Shops in Ghatkopar Speak

Chaupaati executives visit shopkeepers who have been power users of the Chaupaati service and have connected with several potential buyers through Chaupaati. We try to get candid feedback about their experiences. Here are insights from interviews with three shopkeepers in Ghatkopar; dealing in motorbikes, mobile phones and computers respectively.

Kalpesh Thakur, Auto Smart, Chirag Nagar, Ghatkopar (W): Kalpesh is a dealer in new and second-hand bikes. Kalpesh has listed 15 bikes on Chaupaati in the last month, and has connected with 36 buyers till date (out of 66 leads sent). Our visit was triggered by his complaint to our call center agent that the buyers do not respond to his phone calls. Upon meeting Kalpesh, we discovered that he has a strong preference for connecting with individuals (not dealers) for both buying and selling second hand bikes. He doesn’t particularly care if those individuals are in his locality or not. In fact, he uses Chaupaati to get an edge over other dealers in his neighbourhood, and wants to connect with new deals that are otherwise out-of-reach. When selling a bike, he believes that the buyer is only valuable when he visits the shop (10 Chaupaati buyers visited) and NOT valuable once he walks out of the door without a purchase. After that point, he considers the deal as lost. When buying a bike, however, he does it in two trips: one for on-site inspection (by his employee), and the second one to strike the deal (himself) and drive back with the bike. The Chaupaati flyer was pinned on the soft-board at his desk; most of his friends have heard about Chaupaati from other sources as well, and know him as a dealer listed on Chaupaati. He will continue using the service, but is impatient (as are we) to close his first deal. That one deal will make him a believer.

Kishore Joshi, Rajal Mobile Shop, Ghatkopar (W): Kishore owns a mobile store on a busy Ghatkopar street. In the 10 minutes that we were at his shop, while he provided us feedback; he sold a Tata phone with service contract, recharged a pre-paid Airtel phone with Rs. 50/-, replaced a headphone for a Nokia music phone, accepted a second hand Nokia from a customer to try and find buyers for it, and checked the availability of the display unit of a recent Nokia handset! His items are low value (under Rs. 3,000) but fast moving. He listed 11 items on Chaupaati, out of which 8 were sold elsewhere within a week of listing. He finds the service useful and would continue using it, though he has not done a deal through Chaupaati yet. He has 2 Chaupaati buyers in the pipeline who are negotiating with him over the phone. One buyer visited but did not buy. Kishore strongly prefers local buyers only, and does not want to waste any time on buyers outside the locality. They are usually cheapskates distracting him by making offers to buy at unrealistically low prices.

Ajit Yadav, Om Infotech, Bhatwadi, Ghatkopar (W): Ajit is a certified software professional who owns three computer stores in Ghatkopar doing everything from LAN network set-ups to selling assembled computers with second hand parts. He has listed 9 items on Chaupaati, the most popular listings being a couple of configurations for assembled computers at Rs. 8,000 and Rs. 10,000. He has connected with 116 potential buyers, and he thought 90% of them were valuable! He claims to have sold 2 computer monitors and 1 assembled PC to Chaupaati buyers, though we have reasons to believe that the number is higher. He is extremely pleased with Chaupaati and is a fan of the system we have built. His only complaint is that he would like to receive unlimited leads without having to think about paying per lead (viz. monthly or annual subscription package). In the past, Ajit has tried yellow pages, pink pages (a localized tender process), and online classifieds. He finds the Chaupaati system way more valuable than those options.

We are doing a larger round of phone interviews (with individuals as well), and hope to cover a larger customer base than with personal visits alone. We will keep sharing the learnings and insights on this blog from time to time. An interesting insight in the initial phone calls is that the sellers are quite forgiving so far due to the monsoons, and believe that more conversions would happen once the rains subside and customers are ready to buy in the festive season.