Digify! - #DigitalTransformation for MSME and Platform play for #startups:

There is a digital platform opportunity in MSME for every vertical, including the Shopify kind. Shopify helped MSMEs build an online presence, but why to stop there?

Why not 'digify' the whole value chain! Pick up a vertical and offer an end-to-end (raw material to sales) digital platform to MSMEs in a given vertical:

• Strategic direction: Forecasting trend opportunities through big data analytics,

• Digital mapping and integration of processes of supply and demand,

• Collating all the above info to source Just-In-Time Supply,

• Smart Factory, etc.

Benefits:

• Reduced inventory

• Cut lead time to hit the market significantly

• Faster decision-making to capture market share

• improved bottom line

Apparel Business | Alibaba's Xunxi

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has now set its sights on a new target: the country’s outdated factories. Alibaba’s path to smart manufacturing starts with garments, a market worth 2.2 trillion yuan ($328 billion) in China in 2019, based on Euromonitor International’s estimates. Alibaba has said that one in four clothes purchases in the country was shipped via its e-commerce platforms, granting it access to an ocean of data it’s now deploying to assist domestic garment makers in design and production planning.

It’s also centralizing the material procurement process to help reduce costs. Artificial intelligence, robotic arms, and many other in-house technologies have also been used at the Xunxi factory prototype. It usually takes months for apparel companies to bring a new design from the runway to stores, but Alibaba claims it can cut order lead times by 75% with its solutions. This would address China's Gen-Z consumers' growing demand for instant gratification. For instance, with the help of AI, designers can review simulated rendering effects on so-called digital fabrics on their computer screens rather than going through a time-consuming process to dye the fabric. Needless to say, all the robotics and IoT will be in place.

Auto-repair Business | Tencent

Problem statement:

The company provides 3-year warranty and the company dealers/service centres take care of the car during that time. The independent garages handle most jobs thereafter.

Solution:

Demand Aggregation:

- Urban Clap of Auto-repair

- Mobile-based pick up and drop

- quality guaranteed by the app

- Consumers don’t need to interface with small mechacnic shops

Supply Aggregation:

- Get Uber driver type supply aggregation of the small mechanics shops

- After critical mass is built the app starts backward integrating and digitizes those processes for mechanic shop. Plus open own guarages. Franchise

- Develop Swiggy type digital backend for your suppliers

Targett:

- younger car owners.

Besides, China’s big tech companies are circling the auto-repair business in a bid to capture the boom in vehicle maintenance as the country’s vast car fleet begins to age.

Tencent and Alibaba are trying to make the unorganized repair shops with the choice of joining one of their new smartphone-based networks.

Alibaba’s strategy is to link its popular Tmall e-commerce platform with a new physical chain of Tmall-branded garages to create a maintenance service that starts on a smartphone and ends in a brick-and-mortar store. Tencent has two affiliates building new garages and joining existing ones to provide physical endpoints for online auto-part sales.

Opportunities for/in India:

Indian startups and MSMEs have an opportunity to do billion-dollar businesses with such platforms in bulk drug, chemicals, auto repair, textile, etc. industries. An MSME in this industry can create one for itself and then make a business out of it. India has some unique challenges, such as contract workers in these industries. Such platforms can provide a win-win model for workers and employers by eliminating the middleman. (Example: WorkIndia is like Naukri.com for blue-collar jobs. In the US, WorkWhile raises $3.5M to bring more flexibility and benefits to hourly work.)

Digifying pharmacy retail: RedBook (founded in 2016) is helping Indian offline pharmacy retail stores by providing a software platform for workflow automation, CRM, order drugs (economics of scale to enhance margins for offline retailers), etc. They charge Rs. 5000 a year for a retail store.
C-Square (founded 18 years ago) offered a software services platform for Pharmacy. In 2019, it was acquired by Reliance Industries for Rs. 80 crores. (Reliance later acquired Netmed in 2020.) However, Reliance’s ambitions are not just to retail online but also to Shopify 600,000 offline pharmacists.

For Indian startups:

How do you decide upon your entry point space? Find a company that has:

1. Healthy profit margins

2. And yet not using any tech (thumb rule for me is if they are yet using fax machines)

Some of the most exciting disruption opportunities are markets held back from their true size by high-margin, slow incumbents. Usually, the legacy players have a limited view of the category's real potential size, and software is the big unlock.

Start with a platform in the space where this industry is operating. If you don’t have money, start automating with simple tools. Later, create your platform for that. Here are the ten tools to start with:

1. Create a website with no-code services: Book domain, create a logo, and get your website up and running - all in a few hours through no-code applications such as Squarespace, etc. You can get the site up and running in a few hours. It also helps you with SEO optimization. There are a lot of better no-code platforms.

2. Set up your Google Account

   1. Gmail. Set up a Gmail account. Create a professional email address on your host, like name@businessdomain.com. Set up a forward from your hosting email to your Gmail address so anyone who sends an email to your domain email address gets forwarded to your Gmail. Then go to Gmail and set up “send mail as” in settings > accounts so you can send mail through Gmail, but it will come from yourname@yourdomain.com. Your host will have the login credentials to set this up in Gmail settings.

   2. Set up a Google Voice number in your Google account at voice.google.com. Select your business phone number with a local area code. Forward this to your phone and set up the voicemail, hours, and everything else. Be extremely cheerful and professional in the voice message. You can also use this to text customers and forward to multiple phones. Get the app on your phone as well. It can also be done from your desktop computer.

   3. Google My Business is critical. Send a postcard to your location or get a PO box to set up the area. This will be the primary way customers find you. Build this, nourish it, and get reviews early on. Post on here often and answer every review.

   4. Google Calendar is fantastic for organizing your schedule.

   5. Google Drive is the best way to store everything and stay organized. Create folders for your different branches and tasks. Go paperless by using this scanner and printer: Keep your expense logs/receipts scanned in one folder and your cash flow in another. Track your mileage very accurately using Google spreadsheets.

   6. Google Analytics. Set up Google Analytics and install the analytics code in your WordPress header to get all the data on traffic to your site. This is incredibly valuable if you set up conversion tracking and use AdWords with it.

   7. Google Adwords. Use this to manage your paid search. Do a lot of research here or outsource this. 

3. Online accounting, payments, invoicing, and cash flow management: Link your bank account to online platforms for managing your accounts, invoicing, and payments. Only credit and debit cards are accepted immediately using a third-party payment processor. Don’t take cash ever unless necessary. Your employees steal it.

4. Customer Relationship Management software Consider using out-of-the-box software to get started. When you grow, Salesforce.com is the best, but till then, use Hubspot, Pipedrive, or any other CRM that gives good free features. I use Hubspot's free version. This will help you communicate with customers, invoice, and run a very professional ship with little investment. It’s easy to learn and very valuable. This allows you to send customers professional notification text messages when you are on the way to the job and invoice emails after the service is complete.

5. Payroll software: Consider using a company that handles your payroll and allows you to onboard your employees without paper.

6. Mobile time tracking software: Use time tracking software. It tracks the location and time logged for each employee using their mobile phones. Employees can clock in and clock out, as well as add notes and geolocation stamps as they work.

7. Slack: Slack is better than calling and texting and is a great way to communicate among employees.

8. Trello/Asana is a great to-do list app and collaboration tool for companies. It allows users to assign tasks, track deadlines, and assign tasks to others.

9. Purchasing application

10. Compliance: Make sure to stay very organized with your filing deadlines for all of the administrative work required, such as withholding taxes, payroll reporting, workers comp audits, renewals for your permitting, etc. Use Google Calendar to mark important dates.

You’re ready to operate and to start selling. Get out there, mix it up, and learn the service!