Focus on 3 service innovations that define Indian retail
Innovation Trends Manager
Have you looked at the cases of inspiration discovered in India? From the Dabbawalas, the ancestor of Uber Eats, to the service innovations of the Relience conglomerate such as the Jiomart e-commerce platform, India’s potential for economic growth could become the world’s third largest by 2033. Even if 81% of India retail is still provided by Kirina Stores, traditional stores, the ecommerce penetration rate, today of 6.5%, is expected to rise to 9-10% in 2027.
The Dabawallas, the ancestor of Uber Eats or almost!
Back in history with the Dabawallas, a home-cooked food delivery service that has been in existence since 1890 and continues to exist today! And yes, inspiration and innovation can also come from very old practices! Harvard University Business School has also inducted this practice into best in class because, yes, with a system where until now, digital was absent, more than 200,000 customers are delivered every day and only 400 meal deliveries are delayed or missing in a year, a tiny error rate.
Jiomart distributes its catalogue on WhatsApp
The Indian ecommerce platform Jiomart, which is also part of the Reliance conglomerate, whose activities range from oil and telecom to retail, has decided to develop gateways within the digital world by relying on Meta. Indeed, Meta sends Whatsapp to compete with mobile commerce! A world first for the messaging application that still dreams of a future at WeChat. To do your shopping, just write Hi on +91 7977079770; Indian e-merchant number. The buyer clicks on the desired items by indicating a quantity. Once the cart is finished, he sends it in the thread. After confirming your delivery address, you only have to pay online or in cash at the reception.
Urban Repairs repairs your equipment!
Urbain repairs is one of the services offered by Urban Company, a market place service launched in 2014 in New Delhi. This platform helps clients book services at home, including beauty services, physical training services, but also services related to the home such as cleaning, plumbing, carpentry, painting and repair of household appliances. From the application, the customer selects the type of equipment that has a problem. It can thus be helped in its remote repair by a video call where the professional can guide him on how to repair certain electronic devices. The service is available in one shot or as a subscription if the customer wishes to use its services on a regular basis. The Urban Company service platform aims to recruit more than 5 million professionals by 2030.
Analyses :
With these three examples, India illustrates a changing trade through the prism of usages. Indeed, on the one hand because the digital economy, which represents 8% of India’s PBN in 2022, is expected to reach 20% by 2025. And then, second figure to remember, that of young people! 60% of India’s population, or 1.4 billion in total) is under the age of 30, making it the largest young population in the world! Faced with this population that embodies the digital transformation, we can imagine that commerce will adopt hybrid modes of consumption.
The example of the implementation of the Chinese smartphone brand One Plus remains emblematic. Barely 2% in 2016, OnePlus took control of 27% of the Indian high-end smartphone market by first playing an online distribution and then opening its flagship with a strategy based on consumer enhancement. This strategy gave a high status to the brand making it one of the most popular in the country.
