Ordering on WhatsApp has become mainstream in India, particularly since COVID. Only one issue. The local shop had no visual catalog.
We decided to fix it. On the local shop’s terms.
Order > Bill > Pay
Local commerce is not e-commerce
Unlike e-commerce, local commerce is chatty, convenient, and customizable.
You place an order with the shopkeeper, s/he makes a bill and then collects payment. This is the rhythm of business, the holy trilogy of local commerce.
The entire order need not be fulfilled, it may be partly fulfilled or served later. Upfront prices are optional, they can be added only at the time of billing. Payment can be full, or in parts. Basically, local commerce is known for its convenience and any e-com solution won’t work in such cases.
We built chotu as a shopboy for local shop owners to run their biz exactly like this: order > bill > pay.
The shop owner gets an instant visual catalog. Takes orders, sends bill and collects payments, all on WhatsApp. Can it be simpler?
How did it start?
Days before Ganesh Chaturthi, 2020…
How to buy clay idol of Ganesh during a lockdown?
This was the question rattling every gated community resident in Hyderabad (including founders)…
chotu was born to fix this first.
Several sleepless nights, countless coffees, multiple meanderings later … chotu has now become the shopboy for millions of local shops in India.
