Thursday, December 15, 2016

Buy Now Pay Later - demonitization special


Demonetization led to neighbourhood retailers, especially grocery stores, been adversely effected as business volumes dipped due to lack of availability of loose cash and the mindset amongst consumers to hold on to their low denomination currently.

However, rather than getting pulled down by that, we worked with our partner retailers to ensure they leverage their years of relationships & trust within their community. 

We have enabled a great feature on our mobile apps for our partner retailers keeping in mind the scarcity of monies on account of demonitization. 


Our retailers can now extend informal credit to their known consumers, using our merchant app (AaramOn). The retailer himself decides the amount of credit extended and it’s duration. AaramShop communicates the info of the credit amount etc seamlessly to the customers. 

This informal credit line means that the consumers can shop for the daily needs without needing to worry about cash in hand. The shopping can be done not just on the app and the website, but also in-store. The customers can pay at the end of the credit term, using cards, JioMoney, cheque or even cash.

AaramShop has extended this service to all retailers at zero cost to them and their customers. This is to ensure that the pain demonitization is eased by the years of relationship and trust between the retailers and their customers. 

Mobile Coupons Drive Traffic to the small retailers.

The independent retailers have had a drawback. Their marketing efforts lacked teeth. Unlike the large format stores, the neighborhood based independent stores have been unable to undertake precise and results oriented marketing. 

Mobile Coupons are known to drive consumer engagement and usage, but their usage has traditionally been limited larger establishments with well defined CRM practices. 



AaramShop has finally brought forth a solution that combines the power of mobile coupons with the ease of use and flexibility. A solution which is custom designed for small retailers and their specific requirements.

Our coupon solution helps the retailers drive:
1. increased awareness among the shoppers in the neighborhood.
2. sales of specific product lines or bill cuts of higher value.
3. increased footfalls and orders. 

And all with the flexibility of using our free merchant solutions on the app, cloud or in-store - AaramOn

Blurring the offline online divide.


The more I interact with our partner retailers (and potential partners), the more convinced I am, that the advantages enjoyed by the offline neighborhood retailers - that of close proximity to the consumers, perfect mix of assortment & pricing, low cost delivery model and ownership of real estate; when integrated with the opportunities offered by the digital mediums, makes for a perfect commerce model. 

More so in the grocery and personal care domain. 

Neighborhood based commerce needs to be hybrid in nature, and enabled on all possible touch-points for the consumers. 

Hybrid Retail is what we at AaramShop have enabled for thousands of independent retailers - wherein we help them not just with relevant in-store technology, but seamlessly help take their inventories online via smart web-stores and mobile apps and supported by unique assisted shopping for customers. 

To learn more, please visit www.aaramon.com or write to me.