Homegrown Chotu to aid the local economy and make it as good as corporate delivery apps
If you thought reading was dead, here is some news, typing will be dead soon. You will only be swiping, scrolling and tapping in the next three years, even to order groceries. Does the purchase of cheese slices and a bottle of soda through a grocery delivery app evoke a sense of contributing to the capitalist economy? Do you feel such apps rise at the expense of your local kirana store’s demise? Trying to offer redemption from such capitalist guilt is the newly established Hyderabad-based delivery app, Chotu. It blends in the swipe-scroll- tap experience of shopping from your street corner provision store. Raju Kirana and Padma Flowers will be working on their shopping platforms with you.
SHOPS UPLEVELED
You can buy your provisions from your neighborhood store – just like you buy on Zepto, BlinkIt, Big Basket or Swiggy InstaMart – that too on WhatsApp, in your regional language and power your local economy,” say Y Ravi and Vamshi Panjala, the founders of Chotu app.
The duo graduated from IIM Bangalore and studied at IIT Delhi and Osmania University. They have worked with Microsoft, Airtel and Jio before joining hands in 2020 to float the app which was incubated and launched by T-Hub in December 2023. The name is inspired by Chotu, a popular name for youngsters who usually come home to deliver your groceries. The founders added that it was their desire to empower the local shops that inspired them to develop the app.
HOW DIFFERENT
Unlike other grocery apps, the end-users need not download any new app. The local provision store initiates the process of helping you order by sending a link (as they already have your phone number) that opens up to show a list of products in their store. You pick and put them in the virtual basket, pay the amount and place the order – all this on WhatsApp. They train the shopkeepers to put up their shop QR codes on pamphlets or boards in the area to develop their business and retain their customers. “From vegetable and fruit vendors to medical shops, there is no end to who can get on this bandwagon,” says Ravi. Homegrown Chotu to aid local economy and make it as good as corporate delivery apps Every kirana can now be its own Zepto!
