Jikku Mary Kurian is relieved that she no longer has to stock milk in her refrigerator. Now, every morning, by 7 or so, she gets as many sachets as she wants delivered to her home in the city. Same is the case with Murphy Harikumar, who does not have to step out to buy milk, vegetables or bread. AM Needs, an online home delivery service, takes care of their morning needs.
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App-based service providers aren’t a novelty any more. Yet Sujith Sudhakaran and Ranjith Balan, the founders of AM Needs, went ahead with the venture, which is slowly reaching households in the city and in Kochi since its launch six months ago. “We have been running e-commerce-based companies in Technopark for 15 years now and wanted to expand the scope of the domain by launching something that has a wider reach. Our initial plan was to deliver only milk since that is needed every day in most households. But when we realised that it won’t be enough to sustain the operation, we decided to add more products,” says Sujith.
Product range
In addition to milk and dairy products of Milma, vegetables from Horticorp (cut and uncut), eggs, bread and breakfast essentials, AM Needs also has products that are not usually stocked in shops. “For example, the long-life milk of Milma, egg white/whole egg liquid in tetra packs and egg white cubes. We also provide periodicals and publications of
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The duo says that there is competition as small shops and supermarkets now take up online and offline home delivery. “App-based shopping has had exponential growth in the recent time; the best examples being the food apps that have made a huge impact. So people are familiar with this mode of shopping and we felt this is the right time to make the best of this scenario. But it is important to be sustainable since there are many small-scale vendors who also supply essential goods at your doorstep. So before we launched AM Needs, we conducted a sample survey among 100 people from a cross-section of society, including doctors, techies, government employees… Nearly 82 % of them said that they would welcome such a service and that boosted our confidence,” says Ranjith.
Once you download the app, the orders have to be placed before 7 pm if you need the items the next morning.
Customers can opt for short-term or long-term subscription and can pause it when not needed. The products will be delivered between 5 am and 8 am. There are no delivery charges.
“Most of our delivery boys work for the food delivery apps, which begin their service by 8 am. So our employees can finish their work with us by that time,” Ranjith adds. At present, 65 delivery boys are working for AM Needs in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi.
Become a partner
A highlight of AM Needs’ delivery model is creating “micropreneurs”, Sujith points out. “If the delivery boy belongs to a particular PINCODE, he can build a clientele for AM Needs’ products in that area, thus becoming our delivery partner. He can identify new clients by introducing our products or helping them to download the app and to do online payment. They get a share of the profit. Already, five delivery boys in the capital city have become micropreneurs,” he says.
The company, which now has four more directors on board, will soon start operations in Kozhikode and has plans to move to Kollam, Kottayam, Thrissur and Palakkad. “We are planning to add more items to the product list. Customers can suggest the products they want. Now we are in talks with Matysafed and KEPCO (Kerala State Poultry Development Corporation) to introduce fish and meat,” Sujith says.
Log on to www.amneeds.com for details.