Dev Ayan Writes

The state of the pandemic needs no introduction. India is facing a crisis in its worst form. With cases rising in hundreds by the minute, and as you finish reading this, the active cases' list will add another 500. While Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra have announced lockdown in some form or the other, there is a doubt whether each state will be taking a step in locking them down. From last year's experience, we know that while lockdown helps check the spread of coronavirus cases, small businesses face the brunt of shifted consumer purchase behaviour. With people going online and buying everything from e-commerce stores, the retailers and small servicemen whose business dependent on serving a small local population find it difficult to survive the competition from the giants. But there are many silver linings for them that they need to identify. They have a more significant brand trust and reputation in their niche. They know their customers by face. The customers prefer goin...

Rafique’s (name changed) shop used to be a small outlet in the underdeveloped area of Rajarhat in the outskirts of Kolkata. Then yet to be named, his shop was an extension of his small hut adjacent to a newly built housing society with few occupants. In 2017, there was a fridge for dairy products and a room little larger than a goomty for other articles. Rafique had limited his product range to certain SKUs of FMCG products. A few footfalls every day would make his daily routine. Cut to 2021; he now has three shops in the vicinity. His first one expanded to double its size and capacity. He now has a wide range of offerings for the increased number of residents in the housing societies that emerged in the neighbourhood. How was he able to achieve such exponential success? Upon observation, there are a few factors that catapulted him to where he is: 1.     The expansion of the city :   Kolkata is expanding, much like any other metro city. So it is evident that the i...