Gofrugal helping small retailers go digital

Gofrugal, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, is providing its solution Retail Easy to small retailers across India so that there is a level-playing field to compete with large retailers and e-commerce companies

Hyderabad: As the country came to a shutdown due to Covid-19, neighbourhood stores have emerged true heroes by being there for customers during the crisis, by ensuring essential supplies. Using technology, these retailers have been able to provide delivery services.

Gofrugal, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, is providing its solution Retail Easy to small retailers across India so that there is a level-playing field to compete with large retailers and e-commerce companies.

Kumar Vembu, founder and CEO, Gofrugal told Telangana Today, “Having started our software offering for pharmacies in 2004, we quickly moved to serve multi-product retail and neighbourhood stores. We wanted to give retailers power to compete using mobile and internet, by helping them improve operational efficiency and profitability, and reduce costs. Pre-Covid, several kirana stores were concerned as large format e-commerce platforms and supermarkets were eating away their business. But during the lockdown, many of the customers started going back to neighbourhood stores, which brought back confidence among the retailers.”

Due to Covid-19, small retailers got an opportunity to deploy technology and evaluate ways to strengthen their business. Gofrugal, which today serves retailers across 40 cities through its direct staff and another 100 cities through local partnerships pan-India, has added close to 900 retailers since the Covid-19-induced lockdown began. The company in total serves 30,000 retail stores across India.

The company offers two models for retailers-one-time fee with annual maintenance and an annual subscription model. The annual subscription is offered at Rs 10,000 while retailers also have the option of a one-time fee of Rs 15,000 and Rs 3,500 per year support fee from the second year onwards. Gofrugal is offering a free subscription of its bundled solutions to retailers till September 30, to help them during the crisis.

Value addition

Gofrugal provides vernacular feature both for the interface and the printer. Retailers across India can use the platform in multiple languages. The company which also operates in the UAE allows software users to access content in English and Arabic and print in both the languages.

The software helps the retailers in efficient inventory management, reduction of manpower, improvement in customer experience and service and increase in ticket size per customer. Average revenue per customer also increases for retailers. The software can be used on smartphones with both online and offline traceability.

Gofrugal is seeing digital adoption among the retailers but ‘everything stores’ pose competition, and to address this, the company is looking at a source-and-supply model so that every kirana store can source and supply any brand that the customer is looking for, even if they don’t stock those brands. The company has also created apps for customers to place orders easily and an app for delivery persons. The company is also looking at further simplifying its application so that onboarding becomes easy.

Hyderabad market

“In Hyderabad, we have close to 500 customers. Retailers such as Q Mart, Sampoorna Retail, Balaji Grand Bazar, Masqati Supermarket, Chetan Organic, MyKisan Fresh, KS Bakers, Delhi Mithaiwala, Subhan Bakery, Megsan Pharma and 24 Mantra Organic are using our solution,” he informed.

The company wants to expand its presence in Telangana by partnering with both multi-store retailers as well as kirana stores. It also plans to spread its presence in India. The company is also keen to expand its global footprint in GCC, South Asia and Africa.

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