NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, OCT 3
Udaan, India’s largest B2B ecommerce marketplace and distribution network of retailers, wholesalers, brands and manufacturers, on Saturday announced that during the lockdown it met the demand of over 11,000 grocery and other stores in Gujarat. When the government relaxed the rules, udaan saw a 70% – 75% increase in essential category buyers, a company release said.
It was founded in 2016 by former top Flipkart executives, Amod Malviya, former CTO; Vaibhav Gupta, former Senior VP, and Sujeet Kumar, former President of Operations to solve India’s core trade problems of small retailers. 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 millions of MSMEs throughout India and helping them grow their business through tech, the release added.
Sanjay of Krishna Medical and General Store, Ahmedabad said, “During the lockdown, essentials were high in demand but issues like interrupted supply chain & untimely delivery made it difficult to meet the huge demand in the market. Many of our distributors were unable to supply products. But udaan continued its services even during difficult conditions making it easier for us to meet the requirements of the customers.”
Another business owner Animesh Agrawal of Prarthana Pharmacy from Ahmedabad said, “Pharmacy stores were under tremendous pressure as lockdown gave us more and more footfall and high customer expectations. Delay in supply further increased the difficulties. To deal with it we tried sourcing products from multiple suppliers. udaan not only delivered the orders on time but also helped us to serve customers on an urgent basis.”
As the country emerges from the national lockdown to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the globe, udaan helped digitize and tried solving many on-ground challenges faced by small businesses during lockdown.
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.
Despite obstacles, udaan continued its services during the lockdown with close to 80% smooth operations and met the demand of over 11,000 grocery and other stores in Gujarat during the lockdown. Post lockdown, when the government relaxed the rules, the MSMEs have been cautious of travel and market visits. Hence there has been a higher need of technology adoption by them. As a result, there was an increase of 70%-75% in essential category buyers with 3x increase in total buyers.
Owner of KM Gava House, a lifestyle store in Ahmedabad explained the situation for retailers post lockdown and said “We were unable to go out and buy products from wholesalers because of restrictions. udaan came to the rescue at this time. It offers a wide range of products at reasonable rates. When the market reopened my orders came straight to my shop and my business started running at the same speed post lockdown.”
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 reach out to new customers through udaan app. The objective is to use the power of technology to connect the retailers and suppliers enabling them to grow their business. udaan brings accessibility and national reach to the 50 million MSMEs present in India.
