A StartUp that made the local grocery stores stand in front of the global e-commerce majors

Mannu Jha

Indians have been traditionally relying on neighbourhood stores (Kirana store) for food. The strong presence, network and overall personal level relationship establish them very deep in Indian society. Neighbourhood stores are as old as this country is and still both partners are fulfilling the desire, need and expectations of each other but with the advancement of technology, the use of Smartphone and the emergence of E-commerce local grocery stores are losing their charm.

A computer engineering graduate Mannu Jha, who born in a family that lives on the earning of small Kirana shop in the remote village of Bihar, when saw that old hubs of grocery shopping are losing their charm and relevancy due to the emergence of E-commerce and Superstores as well as inadaptability of traditional Kirana store with technology and new trends. He decided to re-establish local Kirana once again and come up with a StartUp that incarnate Age-old Mom-Dad shop digitally to save the ancient shopping heritage, a StartUp that made local grocery stores stand in front of the global e-commerce majors.

Mannu reveals their agenda and state "I want a StartUp that incarnate Age-old Mom-Dad shop digitally to save the ancient shopping heritage and made local Kirana Stand in front of the global giants."

Germination of Idea

It was the summer of 2019, Mannu is busy with his regular business stuff but every businessman is, first of all, a family man. No matter what you are, you have to go to buy "Rashan". Mannu also has to dispatch his responsibility and went to a nearby grocery store where he found his old dream to revolutionize the Kirana store. He hanged all his old projects and work at nights to characterize his old dream. Resultantly "OkkJi" came into existence.

"I just want to tune old Kirana store according to new age and provide them with a digital look that they cannot bear alone. I also want to uplift the additional responsibility like home delivery, documentation from shopkeepers so that they can focus on their business" Mannu explains his motives behind OkkJi.

The litmus test of the feasibility of Idea

Taking any decision is quite easy but implementing it in real is rather tough and complicated. This also happens with Mannu's conception. So, marathon churning and survey start to know the on-ground feasibility, need and acceptance of the very idea.

Team Okkji criss-cross its first target city "Patna" trice to know the response from shops as well as the customer side. The rich & old retail market and dense population of Patna is a natural choice for them. The potential and future growth of the city also drags them towards it.

They find a very overwhelming response from both shops and customers both. The responses of local Mom-dad shops are quite encouraging as they are facing tough competition from Superstore and e-commerce players.

Journey to the Characterization of OkkJi App

After testing the idea and its on-ground acceptance Team OkkJi devote themselves to work to characterize concept OkkJi to App OkkJi.

Mannu along with key members handpick the best professionals to build a perfect team. They hire an expert hand for the development of the OkkJi App according to their expectations and visualization. Experience and young marketing team take responsibility to convince and associate shops, creative catalogue and inventory develop many sets of catalogue based on the taste of the city and shop's potential.

Finally, OkkJi Application has been launched and pre-registration starts with a big hit.

"Lockdown, actually establish the demand of digitalization that smoothen our operation and marketing strategy. So, we start registration of shops digitally and get almost 100 kirana stores in our panel. This response made us launch "Beta" phase of App that is quite useful for Retailers."

With the initial potential and hope of 30000 order delivery in a month, team OkkJi is starting its journey in a royal manner and very Soon industry, as well as people, will hear the thump of its arrival, and How a nascent enterprise established and strengthened itself between all kinds of restrictions.

The dedication and zeal to revolutionize old age practice according to the digital era and contemporary technical adaptations is the core of this startup that not only maintain the living heritage of shopping as well as give thrust to individual entrepreneurship and customers satisfaction.