O2Onow - Brings Your Store Online

O2Onow, addresses the whole gambit of digital marketing for MSMEs. The platform not only brings MSMEs and small retailers online, it gives them their digital presence at par with their competitors in the retail space. Some of the real time challenges faced by them include, how many customers are viewing their shop? how is their marketing efforts impacting their revenues? which strategy has paid well and which did not? the current technology in use, is it the right one? how do they monitor their business real time? Such issues must be addressed diligently but with aptness in tandem with the increasing digital influence and ever increasing digital customers not only in metros & tier 1 cities, but also in the new emerging tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
The online to offline platform solutions provider- O2Onow provides small business players a huge scope by not only giving them their digital presence, but also the opportunity to address their persisting market issues at real time. Be it increasing their market presence in their locality, getting connected to new customers, giving customised offers, tracking the performance of their marketing strategy, analysing their strengths and weaknesses on real time are some of the issues that O2Onow is striving to address.

The above video will give a sneak peak into the whole gambit of opportunities that small businesses, MSMEs and kirana's can make use of.
   

#Lotono2oNow & #O2Onow 
https://www.o2onow.in/

O2Onow for MSMES

O2Onow for MSMES

O2Onow - Get Your Local Stores & Services now Online. 
#Lotono2oNow & #O2Onow 

Download App: 
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.art.o2onow

Website:
https://www.o2onow.in/  

O2Onow App

O2Onow - Get Your Local Stores & Services now Online. 
#Lotono2oNow & #O2Onow 


Download App: 
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.art.o2onow

Website:
https://www.o2onow.in/

MSMEs & Retail: From knowing Digital to Being Digital

MSMEs must look at digital from three different quarters- Technology, Customers and Way of doing business. These three quarters must be seen as bffs (best friends for ever) and being inseparables. They may exist but cannot survive without the others. Their co-existence strive to create values indispensable in the business world.

The first and foremost, MSMEs must re-examine their entire way of doing business and understand what and where the new frontiers of values are? It could be developing a new business in an adjacent category or identifying and implementing newer areas in the existing sectors. MSMEs need to understand the behaviour of the customers and their expectations both within and outside the business and also across the industry they fall under. It is crucial for these small businesses to foresee the trends and deliver the appropriate value.

Secondly, MSMEs have to rethink the use of new capabilities so as to improve upon, how the customers are being served? An understanding of each and every step of the customer’s purchasing journey regardless of the channel. It is imperative for them to think about how digital capabilities can design and deliver their customers the best possible experience. Most of the MSMEs have their fixed supply-chain. What is more important is to have a supply-chain that is flexible, efficient and quick in delivering the right product efficiently and in the way the customer wants. Small businesses must also focus on data and metrics which can help them in providing insights about their customers, to drive their marketing activities and decisions regarding sales.

Regardless of their size of operations, small businesses have to consider a cyclical dynamics where in processes and capabilities constantly evolve on the basis of inputs from the customer’s in order to foster ongoing product or service loyalty. This requires them to be proactive in decision making, indulging in contextual interactivities, real-time automation and a vision based ‘journey- focused- innovation’.

Other crucial aspect in becoming digital is the adoption of right technologies. This involves technological and organisational processes that allows the business organisation to be agile and fast so as to respond swiftly to changes. Having a digital mind set will help the businesses to set up cross-functional collaborations, builds an environment that encourages the generation of new ideas based on their needs. Some business may require digital technologies to cater to basic business needs such as having an online presence and enabling business information and checkout, while some would want digital technologies to cater specifically for their marketing activities, while some others for managing inventory or for establishing a smooth supply-chain. So every business has their area concerns and it is very important for them to know what they want to do with the technologies. What is the point of investing in technologies that cannot cater to one’s business requirements? Small business with their limited resources and capacity have to research considerably before investing in the right technologies.

The crux for small businesses is to aim big being ‘SMAL’:

Be SMARTER, with your money and resources;

Be Agile, with the change and capitalize on the your opportunities;

Be Lean, while building, measuring & learning about your business goals.

                                                   œ 

O2Onow app

Instead of giving a formal description, stating and coining big- big terminologies, I prefer to describe the platform in the language understandable by a coconut vendor right across the street or a kirana store end of the road. I prefer citing these two examples because there are about 15,000,000 mom and pop stores in India of which 92% are unorganized players completely untapped by digital technologies.

So the case of a coconut vendor goes like this. When he sets up his cart across the street, he follows the routine pattern of attracting his customers. He puts up a board stating the price of the coconut. While he waits for his customers, he is usually found watching videos over his smartphone or listening to radio. All thanks to mobile companies, people in India can afford a smartphone at a bare cost of Rs.3000. The vendor is aware of the fact that during summers the demand for the coconuts will rise, while in winters his sales would decrease. This is typically the way in India. While India is going crazy with e-commerce and online shopping, how can a simple coconut vendor on the street acquire new and more customers? He may register his store presence in any of the business aggregator sites. But what about marketing his product and engaging more customers?? Is it difficult? Yes?

 I would say, NO!

Now visualize these scenarios.

It is a rainy day and yeah! well imagined, the roads are filled with mud-drenched rain water. You wouldn’t want to step out of the house. That’s when you require something for the night’s dinner! This happens very often! How many of you will have your local kirana store contact number to request them to deliver the required stuff on urgent basis?

Its summer time, and you are travelling by road with your kids at 8.30pm and you want to know the nearest restaurant or a dhaba (road side food outlet) from your unknown location on a national highway. What do you do? How would you come to know?

Personally, I love to shop. With many online shopping apps it has quite become a habit to just browse through the categories of my interest whether I buy them or not. Likewise, I pass by a clothing store while in car. I don’t have time to park my vehicle and check out in-store products. In today’s busy times, do we all get sufficient time to go out and shop at leisure, trying out stuff, checking  one store after another?!? Often it happens to me that after checking out five different shops, I would prefer the one particular product from the very first shop! I end up going all the way back to the very first shop and buy the stuff. What did I lose? Well, hell of a time!! Is there an alternative?

I say, YES.

Considering all the oddest of the emergency situations or on-demand requirements, we bring to you an app that is revolutionizing the way retail outlets do business. Since the recent demonetization, India is more and more adapting to the digital payment gateways. How about the other aspects of retail digital transformation? Are all the players in retail, digital? Well, one can manage inventory. How about marketing? What about customer acquisition? What about customer engagement? What are the other options of digital marketing apart from Facebook for helping small and medium retailers?

O2Onow implies Online to Offline where now signifies the real time usage of the platform by all players in the retail ecosystem. From producer, manufacturer to distributor to retailer to consumer to financier, all have a significant role in the retail ecosystem.

O2Onow is a collective platform and a smart city app to help MSME (micro, small and medium) stores to go digital. From the perspective of the store, O2Onow enables an owner of the store to make real time decisions for all his or her business needs. From increasing market presence to customer engagement with the stores, O2Onow will enable an omni-channel experience for the growth of the business both for the stores and the consumers.O2Onow establishes the link between ‘online discovery of businesses’ and actual commerce in the physical world.

O2Onow is not about an “Online Store”. It is about YOUR ‘Store Online” and all about your store.

As a consumer, I would love to know various categories of stores near my house. I would be happy to know what the store’s nearby offer. If interested, I would want to check out more of the stores advertisements. Unlike, online shopping site, I would want to check out more products from a specific store, and if possible cart them and pay online and get my stuff delivered within an hour or so cos they are gonna be from my neighbourhood stores and I know for sure that it’s not gonna take 3 to 4 days to get my products delivered. I love having options. Who doesn’t!!  What if I have the option of carting my products from a store online, visit the store, and check the quality and feel of the products (which is a must when I shop for electronics and expensive fashion products). Once happy with the quality of goods, I pay and get my stuff!! Yey..i might just end up asking for some customized discount from the store keeper. Happy Me!!

Now let’s see what a store owner can do with the platform. Firstly, he gets to take his store online. Hold on! Getting a store online doesn’t mean you are digitizing the store! It takes round the clock activities to get your store digitized. O2Onow, gets the store owner have the control over managing his product listings online. He can reduce his offline marketing costs and instead will have the authority to manage his store promotions, offers, deals, discounts etc. online ensuring that his store presence and reach increases in his own locality. He can avail the option of advertising his store, new branch, new stock, etc. to make sure that his advertisement has a wider reach online. Let’s take a real time case at this point. You want to sell-off or clear any perishable products end of the day. What would you do? You might want to consider a price drop for those products. How do you let maximum people know of it? O2Onow, gives you the handy real-time updating, real-time notifications support etc. Imagine him doing all of these and many more just from his smartphone!! Now, we are talking digital! isn't it? 

O2Onow, lets anything and everything about your store be managed, advertised, marketed and connected to the consumer in need!!

That’s O2Onow for your store and for your consumer!!

Know Us

Hi, I am Aradhana and this is my story. 

I belong to Gen Y, also called the Millennial Generation. Most of you reading this post must be Millennials I guess. I consider myself lucky to have witnessed the world going crazy behind Walkman’s, Tape recorders, Floppy disks, Pagers, PDA’s (which I still possess!!)  and the classic Brick phone!! One has to google to find out more about them now!

Hailing from a simple down-to earth bureaucratic family from south India, I was always taught to keep up the values of humanity, dignity, respect and kindness. Love for books and sports was always encouraged since childhood which is quite evident from the wide variety of books dominating most spaces of my home.  My childhood collection ranged from Twinkle digest, Champak to Chandamama series which were delivered by the diligent postman every month. I still remember lingering around the front gate of my house along with my sister and brother to grab the copy first from the postmanJ.  From Tom Sayer to Gulliver’s Travels to Pride and Prejudice to Treasure Island to Sherlock Holmes, these childhood collections find a significant place in my book shelves even today. Even during small trips, books were a constant companion. With the passage of time I was able to let this fondness stay with me till date.

My father would be transferred to a new district or city every few years because of which I had the opportunity to change schools and make some amazing friends. I was very active in sports and tournaments. Looking at my medals & certificates, I used to dream of a career in sports. Such dreams were happily backed by my father, who would take me to the beach and make me run on wet sand to improve my running speed and strength training. I still remember, for one district level swimming competition, my mom ensured that she carried energy boosters from chocolates to carrot juice to keep me sufficiently hydrated with energy. Such was my parent’s involvement in backing me up. I am always filled with gratitude for their encouragement, for I now know as a mother how hard it is to constantly keep my kids charged with the right spirit and inculcating the right ethos of sportsmanship and competitiveness.

The year 1995 was a big blow to my family with the sudden demise of my father. I felt my world topple over.

An affectionate smile..
A pat on my back..
Holding my hand, making perfect the stroke of my paint brush..
Teaching me life's lessons with wisdom & knowledge..
Building me a strong foundation..
Growing up with your values, Dad, i wouldn’t be the woman i am today.
In my universe, daddy, you are my star hero.                                         

                   -- (Was written in 2011 while in JNU)

Time is a healer. Over the years, it only taught me how not to be weak. Studying in some of the best institutions over the years broadened my horizons. Stella Maris College (Chennai), Karunya Institute of Management Sciences (Coimbatore) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi), Nagoya University (Nagoya, Japan) are my alma maters and I been lucky to have studied in such variegated institutions that helped me diversify my outlook. These institutions provided me an opportunity to represent myself in various arenas, as an underofficer in NCC, core member & editorial member during my management days, as a cultural-exchange representative in Japan etc. At very stage and every point of life, I felt the world a beautiful place to venture wide & deep. As Robert Louis Stevenson says, “There is no foreign land. It is the traveler who is foreign.” The world is a well-connected place, the beauty of it lies in one’s involvement in it. I immerse and enjoy in the magnitude of its worth, be it the people, culture, food, traditions, ideologies, inventions, gadgets or technologies. I make efforts to let my kids know of their world too.

It is 2017.  I’m a hands-on mom and an entrepreneur. The decades gone by have been a mixed-bag of happiness and tough times and these have only made me a stronger being. This reminds me of the Poem, “All the World’s A Stage” by William Shakespeare.  We are all actors. We play our part and exit. People we cross path influence us in the best and worst ways possible and I am grateful for such an influence for I have grown, gained wisdom and learnt from mistakes. So, success for me is watching my kids grow with confidence yet being humble, and success as an entrepreneur is to see my clients grow in strength yet being the same friendly person when we talk beyond business while sipping tea.

To know the person behind the entrepreneur is what I intended to bring out in my first post. Hopefully, I am able to deliver it!

I would love to hear your side of the story too.

...................................................................................................................................................................

Aradhana is the Head of Marketing & Operations at O2Onow.