General Trade & its evolution - our take on it.

General Trade in India (and a number of other emerging economies) continues to be at the forefront of the grocery business, with as much as 90% of the business flowing thru them. 

AaramOn - blurring the difference.

However, the very nature of the general trade is rapidly changing with outlets adopting the modern business methods, be it store design, self-service, methods of stocking etc, while at the same time continuing to service their consumers with finer aspects like quick service etc. 

The change is gradual, but given the huge numbers ... even when a small percentage of 13 million retailers upgrade the impact is significant. 

Our experience at AaramShop, makes us believe that biggest change would be in the way the retailers adopt to technology in the next 1 to 2 years, and the technology that would lead would be mobile based and will help the local retailer connect with his local consumer, with ease and effectiveness. 

With this increased adoption to technology, the difference between "modern" and "general" trade seems to blur out.

The retailers now have access to an awesome solution in the form of AaramOn to get digital in a meaningful manner.

FDI & the independent retailers.

Every news paper and show is saturated with the recently approved FDI in retail and its impact on the livelihood of millions of small businesses in India. I am sure everyone has an opinion on it. However, what caught my eye was the recent tweet by US President on his support for the small businesses in the US via the fantastic initiative #smallbusinesssaturday. I am sure this will add more fuel to the fire.

Our views & work at AaramShop is clearly focused at making the small business owner / independent neighborhood retailer competitive and relevant to the changing shopper behavior of the residents of the neighborhood. 

We firmly believe that the independent retailers have a number of unmatchable strengths which emerge from his proximity to the customers, willingness to provide delivery at the consumer's doorstep and years of relationship that have developed into a strong bond of trust. These, combined with increased accessibility of the storefront on the web, and the huge change in the way consumers use technology will make the local retailer more relevant to the consumer. 

AaramShop is already being used by over 600 retailers across 18 cities in India in the short 4 months of AaramShop's presence. 

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