Pakistani startup SnappRetail, which originated from Karachi is buzzing in the market and has been labeled as a game-changer for the small “Kiryana” shop owners. Their business model is liked by so many business tycoons all around the world that they were able to generate pre-seeding funding of $2.5 million dollars. Their model is even featured by Forbes which amended the startup by saying “SnappRetail Plans To Take Pakistan Retailers Into The Digital Age”.
SnappRetail is a retail fintech company that aims to digitize the operations of traditional trade retailers. They use technology to provide them with multiple possibilities to grow through our Micro Enterprise System (MES) that allows retail owners to perform multiple functions such as Sales Recording, Inventory Management, Credit Management, Stock Ordering, Analytics, Micro-lending, QR/Card payments, and Micro-locality consumer commerce. Traditional trade retailers across Pakistan are losing out to growing modern trade and supermarkets due to inefficient operations, inadequate cash flows, and cluttered in-store displays.
The CEO of SnappRetail Adeel Rasheed criticizes the traditional ways of retailing and says;
“It’s like the 1950s – everything still depends on pen and paper. Most retail business owners have no way of tracking which of their products are their best sellers, or when stock needs reordering; they’re running their businesses instinctively, in exactly the same way as they’ve always done.”
SnappRetail itself makes money by charging a monthly retail fee to its customers. It also sells retail sales data to large consumer goods manufacturers. Rasheed said that as the company signs up more retailers, it will launch more monetization channels through partnerships for products like working capital loans, B2B aggregation, and card payments.
“We offer a Multi-Enterprise System with multiple functions and features for retailers to grow their business. We go above and beyond to provide solutions to store owners and our representatives are always ready to help optimize retail operations.”
SnappRetail’s systems allow traditional retailers to strategically optimize their functions to a point where they can grow and remain competitive in today’s world. The impact SnappRetail aims to create is limitless in terms of the value it can add to the retail sector.
As the services and users increase and improve, the company expects to be able to increase that monthly fee. But its founders believe the larger proportion of its revenues will eventually come from partnership deals with businesses seeking to work with its retail customers – and able to do so courtesy of SnappRetail’s technology. It has already begun enabling retailers to offer mobile phone top-ups, for example, but sees future partners offering services such as the provision of working capital to retailers seeking to grow. It will also earn commissions on digital payments made through its equipment.
The problem that SnappRetail is most likely to face is its mass commercialization of it. They have to involve most of the shop owners in order to remain in business and that involves the “kiryana” owners learning new technology. Since most of the Pakistani middle-class already use mobile phones and the process is not that complex, it should not be as hard as it sounds.
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