Hello people! We are happy to announce that all Infomedia 18 magazines now have a simple phone subscription mode. Now you can subscribe to all your favorite magazines like Better Photography, Entrepreneur, Overdrive etc. by simply calling 098-3333-1947 and completing your order on phone. The hotline number is also advertised on the eshop of Infomedia’s website and is powered by Chaupaati’s phone pe deal service.

Infomedia 18 magazines reach over a million readers per month through 40,000+ news-stands and outlets across 400+ cities. All issues carry the hotline number that helps their readers to subscribe on phone. Infomedia is India’s first magazine house to adopt and promote a simple phone based subscription system. So spread the word and subscribe through phone. And stay tuned for more such awesome announcements! Here are some of the many ads that flash our number …

So it’s been about 9 days since I joined here at Chaupaati and yes its fun. Boy, am I blown away by the amount of work we accomplish on a daily basis. Although my checklist is just a few lines, some checklists that I have seen here require entire white boards. Basically we are a phone commerce company that caters to both online and offline mode of commerce. So what have I learnt in these past few days? Let me jot it down.

First I learnt the value of customer feedback. In a business like ours where we do this 24*7*365, customer feedback is one of the foundation stones. If the customer is not happy your business can’t be doing the best it can. As a part of an exercise I called up some of our Amar Chitra Katha customers. And I was surprised to hear the feedback. Here’s an example:

Yashad (Y): Hello am I speaking to Mr. X?

X: Yes, who is this?

Y: Hello Sir, this is Yashad calling from Chaupaati Bazaar, do you have a few minutes?

X: Yes, go on.

Y: Sir, you ordered a few products from our website from ACK; I just wanted to know your user feedback.

X: I could navigate through your website easily; I found what I wanted and would like to tell you that your call centre guys are very good. They are very resourceful. They gave me every bit of information that I wanted.

Y: Anything else, sir?

X: No, I will keep shopping from Chaupaati. I like it.

Y: Thank you sir, have a nice day!

An interesting case was when I called up a lady and she said that she and her son both love ACK products. They own many of the titles that we have uploaded on our site, and so they visited our site to see if they could find the titles that they didn’t have. Interestingly the lady told me that she isn’t technologically savvy so she had her son sit on the computer and tell her what books he wanted to order! “It’s very nice that you have ACK in your catalogue, I liked shopping with you, will definitely tell all my friends that I have found a good place to buy ACK from.”

A third and perhaps most interesting of all the cases was from one of our abroad customers in Dubai.

“Wow

I got my order already today…..So quick and so efficient….SO EXCITED…..going to start reading them ASAP.

Thank you”

That’s the mail he sent, after our delivery reached him in 3 days instead of 15.

Phone commerce isn’t a simple to pull off. That’s the second of my learnings here. Imagine that you are ordering for a product via the phone and want it delivered to your doorstep. So we have to do everything from answering your call to getting you the delivery in good condition within the specified time. Try to mentally map the steps you may take while you do this. Once you have that in place multiply that several times and now you know the intricacies of the business. Well, try sending your next door neighbor a package via post. Once you have visited a DTDC or a Vichare you will know how tough it can get.

Putting together the machinery that does this seems to me like a hard nut to crack. Imagine that you have to get a catalogue from every brand, host a website, get permissions, upload your catalogue online, acquire a phone line, and set up a call centre to handle calls and you are done with only step one. Order processing and fulfillment are the other side of this coin. But the job has only begun here. You constantly have to get customer feedback and better yourself. Have I mentioned Sales yet? Okay, sales is the third part of this process, since we constantly get real time data from our call centre, we have to put it into an understandable medium so we can comprehend it and generate more sales.

Here we as designers, catalogue managers and sales executives have to think of each new idea in two ways. One from our point of view and secondly how the end user will think about it. This effectively doubles up our work load. We learnt about web designing in XIC but I never knew that what we do here in about a 100 times tougher than that. It’s not always about hyperlinking photos to static pages. We conveniently take that for granted as well. So in conclusion:

• Phone commerce is a very demanding business

• It is heavily based on customer feedback

• Getting your operations right is only part of the process.

So do visit our website www.chaupaati.in and give us your feedback.

Have I mentioned that I like what I do here? Well, for the record, I do. More on that later. Its time to get cracking!

August 2009: Laxmikant Vyas, Gaurav Chopra, Mini Paul, Rohit Kumar - students of Indian School of Business 2010 performed a study of Chaupaati Bazaar as part of their final project of the core course in Entrepreneurship. The mandate for the report was to identify an individual who has been involved in starting or growing a venture, identify the challenges or hurdles faced by this individual through his/her journey and the course of action adopted, analyze these actions and their impacts and conclude with any valuable insights gained.

In order to analyze the sustainability of Chaupaati’s business model, they studied a similar venture started by Abhay Singhal, an IIT Kanpur graduate. Abhay was one of the first to realize the potential of phone classifieds and had started his venture in Bombay in 2005 backed by $500,000 in VC funds. They analyzed the reasons why the SMS based phone classified service did not take off as expected and contrasted it with Chaupaati’s business model that overcomes these problems.

The report says that Chaupaati’s key strengths are the business model, affordability by small businessmen, focused top management, and quality of customer experience. The report identifies Chaupaati’s future opportunities in expanding from a phone classifieds to a phone commerce platform, and expanding geographical scope from Mumbai to rest of India; and cites Chaupaati’s agility to adapt to market conditions and change as the biggest factor that makes it eligible to address this opportunity.

Chaupaati was particularly impressed with the “Learning and Reflection” section in which the report draws parallels between Chaupaati’s real world approach and business theories learned in the classroom; in the areas of evaluating and developing the opportunity, securing resources, and growing and sustaining the enterprise.

Thanks Laxmikant and team, for a brilliantly written report and your insightful coverage. And thanks for letting us share it with the world beyond your colleagues and faculty at ISB. Best of luck from the Chaupaati team!

The honor system may not always be the surest path to being rich, but it sure feels good when the good guys step forward, tell you good things and give you a nice looking cheque. Here are a few of them:

1. Mr. P N Bhatia from Santa Cruz W: Sold his 1996 Maruti 800 through Chaupaati. His asking price was Rs.25,000 and he received 3 contacts, one of whom bought at Rs.22,000. Mr. Bhatia showed up at the Chaupaati office with his cheque, personally passed along his gratitude “I got a good deal for my Maruti. Thank you very much.”
2. Mr. Ashok Shami from Dombivali E: Sold his China mobiles (Huawei and Sigmatel) for Rs.1,000 and Rs.2,000 respectively. He mailed us a cheque with a note “Thanks for supporting me in selling my cells. I am enclosing … for the payment of my deal.”
3. Mr. Selwyn Jacinto from Santa Cruz E: Has advertised 9 mobiles on Chaupaati till date and received 38 contacts for them. He sold his Nokia 1200 and Tata CDMA to the same person (Mr. Acharya). Acharya’s cheque bounced for the Tata phone and promises to issue a new cheque when he is in Mumbai next (from Nagpur). Mr. Jacinto still paid Chaupaati and after close-looping, we black-listed Acharya.
4. Mr. Piyush Ranjan from Andheri E: Sold his Philips 21″ TV through Chaupaati. He received 10 contacts within 2 days of advertising his television. “I was willing to sell it for 2.5K. Now one guy is coming to pick it up for 4K (may be more),” Mr. Ranjan told us. He promptly cleared his dues online using a credit card.

There have been advertisers who paid us despite the fact that their deal did not close, but they found our contacts genuine. Our biggest challenge has been to let advertisers see us as a pay-for-performance media company that charges per-response, as opposed to a deal broker who takes a commission on satisfactory transaction. We celebrate those advertisers who value the system in this light.

Btw, now your FIRST AD on Chaupaati is FREE. Call 922-222-1947, phone pe deal!

Shruti and I moved to a new home last week. Given the nature of both our work, neither of us has much income and we need to save every buck on this move to minimize damage. The perfect case for using Chaupaati. Here are my experiences so far.

1. Bought a used Washing Machine: Harish Vyas (name anonymized) was upgrading to a bigger washing machine. He found out about Chaupaati from a Gujarati newspaper ad and decided to advertise his washing machine deal by calling 922-222-1947. He was asking for Rs.5,000 for a 6.5KG LG Fabricare washing machine, originally bought at Rs.18,000 one and a half years ago. After Shruti found this deal on Chaupaati, she visited for an inspection and then made an offer of Rs.4,500. The following weekend, I went with the car, completed the transaction, loaded it up at his home and transported it to our home. Before making the payment, I made a cursory inspection, got a promise to return if there were any surprises, and understood all fittings and settings so I could have it up and running the same day back home. Harish lives in Andheri West 2km from our new home, and it sure helped that his engineer dad is hands-on and knows his machines. Sure enough, the washing machine was up and running the next morning with all fittings. No surprises. Except, Harish has not yet paid Chaupaati and does not feel obliged to! As we have discovered the hard way, the individual advertiser does not like to pay after use. If the deal does not happen, they feel no obligation to pay for responses received, no matter how genuine. When the deal happens, they behave just like my mom does in the mall. In a buy-four-get-one-free deal, she always asks the shopkeeper for the free thing, WITHOUT buying the four paid ones. Consumers, after much coaxing, are willing to pay for that one response that translated to a deal, and have something nasty to say about all others and feel no obligation to pay for them. Now Chaupaati collects money in advance, after a FIRST AD FREE trial.
2. Bought a second sale Microwave oven: Rahim Khamisy (name anonymized) is a wholesaler of second-sale LG products and a customer of Chaupaati’s century plan (100 contacts). He has built relationships with LG-corporate and gets bulk stock of LG seconds products, which he supplies to many local entrepreneurs across Mumbai. These products are typically showroom pieces with minor external damages or excess inventory of a discontinued series, and are covered under parts and service warranty (non-replacement) by LG. The asking prices are usually 30-50% off MRP and make it great buys for the value-seeking consumer. Besides supplying to dealers across Mumbai, Rahim does retail sale in his locality. Because of Chaupaati, he has now extended his retail network to rest of Mumbai, as long as customers are willing to visit the little corner of Khar East where his workshop is located in the periphary of a slum. Shruti was looking for a new microwave oven (convection+grill) in her neighbourhood and found Rahim’s deal for a 26 Liter LG. The asking price for a Rs.11,500 MRP microwave was Rs.7,800 in seconds. Shruti brought this down to Rs.7,500 before we made a visit. After inspecting and testing the machine at the workshop, and understanding the warranty process in detail, we haggled a little more and picked up the machine at Rs.7,000 even. We baked papads in it the same evening.
3. Signed up an AMC for two air conditioners: As part of my rental agreement, my landlord required that we sign up an annual maintenance contract for the 2T split AC in the living room and 1.5T window AC in the bedroom. This way he is sure his machine gets serviced (a compulsary activity in polluted Mumbai). I called Chaupaati to find technicians who offer AMC in my neighbourhood and got connected with five technicians. Within the next 10 minutes, I had spoken with each one of them, without making a single outbound call. Each one relentlessly redialled before they could describe their deal to me themselves. Each offered a slightly different rate and service package for the combo deal. The interesting discovery was that there are multiple AMC contracts - service AMC contracts (basic) and parts and spares AMC contracts that cover all replacements (comprehensive). A few hours later, I struck a deal with the landlord by e-mail that we would sign up a comprehensive AMC and he would pay the difference between comprehensive and basic. Everyone wins. The technician visited the same day, inspected the A.C.’s, signed the contract, picked up the cheque and scheduled the first service appointment for next weekend. The interesting part is that technicians on Chaupaati get a chance to specify all their service plans (about half a dozen in case of air conditioner repairs), complete with the pricing and description; something they cannot do in any phone yellow pages where they simply get one business listing for the service offered. They can get creative about their keyword selections so they show up in multiple categories, but nothing differentiates them from each other besides location. What made my day was that one of the technicians introduced himself as a technician calling from Chaupaati Bazaar!

Incidentally, Chaupaati completed a full year of operations (since first employee) last week. One year later, this was all in a weekend’s work…

Mohammad Rafiq is the sole bread winner of a family of five: his wife, 3 kids and him. “I started my little shop in 2008. I am in a limited area in the middle of 1,000-2,000 jhopdas (huts). Before Chaupaati, I sold 2-5 computers in the neighbourhood”. Besides selling assembled computers to slumdwellers and low-income customers, Rafiq also trades computer parts, offers repair services and computer education & training to youngsters in his slum. Before meeting Chaupaati, he did not get customers from outside the slum.

“God had his way and someone from Chaupaati visited me here and told me that he would get me new business through SMS. His words immediately stuck in my head.” Rafiq bought the cheapest available trial plan from Chaupaati and got 20 contacts within a period of a week. Out of these, a couple of youngsters from Virar (30 km north of Andheri) found Rafiq’s deal too good to be true and showed up at his shop. They took home two computers, on which Rafiq made a profit of Rs.500 each. After a week, he sold another at Rs.700 profit. He had now made more than 3x return on his investment in Chaupaati. Then he bought the monthly plan and closed 4 more deals: “Mira Road, Sion, Kandivali East and Kandivali West”. He is now a subscriber for our yearly plan, whose plan value is 50 times the value of his original trial plan; and with this, Rafiq expects to do 100x more business within the year!

“Dial Karo tried to sell me a plan for a much cheaper price than Chaupaati and said they would start my service within 3 days”, says Rafiq, “but now I am familiar with Chaupaati and I like that they always started sending me contacts from the very first day. I am satisfied with Chaupaati and I trust them.” He has no reason to try another service when Chaupaati is exceeding his service capacity faster than he can scale it. Rafiq succintly concludes “For me, it’s all about fresh sms, fresh call, fresh deal“.

Customers like Mohammad Rafiq help us fulfill our dream of empowering the small entrepreneur and give him a level field to compete with bigger businesses on the basis of his merit.

A 2007 report by Toxicslink mentions how Mumbai generates 19,000 Tonnes of e-waste per year, and yet imports furthermore. In the heart of Jari Mari Industrial Area in Mumbai is Saki Naka, the focal point of electronic waste trade in India and the centre of a large low-income slum area. There are approximately 100 shops of computer waste located in Teen Number Khadi (Bay No. 3). Kurla, Kamathipura-Grant Road, Jogeshwari and Malad are other centers for computer waste in Mumbai. Entrepreneurs with the capability to scavenge, salvage and re-engineer products out of e-waste have created a vibrant economy of unorganized retail for computers and consumer durables across Mumbai. Hundreds of such retailers use Chaupaati as a medium to reach tens of thousands of consumers across Mumbai, many of whom are located in slums in the same areas.

Sayed Asad, owner of Best Computer Solutions, is headquartered in a prime location in Saki Naka. He purchases old computers, laptops and printers from leading banks and corporations, then re-furbishes and upgrades them with multimedia and entertainment capabilities, then offers them at unbelievable prices for education, home and office use. He provides replacement warranty for all his products and has broken a price barrier that no one in Mumbai is able to match, especially for entry-level configurations. He has 10 branches across Mumbai and 25 full-time engineers. Sayed says, “Now we are proud we made it easy for all to purchase computers.”

When Sayed first heard about Chaupaati on June 15, 2008 (10 days before Chaupaati launched), he was immediately convinced because of our focus on second-hand products, and he is one of the best in the business for old computers. Sayed Asad was one of the first dealers to advertise his deals on Chaupaati and then went on to be a party to Chaupaati’s first known phone pe deal on July 4, 2008, within 4 days of launch.

Since then, Sayed has acquired over 1,000 customers from Chaupaati and he says “For every 100 inquiries received from Chaupaati, at least 25% get developed into deals”, and says “we have been able to build a brand across Mumbai. Since we joined, Chaupaati has resulted in significant growth in business development for us.” Compared to newspapers, Internet, flyers and other media, he finds mobile as the fastest and best medium for interaction. After a customer is generated, “we get an immediate alert by SMS. This is followed up with a quick conversation, prompt visit, and fast deal.” Chaupaati has sent him inquiries from all corners of Mumbai (Vashi - Eastern corner, Vasai/Virar - Northern corner, Colaba - Southern Corner) and the customer profiles include low-income, middle-class as well as corporate buyers.

It is customers like Sayed Asad that help us fulfill the promise of “best deals in Mumbai” for computers.