India is ancient, from our prehistoric days trade on goods has been one of the primary sources of income. The surprising fact is even in those days people had lifestyle preferences, excavations have indicated evidence of paintings, ornaments, handicrafts etc. There is a difference in the way we lead our lives today and how our ancestors lived but that does not deduce the fact that the market even then was based on supply and demand.
We have come a long way, but the contrasting difference in the organised sector and unorganised retail market is still quite evident. But unorganised does not mean ineffectual, our local kirana shops are the backbone of our economy. We have gone through economic turmoil in the past and we will go through it again in the future. But in all of these ups and downs, the surviving faction of businesses has always been these mom and pop stores. Their way of doing business might be archaic but their sense of doing business is yet unmatched. During the 2010 economic slowdown, we saw retail giants like spinach close their shop. But even if we consider successful retail stores like D’mart their presence is meager, 140 locations throughout India, now compare that to the unorganised retailers of which the number is mighty, today, we have around 15 million mom and pop stores spread throughout the Indian geography.
The kind of reach and the customer relationship these businesses maintain is surprising to be the least. We all interact with them on daily basis, buy products, maintain credit etc. But in all of this, we forget that sometimes even the strongest business model needs to be upgraded.
What is Pay1? And how can this company revamp their business model?
Pay1 is a startup based out of Mumbai, they are a retail tech platform which strives to develop these unorganised retailers. This platform will help in developing the retailers, empower them and also help in improving their networking capability. Pay1 already provides these retailers with various payment technology options like AEPS, mPOS, in addition to other income sources and also provides them with loan options to enable them.
This platform will help companies to advertise, brand themselves through various offline channels and expand their networking to these corner shops and develop the existing channel. This will not only help the companies reach the audience which is difficult to reach but also develop the retailers and make them a center trading point. The efficacy of doing business through Pay1 platform will be improved many folds both for the products and service companies as well as the unorganised retailer. The goal for the company is to empower and create micro employment opportunities to these retailers and make them independent. With the stronghold of more than 90% unorganised retailers in the total retail market in India, we can only imagine how economically beneficial the Pay1 platform can be for the Indian economy.
Today Pay1 has more than 50k active retailers in the market, who are using the already existing services to make their business more lucrative than it already is.
