udaan met the demand of over 7,000 grocery and other stores in Rajasthan during the lockdown
- MSMEs can go digital with national access to best price, good quality and best selection and suppliers through the udaan app
- When the government relaxed the rules, udaan saw an increase of 75% – 80% in essential category buyers
- udaan offers e-commerce, logistics and credit solutions
udaan is India’s largest distribution network of retailers, wholesalers, brands, and manufacturers. It is India’s largest B2B e-commerce marketplace founded in 2016 by former top Flipkart executives, Amod Malviya, former CTO; Vaibhav Gupta, former Senior VP, and Sujeet Kumar, former President of Operations.
It has operations across categories including lifestyle, electronics, home and kitchen, staples, fruits and vegetables, FMCG, toys etc. The platform enables MSMEs, small manufacturers, kiranas, farmers, mills and brands to market, buy and sell their products across the country using technology. udaan offers the best products, credit solutions, improved quality and modern supply chain through logistics solutions, connecting the millions of MSMEs throughout India and helping them grow their business through tech.
The national lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus affected several sectors. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the supply of essential services could continue functioning during the lockdown, grocery and daily essential supply faced many challenges across the country. The lockdown disrupted the supply chain even though the Central Government mandated that essential supply will continue as it is, there were several roadblocks affecting smooth operations.
In Rajasthan, udaan met the demand of over 7,000grocery and other stores. When the government relaxed the rules, udaan saw an increase of 75%-80% in essential category buyers. The surge in demand is a testimony to an increase in consumption and gradual restoration of consumer confidence.
“While we have seen a massive spike in demand during the lockdown, there were several on-ground challenges. Each state and city have different norms and rules. We are not saying that systems have to be in place because these are unusual circumstances. You need to work locally everywhere with customized solutions which is specific to regions.” says, Sujeet Kumar, co-founder, udaan. He adds that these aren’t ‘business as usual’ times. Also, while 99 percent of India’s consumption of essentials happens through local Kirana stores, not all of them were working full-time during the lockdown. Mobilizing the on-ground workforce to come to work every day was a challenge. They were scared of the situation and also of their safety and well-being. The workforce is daily wage earners, so they cannot be away from work as well. It was a tough situation” adds Sujeet. udaan worked with different government and local authorities to procure passes and get the necessary permits in place. The government has been proactive and is working to help small businesses and deliver essential supplies.
Sachin Joshi, owner of Sunny Departmental Store from Jaipur shared his experience of the lockdown and said, “udaan always supported small retailers like us. Even during lockdown, they were continuously delivering the essential items to my store. They delivered the items within 24 hours after placing an online order through the app. Sometimes, when the requested items went out of stock, we got instant notification about the availability of the product. This made my business simple and easy.”
Another business owner from Jaipur, Punit Guta, Health N Care Pharmaceuticals said, “Lockdown has affected my business badly. Sales was down and timely supply of goods was interrupted. The main problem was unavailability of stocks and maintaining social distancing while running the day to day operations. We used to do regular follow ups with distributors, but the supply was irregular. At that time, udaan helped me in maintaining stocks and fulfilling customer’s demand to a large extent. I opened my store with all precautions and ensured the safety of my staff and customers. I also took orders for home delivery.”
udaan is enabling MSMEs to go digital with national access to low and best prices, good quality, and best selection and suppliers to enter new markets and acquire customers through the udaan app. The aim is to use the power of technology to connect the retailers and suppliers enabling them to grow business and realize their dreams. udaan brings accessibility and national reach to the 50 million MSMEs present in India.