Shaiju R.S.
Founder
With three years in a single location and in a specified catchment to understand the cus-tomer behaviors and to derive the right and more reliable model in eGrocery & Food Retail,” asserts Mr. Shaiju.
A Unique Business Model
In Kerala, home delivan is the major and leading player in the delivery of Food products and has been able to derive a completely different model in their operation of three years.
The Founder with over 13+ years’ experience in Banking having worked with HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank firmly believed that Relationship Based Selling is more sustainable than discount offers or huge spends on frequent ads. Recently his long-term friend and boss in HDFC Bank, Mr. Bijoy Tharayil who left Bank from a Senior Level Role has also joined the vision to make home delivan as the best brand in home delivery space.
Boasted by experience, home delivan is said to revolutionize the retail space by evolving a unique business model for building customer loyalty towards the brand. And, Founder strongly agrees on the statement made by Google India MD & Angel Investor, which was commented on Indian Internet Companies, that is, ‘One needs to identify and address the Indian
market-specific needs and problems of Customers to build Customer loyalty.’
With this frame in mind, home delivan got into the challenging segment in Retail, focusing on families frequently and repeatedly brought products like Fresh Vegetables, Meat, Fish, Groceries, Bakery and Stationary products, and also added the people most dependent services like Ironing and Dry Cleaning into the service offerings, slowly with time.
Having their exposure from India’s Most Technology Bank, they were always keen to leverage the technology to the maximum. More than anything, home delivan is a pioneer in Introducing Missed Call Auto registration Service for its Customers in Kerala. Also, the company has in-house developed online website, android app for customer ordering and an exclusive app for delivery management. For those customers who are not tech savvy, the company offers a dedicated TOLL-FREE line for order taking.
The Growth Story So Far
From the initial days itself, the founder decided to pilot the business model in a very specific geographic radius to understand the growth opportunity, customer behavior. And, being a conservative city, the founder selected “Thrissur” as the 1st place to start the business, which has enlightened with more challenges to study and pivot the model accordingly.
Thereafter, home delivan patiently spent the next three years in 1st piloted location, organically growing Y-O-Y and believes to reach the right business model with very
With this frame in mind, home delivan got into the challenging segment in Retail, focusing on families frequently and repeatedly brought products like Fresh Vegetables, Meat, Fish, Groceries, Bakery and Stationary products, and also added the people most dependent services like Ironing and Dry Cleaning into the service offerings, slowly with time.
Profitability is not an automatic metric that happens when the business scales up, rather it is an end-result of the right business model, and a constant move towards it requires continuous evaluation of various income and
Having their exposure from India’s Most Technology Bank, they were always keen to leverage the technology to the maximum. More than anything, home delivan is a pioneer in Introducing Missed Call Auto registration Service for its Customers in Kerala. Also, the company has in-house developed online website, android app for customer ordering and an exclusive app for delivery management. For those customers who are not tech savvy, the company offers a dedicated TOLL-FREE line for order taking.
The Growth Story So Far
From the initial days itself, the founder decided to pilot the business model in a very specific geographic radius to understand the growth opportunity, customer behavior. And, being a conservative city, the founder selected “Thrissur” as the 1st place to start the business, which has enlightened with more challenges to study and pivot the model accordingly.
Thereafter, home delivan patiently spent the next three years in 1st piloted location, organically growing Y-O-Y and believes to reach the right business model with very
positive repeat purchase and stickiness to the Brand by its Customers. On 1st March 2015, home delivan started its journey by delivering Fresh Vegetables, Fruits, Groceries and stationaries to less than 10 families. A few months later it got added Ironing as a service to its customers for more stickiness and had in-house ironing facility. A year later it added Fresh Fish & Meat delivery too in the segment.
Currently, home delivan grown much beyond, has added Dry Cleaning to doorstep and also brought in Customers’ Most Preferred Bakery and Restaurant brands in the City.
Today,home delivan is known as the most preferred brand for home delivery in Thrissur and is growing every month, mostly on the basis of referrals by its loyal Customers.
In fact, the company so far has not risen any funding from outside investors, apart from a few funds from closely associated people. Now the business model is more matured for raising fresh funds. While expanding to multiple locations, it has a plan to add an exclusive platform for homemade foods under brand “home Chefs van” inviting best home Chefs in each City.
View on Start-Ups in India
“Majority of Start-ups in India fails, Why??”, avers Shaiju. The Found-er views that these Start-ups raise funds before deriving a matured business model and a majority of start-ups are formed by the young graduates out of colleges without a dreaming Vision and Idea, practically not knowing and understanding the execution challenges of their plans.
“In India, people working in companies should take bold step after 10 or 15 years of their work life to form startups and your experience always help you to stay strong and take right decisions,” states Shaiju, making a strong point.
Most importantly, Venture Cos infusing funds should be able to question the execution skills, knowledge and experience background of the team before loading with huge funds and forcing them to scale up the market space with the huge burning of Cash.
Currently, home delivan grown much beyond, has added Dry Cleaning to doorstep and also brought in Customers’ Most Preferred Bakery and Restaurant brands in the City.
Today,home delivan is known as the most preferred brand for home delivery in Thrissur and is growing every month, mostly on the basis of referrals by its loyal Customers.
In fact, the company so far has not risen any funding from outside investors, apart from a few funds from closely associated people. Now the business model is more matured for raising fresh funds. While expanding to multiple locations, it has a plan to add an exclusive platform for homemade foods under brand “home Chefs van” inviting best home Chefs in each City.
View on Start-Ups in India
“Majority of Start-ups in India fails, Why??”, avers Shaiju. The Found-er views that these Start-ups raise funds before deriving a matured business model and a majority of start-ups are formed by the young graduates out of colleges without a dreaming Vision and Idea, practically not knowing and understanding the execution challenges of their plans.
“In India, people working in companies should take bold step after 10 or 15 years of their work life to form startups and your experience always help you to stay strong and take right decisions,” states Shaiju, making a strong point.
Most importantly, Venture Cos infusing funds should be able to question the execution skills, knowledge and experience background of the team before loading with huge funds and forcing them to scale up the market space with the huge burning of Cash.
