Assisted ecommerce is trying to help ecommerce companies serve rural and remote areas. This will help online sellers in widening their customer base. Online transactions will not be limited to only those who use the internet. This is also a good deal for local offline sellers, as they stand to gain a small profit in the entire transaction. Hopefully the assisted feature (which is currently limited to a few companies like iPay and NumberMall) will grow to include greater number of buyers over time.
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