Three years ago, Brunette Chocolates started business as a small shop in Koramangala in Bangalore. Today it delivers goodies as far as Coimbatore and Patna
MUMBAI: Three years ago, Brunette Chocolates started business as a small shop in Koramangala in Bangalore. Today it delivers goodies as far as Coimbatore and Patna — from the Garden City.
The brand is establishing its presence pan India with people placing orders as gifts for weddings and anniversary even in Mumbai and Delhi too.
All this came about after Brunette signed with ngpay — a mobile commerce platform that offers mobile users services from bill payments to travel booking, movies, banking and shopping.
This is how mobile commerce can change the way India shops. With 300 million mobile users, retailers and manufacturers are now looking to tap the consumers though mobiles too along with internet and television shopping channels.
Though m-commerce have been around for a couple of years, it is the fast journey from individual mobile applications for each service to an integrated service that is worth noting.
One such service comes from Bangalore-based JiGrahak Mobility Solutions, which runs ngpay. It was launched in 2004 by a then-26-year-old engineer Sourabh Jain. It took his team three years to research and develop the product.
Today, ngpay has 65 clients including with 230,000 users of the platform. The company claims about 40,000 are joining every month.
“This application is built on the firm conviction that e-commerce has to happen in India. The difference between ngpay and other m-commerce platforms is that ours is an end to end solution. Instead of downloading separate applications for railways booking, movie tickets and shopping for a book, mobiles users can access all this and more, through single software,” said Abhijit Bose, vice president of ngpay.
The mobile revolution has led several retailers to experiment with this platform.
Himanshu Chakrawarti, chief operating officer of bookstore chain Landmark said mobile is a much bigger platform than internet in India.
“Even though the screen is small, the interest being generated on it is enormous,” Chakrawarti said.
Landmark sells 10 books everyday through ngpay. While the chain might be going slow with its physical expansion, the new channel for sales with zero investment has been useful.
Fame India Ltd, the Mumbai multiplex operator, says 4% of its business in major cities comes from ngpay.
Shravan Shroff, managing director, Fame, expects the mobile platform to become its No. 1 electronics sales channel soon.
Rival Inox has also signed up, while Future Bazaar is in process of getting its operations running on ngpay.
Companies using the platform pay a small part of the sales to the software developer.
“It is easier for them to register with us. Else, they would have to develop their own mobile software. Plus, like how several retailers flock together to generate higher footfalls and drive each other’s business, all our partners bring in more hits for the platform,” said Bose.
Who are these mobile savvy users shopping and carrying out financial transactions through mobiles phones?
They belong primarily to the 18-35-year age group —- from executives booking tickets on makemytrip.com to students planning to catch a movie.
As much as 70% of the users reside outside the four metros. These are people who don’t have access to the big shopping malls, luxurious multiplexes or even standalone chocolate boutiques and rare flowers shops.
Another early bird to provide such congregation of services was MeraMobi, a joint venture between Dainik Bhaskar and Pitroda Group.
(Editor’s note: Dainik Bhaskar is the co-promoter of Diligent Media Corporation, which publishes the DNA newspaper)
But it thrives more on knowledge and information services rather than financial transactions.
Rajeev Mishra, business head, India Interactive Technologies Ltd (IITL), which operates Mera Mobi, said IT is about providing utility and convenience on the move.
“So while one will still use laptops and personal computers to surf online, mobile phone is useful when on the go.”
The compatibility of low-cost phones with such software is now possible —- one barrier broken.
Awareness and security over mobile will probably be the next.
Something concrete in the space of mobile commerce is still awaited.
Maybe solutions such as MeraMobi and ngpay can give the required fuel to boost growth.
s_tanvi@dnaindia.net
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