B-Store: Bringing e-commerce to rural India

E-commerce has revolutionised the way the urban public shops and has brought stores to their doorsteps. This phenomenon has largely remained limited to the middle and upper class urban public.

B-Store, a Hyderabad based company, aims to serve the rural public with an innovative e-commerce platform. It offers franchises to the rural and semi-urban areas and their system is designed keeping the store owner in mind.

The company has been called a rural digital hub and provides a gamut of e-commerce services with customer multi-utility models making it the one-stop shop for e-commerce. Currently, the company has 130 stores in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and a Mini Warehouse in Hyderabad. The company is now expanding its stores in Karnataka.

E-commerce provides various advantages to the buyer as well as the seller. Some of these include economy, expansion of the market for brands by making them available everywhere, buying as per convenience and also offering a return policy.

B-store correlates these advantages to their understanding of the rural mindset. The rural audience has several doubts such as "Will I get what I want?", "What about after sales service?", "Will I get my money back if I return the product?" and "Is net banking/cash on delivery safe?" B-store aims to alleviate these inhibitions for them. Their goal is to build trust as they believe a reputable brand is a key leverage and they wish to build a repeat customer base and brand loyalty.

"We started as Daksh Innovations LLP and are now working under the brand name of B-Store. Since inception we've been able to establish 130 stores across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and it is a proud moment for us to be able to expand into Karnataka as well. We also aim to introduce the concept of micro-warehouse this year and to expand pan India by 2022. The response we've received so far has been overwhelming and we hope the same continues," said Bhaskar Ganesh, Founder, B-Store.

B-Store offers franchises for Digital e-com stores, GST Suvidha Kendra, Mini ATMs (AEPS Service), Insurance POS, Travel Desks and over 100 digital services. B-store also eases the process of setting up for store owners. Individuals only need a laptop or a desktop, 100 square feet of space, an internet connection with a minimum speed of 4mbps and a printer to set up a B-store.

The company also gives the store owners multiple opportunities thereby providing them with adequate income for a comfortable lifestyle. Additionally, each B-store also gets technical support from the tech team, Digital Marketing support, AEPS Device, A 4G tab device and support for physical marketing activities.

With over 460 million internet users, India is one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets in India. Presently, there are about 12 lakh online transactions that take place daily and amount upto 50 billion USD annually. This underscores the convenience that e-commerce provides and its exponentially growing popularity since its introduction. It then becomes important to expand the utility to the rural segments of India to support the further growth of e-commerce in India.

The government too has introduced several programmes such as Digital India, Make in India, Start-up India, Skill India and Innovation Fund that will boost India's growth as a market. B-store was conceptualised to support these programs and to contribute towards India's growth.

This story is provided by SRV Media. will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (/SRV Media)

( With inputs from ANI )