Snapbizz driving digital inclusion of small and medium businesses

Even as online and organized retail is picking up steam in India, there are still nine million kirana stores in the country that form the so-called unorganized retail sector.

These kiranastores cater to the needs of 90% of consumers or 1.2 billion people, accounting for an estimated 750 million transactions daily which are equivalent to nearly US$120 billion in gross merchandise value. However, most of these stores have no digital connectivity, which means that the store owners don’t have data-driven insights to serve their customers better and FMCG brands have no store-level data of how consumers are shopping in these stores.

Snapbizz, started in 2013, is bridging this gap by using technology to increase the revenue of kirana store owners, from increased sales to customers and brand advertisements.

Snapbizz offers the kirana stores a touch-screen tablet, a portable Wi-Fi hotspot, a scanner, a printer and an LED display screen. This enables the kirana store owner to carry out everyday store operations like billing, and through Microsoft cloud services, inventory management, supply chain management and in-store contextual brand advertisements. This makes daily operations simpler, procurement more efficient, creates additional revenue source and also allows kirana store owners to file their GST returns effortlessly.

The company is helping retailers from calculators to the cloud, it offers digital solutions to the kirana stores, in order to ease their sales and generate more revenue.

Backed by Microsoft services, Snapbizz provides a tablet running Windows 10, a barcode scanner, LED display and a printer. These combine to make a PoS terminal for the kirana stores which is connected to Microsoft’s Azure cloud services.

The company’s Snap Vision LED display presents consumers with product promotions and offers. The purchase insights drawn from this model allow FMCG brands to display specific product promotions, sometimes even exclusive, on these displays.

This is also how the Snapbizz PoS system differs from a traditional PoS system. Offering actionable insights and using it to target customers is what forms the central point in the future of these retailers.

Snapbizz’s solution enables the kirana store owners to better manage their billing, inventory, CRM and supply chain.

It also uses the PowerBI analytics tool and Azure Cosmo DB which manages and stores billing information. They also create custom apps for the kirana store owners so that they can connect with their loyal customers, offering them discounts, offers and even home delivery of goods.

The Snapbizz PoS, as such, has found a great adoption ratio with some kirana store owners even witnessing a 25 per cent surge of profits. The system has automated most of the elements which were manual tasks like managing inventory and billing.

With this system, retailers are also connected directly with wholesalers and suppliers.

They also create custom apps for the kirana store owners so that they can connect with their loyal customers, offering them discounts, offers and even home delivery of goods.

Snapbizz solution is currently being used by over 3,000 kirana stores and 25 FMCG brands. Some kirana store owners have seen their profits increase by up to 25%. The effectiveness of the solution has enabled Snapbizz to witness demand from similar markets like the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.