Small town boy builds the saviour app for distressed Indian businesses

Ram Alok runs an apparel store in Amroha district of Uttar Pradesh Since the lockdown of March 2020 his business was under severe stress since there were no customers who would come to shop Adding to his woes the interest on the money he took on credit to buy inventory for his store was increasing everyday His business could have gone bankruptLuckily for him his son saw the link for an app that could digitize his store and enable him to take orders online from his customers As a true Indian entrepreneur he digitized his entire collection within 16 hours and business had recovered to almost 80 of preCOVID times The name of the app is DUKAANThe story of Dukaan app and its founder starts in Satara Maharashtra where Suumit Shah the founder of Dukaan worked as a shop boy running errands for a small shop owned by his uncle He would later finish engineering from college in Sangli and start a journey of a lifetimeAs a quick learner he learnt web design and development from his roommate in college digital marketing from online courses and started his own business by the name of Risemetric along with his existing CTO Subhash Choudhary a college dropout turned into hardcore techie in 2014 They have become one of the most successful digital entrepreneurs in the country helping brands like Sony McDonalds Oyo Cred etc Their modest mannerism doesnt truly reflect his quick ascent into business and digital fameOne day during a lockdown Suumit got a text from a Jockey the international brand outlet in Bangalore who forwarded a pdf which had the list of items they sell and their msg highlighted We now start accepting orders on WhatsAppAt first he was appalled to see that Jockey expected this way of selling to work But then he quickly realised the opportunity to build an easy to use platform for small and medium businesses to help them go onlineWithin the next 48 hours Suumit along with his team built Dukaan mdashu00e2u0080u008aan android app which lets anyone create their online store within 30 seconds literallyFast forward 20 days and here is how the current situation looks like 150000 stores created over 500000 products have been added over 40 different categories of businesses over 400 cities covered more than 75000 ordersu00e2u0080u008amdashu00e2u0080u008ain shortu00e2u0080u008amdashu00e2u0080u008athey are actually helping making a large impact across the country and making Digital India truly come to lifeThe most important thing everyone loved about Dukaan is its simplicity We literally talked to a 16 years old kid who helped his Dad setup online Rakhi store in Gorakhpur to a 59 years old wholesaler from Surat who sells beauty products to barbersThere is no platform which is as easy as using GPay for creating online storesu00e2u0080u008amdashu00e2u0080u008athats exactly what Dukaan wants to do Desi Bharosa World Class tech True Digital India is what we believe in says Suumit with a spark in his eyesAs we continue our conversation he plays an audio message he received from a shopkeeper in suburban Rajasthan It said Sir aap bhagwaan ho Kya app banaya hai aap ne Kal raat se mere 3 mobiles sale hue hai mai aap ko abhi bata raha hoonu00e2u0080u008amdashu00e2u0080u008aPoore india k dukaandar iss app ko use karenge jaldi hiAlong with Suumit and Subhash the Dukaan team has over 8 CXOs like Kaustub Pandey an IITB dropout who previously ran Shipler BC Jukebox and had a successful exit and Anuraag Meena who is a hardcore techie who built bunch of tech products which operates at a scaleThe whole team believesIndia is going digital our friendly neighbourhood Dukaandars arent Probably because there is no one or a very few trying to understandsolve their problemsCurrently everyone is trying to solve paymentslending or credit issues for small merchants but no platform has truly unlocked social and hyperlocal commerce for the majority of India that lives outside metropolitan citiesWith falling smartphone prices a significant decrease in data tariffs and increased availability of mobilefirst content Digital is the new reality of IndiaOn top of that the ongoing pandemic has instantly morphed offline consumers into fast digital customers who quickly learned how to buy products and services onlineFor millions of neighbourhood dukaans the key to meeting these consumer demands and solving the problems of survivability come down to technology and how they leverage itShopify and GoDaddy are too alien for these businesses What they needed was a technology even a 16yearold boy can use with just a smartphoneWith Dukaans super easy affordable end to end managed digital platform we are changing the landscape in which local stores operate and getting them closer to the future they deserve but couldnt getMaybe a smalltown boy who has roots in Satara but built the most hightech products would help them through this transition Maybe technology with a twist of bharosa was always the answer Indian businesses were looking forHeres to builders like Suumit and his team who could make India first products and herald a new age of digital revolution across the countryKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever