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.

Michelangelo's Beautifully Illustrated Grocery List From 1518

The master's shopping list

The shopping list, which comes from the collection of the Florence museum Casa Buonarroti, is accompanied by illustrations that were most likely drawn to help guide Michelangelo's illiterate assistant while browsing the market.

It's separated into three days by horizontal lines, and includes requests such as "pani dua" (two loaves of bread), "un aria" (a herring), and "un bocal di vino" (a quart of wine). 

Inspiration for our mobile app based shopping list at AaramShop. :-). 

The need & the solution was identified long back by the great Michelangelo.

We have tried to copy the great master and build the functionality of the shopping list with the additional power of the mobile device. 

Our version of the modern shopping list

Try out our shopping list creation section on our app. Our app enables product selection & additions (along with pictures), sharing and co-creation amoung family members (maybe servants as well :-)) and of course auto re-ordering. 

And given the over 10000 AaramShops that help us power this app, it really means that your shopping list would be delivered to your doorstep within hours - and no servants needed (one up on the great master)

I dare say that we have created a tad more advanced than what the great master created, but alas, not as beautiful and only a few hundred years later.  :-)

Download our app for Andriod or iOS and give it a go. (currently available in India only)

Trends Study - FMCG, India & Digital.

Google and Bain Consulting's recently released report on the impact of digital and ecom on the FMCG brands was extensively covered.

Of the multiple aspects of the report the two that leaped out for attention were:

50x projected growth in about 5 years - with about 5% of the sales being online.

 The other was that in 5 years 35% (35 Bn USD), would be digitally influenced sales.










The critical role of "digital" for FMCG brands is clearly established. Fun times ahead.

Bing's Image Widget.

Thought this was interesting enough to share. Bing Image Widget. Try it here

John Oliver on Native Advertising

That's not bullshit. It's re-purposed bovine waste!! Epic :-)