GetMeHub
Though its formal launch plans were overtaken by the COVID-19 crisis, neighbourhood-shopping app GetMeHub is out there, but as a free service focussed on addressing a necessity arising out of the crisis — buying essentials, primarily vegetables and groceries, with zero or minimal contact.
“The app is being offered free-of-charge to shopowners during the Coronavirus crisis, particularly till containment-related restrictions are in place. It will always remain a free shopping aid for shoppers,” says S. Parthasarathy, one of the two promoters of the app, available on GooglePlay and AppStore and comes with pan-India applicability.
Designed for shopping for essentials in the neighbourhood, GetMeHub provides a virtual shelf for a shopowner to stack their items, explains S. Parthasarathy. With the pincode location entered by shoppers, the app trawls for neighbourhood stores in its database, and displays their virtual shelves piled with available items.
On the philosophy underpinning the app, Parthasarathy calls it an exercise to “keep local commerce local”. Neighbourhood commerce involving hole-in-the-wall stores operates on the basis of familiarity, trust and goodwill. The app doesn’t attempt to upturn any of these defining features, only enhance it, he further explains.
“An owner of a small neighbourhood store is usually short on manpower, and therefore reserves home-delivery to those residents he is most familiar with. If he can’t make a home delivery, he may have the goods pre-packed and inform the customer when to collect it. These basic transactional principles remain, but the app seeks to increase the speed and ease of shopping from nearby neighbourhood stores. It enables shopkeepers to operate by just keying in the names of the in-stock items with their prices. Based on the items chosen by the shopper, the amount is tallied; and the amount it paid to the shopowner directly by the shopper. If there is a delivery or only a pick-up option, either way, the shopper is informed of the time by the app,” says Parthasarathy, adding that shop owners can learn about the platform and enroll with it, via getmehub.com.
DigitalBillz
Similarly, DigitalBillz enables residents to order vegetables and groceries from neighbourhood stores, especially those of the mom-and-pop kind with dimensions that don’t do much for the social-distancing philosophy.
To address the current situation, Sivakumar Muthulingam, a Chennai-based software engineer, who runs Bigblucloud Pvt Ltd, has effected necessary modifications in the application “DigitalBillz” that he had developed along with his team for shopkeepers and customers to find each other across Tamil Nadu.
The tweak now makes it possible for residents to connect with local small vegetable and grocery stores, and during the time the lockdown is in place, this app can be used by merchants without any payment. It will always be free for shoppers.
Sivakumar says, “We have tweaked the application to make it suited for neighbourhood shopping, and smartphone-friendly. When the postal pincode is entered, the application lists grocery and vegetable shops in related areas. When a customer chooses a shop, it lists the items and their prices. In the case of shops with the home-delivery option, customers can make the purchase from home. Even if there is no home-delivery option, customers are spared the trouble of waiting in the queue, as they can place their order in advance and spend as little time as possible at the store. The app can be installed from Google Play or Apple Store,” says Sivakumar, adding that the software can also be utilised by entrepreneurs who operate virtual stores.
