Pradeep Sampath, CEO of nStore Technologies, talks with ET Edge Insights about the vision behind the company’s growth and the rise of online retail e-commerce. nStore has recently been felicitated at the ET Best Tech Brands event.
Edited excerpts
What is the thought behind nStore’s origin?
We were one of the early participants in ONDC when it started. The whole retail e-commerce concept has a duopoly kind of model and there arises the question of leaving 97% of neighbourhood stores (incidentally the root behind the name, nStore), out of the ecosystem. We started from that thought and have pushed our efforts into making a digital platform for them to be onboarded. ONDC started speaking the same language and it resonated with our mission, and subsequently, we were with ONDC.
When we started on ONDC, we were operating with just a set of protocols. Now, as we speak, we are looking at more and more people joining this network. If you can do one leg transaction, there’s no reason why you can’t do 100 transactions or 1 million transactions or 100 million transactions, and so on and so forth. This is a reality that is unfolding right in front of our eyes, and we feel extremely happy to be a part of this journey.
What are the technologies that will facilitate the growth? Neighbourhood shops are an emotion and help in bridging the daily needs of everyone and work on credit majorly. What are your thoughts on the same?
As mentioned, neighbourhood shops factor in trust- you know largely who the seller is, and you have an established relationship. You know what is happening to your order. The second thing is, if you basically look at where these marketplaces are spending a lot of money, one is largely around customer acquisition. That leads to an overall cost addition. The third part is delivery, which is an important factor. Delivery is to be done within a particular parameter, and if you want to expand, you increase the cost of delivery. Hence, the whole cost of doing business is going to be distributed across multiple parties.
Is technology an enabler? And how do we empower small stores?
Yes, here in retail, it is an enabler and not a disrupter. And presently, the fundamental questions are -when do the neighbourhood stores have the right products available on their shelves? Why create a parallel supply chain and then try to do the same thing? What are they (small stores) doing? Why can’t you include them as a part of the transaction, enable them with the technology, and make them a part of the whole ecosystem?
The stores need well-trained employees, connectivity, and the retention of existing customers. Secondly, you need to have a supporting ecosystem like extended credit, which is being addressed by NBC.
UPI has been the greatest enabler, and that is the kind of enabling we are looking at in this ecosystem. This will be the next retail revolution.
