Walk on any road in Mumbai or any other urban city in India, amidst all the pollution, smog and dust you will certainly find men or women standing or sitting behind a counter reading newspapers or interacting with customers. Sometimes irreverent to their surroundings and sometimes keenly glancing at the pavements searching for customers. Peculiarity surrounding this market is that the unorganised retail sector always thrives regardless of the economic condition of the country. Ironically our country’s economic stability very much depends on these retailers.
In the journey that Pay1 has led throughout the years, we have met many exceptionally sound businessmen/retailers, who knew how to turn around their business and made their retail hub a successful venture. One such person is Mr. Harshad Pandya who has been a client of us for the longest time. He came to Mumbai from Gujarat some 30 years back unprepared with a vision in mind, to start a successful business.
With only an objective in mind, Harshad went on to open a garment shop which was profitable for a very long time. He faced a lot of challenges as any businessman would in our maximum city, but he never deterred from his initial vision. Puffing out cigarette smoke and holding a cup of saccharine tea in one hand with a grin he profoundly utters “This city pushes you to your limits sometimes even beyond that, if unprepared it hits you like a brick wall.” flicking ashes from his cigarette after. He started his mobile business in 2009, after observing the mobile phone trend for the years while operating his garment business and decided to flow with the wind. Now operating a 1000 sq. foot mobile shop in suburbia with 2-3 employees working under him, Harshad has certainly come a long way. He still considers himself as an apprentice in the business line, as there is always more to learn and involvement of Retail-Tech Company like ours is only going to help businesses like his to profit as learning about new profitable opportunities is what makes a business successful.
In every corner in India we have an entrepreneur and nowhere in the world will you find a web of retailers on which 100’s of multinational companies rely on. Keeping the empty teacup aside he says that “I speak 5 languages and if my customer is comfortable in speaking Marathi, I will change my tongue. I have to make my customer feel welcomed and if I cannot do that I have failed”. The customer relation skill of these unorganised retailers is on par with many organised E-commerce retail segment and sometimes even better. Empowering this segment is only directly going to benefit the country.
Harshad has been associated with Pay1 since last 5 years and uses many of our services. “It is because of strong customer support and smooth transaction module that I keep coming back to Pay1. The platform provides me with an array of financial services which has helped me improve my customer footfalls on daily basis,” says Harshad.
We at Pay1 are grateful to retailers like Mr. Harshad Pandya who have been an unwavering client of ours for a very long time. By empowering these retailers not only Pay1 prospers, but also our country along with all of us.
