Greenkurry: An online portal that delivers pure organic and authentic products

In this evolving era of digitalization online shopping and e-commerce is immensely growing and is a major contributor to the world economy. It has touched many brands and organizations, but yet many believe that a large segment is yet to be captured; the small scale cottage industry is one among them.

Greenkurry an online market place for organic products started off to help out these small scale industries. The idea that went behind establishing this new platform is to help out small businesses to enter the online arena without high expenses and technical knowledge. Greenkurry also aims at providing natural unadulterated food products that are of high quality and without preservatives and not easily found in any supermarket or hyper markets. It is an organic thing!

“We want to bring all small scale and cottage industries, and women entrepreneurs, to the e-commerce arena. Greenkurry is a truly online multi store that gives prominence and visibility to the independent stores,” says Ajay Jose, Head of Operations, Greenkurry.

Greenkurry was co-founded by Babu Mohanan a former ISRO scientist, Shaji Thomas an ex-Nokia employee, and Dr. Shabheer Ali CEO of Myhodo. They were looking for something to come up with that will benefit the society.

Ajay Jose, the Co-founder of Freshcave, a hyper-local online store that sells ready-to-cook vegetables, joined the company as Head of Operations. Rs.10 lakhs was the initial capital used for starting up. Greenkurry is currently operating from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Challenges
Greenkurry initially started off as a national forum but then due to logistic constraints it had to elapse back to hyper’local and local deliveries as a B2C model. Delivery is one of the major problems when operating at a national level whereas in the local circumference it is much easier.

The Organic Market
Brands that have registered with Greenkurry are subject to selective visibility. If any store opts for hyper-local delivery then it will only get visibility in those areas. Brands can also set their delivery parameters and this is a benefit for those who love to cook to do business on this platform. The USP of Greenkurry is that stores can retain their uniqueness and identity. Each store page has details about the store, contact information, and their brand identity. They look like their own online store.

Greenkurry also have local hubs from where customers can collect their products instead of wasting time and waiting for the delivery guy. These serve as delivery points.

Opening a store on Greenkurry is free, as the idea is to be open to all entrepreneurs who want to start a business. “We don’t want to limit entrepreneurs fearing the cost of starting a business. Our revenues come from sale commissions. We charge a commission for each sale that happens through our platform. This commission is not static and depends on each store. This is because some store owners cannot afford to pay 10 per cent as commission, while there are others who can give 50 per cent,” says Ajay.

Future Growth
The present focus of Greenkurry is to expand into B2B sales. It is aiming at communities which want to purchase high quality authentic products not easily available in all retail stores. “We aim to become the top online player in the unbranded segment,” adds Ajay.

Major challenges faced were on reaching out to people both in terms of store owners and customers. Building tractions and marketing was yet another challenge. They had to find the right suppliers and make sure that the products were properly delivered to the customers.

The process that Greenkurry follows is after receiving an order the particular store owner delivers the goods to the customer’s place. Ensuring the high quality of the products and bringing in professionalism to a decentralized system was nothing more than a challenge.

Greenkurry is focusing on extending its hybrid model network, improve its delivery system and build more hubs. Setting up centers at corporate and IT parks, densely populated areas will also help in improving the delivery line.

Many organizations today are looking at region-specific online marketplaces like Kashmiri Box and Giskaa.