The Indian retail sector
wakes up early,
beginning the day
accounting for over 10% of India's GDP.
Bhavani,
the owner of Kalpataru,
a micro-retail store,
leveraged Zoho One
to rapidly accelerate her business growth
despite lockdown hurdles.
I'm Bhavani Sai Venkat.
During my childhood days,
I grew up in the southern part of Tamilnadu
In Thoothukudi, a small town
Soon after my marriage, I moved to Chennai.
Later in 2018,
I started working as a nursery school teacher.
While I was teaching,
Covid Lockdown entered the scene.
Since the classes were online,
I continued the job for six months
and then took a break.
Transitioning from a former academician
to a small business owner,
Bhavani's journey with Zoho One begins here.
As I had been working for a long time
and taking a sudden break in my career was hard.
I did not like being idle
and wanted to start a business on my own.
To buy good religious items
and rare fragrance products
many are running to the cities.
I thought to myself, so why not offer such products from this suburb here?
Today, the majority
prefer ready-to-use products.
So, I started exploring ready-made products
adding more products, one by one
Then, I decided it was better to open a physical store
and when it was confirmed that we were going to open up a store,
I wanted a unique name for my business.
That was when my Father-in-law suggested 'Kalpataru'.
Also, I was looking for a good location to base, my shop.
Luckily we got it on the main road at the junction.
Kalpataru, with its digital-first, business model
managed to leverage better reach
all thanks to the website.
Before starting a physical store,
we usually purchase things from an online store.
But, when compared to buying things from a store directly
to an online platform,
I realized it was double or triple the amount higher.
So, in the same way, I did not want anyone to feel
that my products were pricey.
That was when I wanted to build a website for my business
and sell my products to the customer directly.
So, if anyone browses the website
and like any particular product
they can directly place their order.
It must be cost-effective for them
and satisfying for me as well that they got the best product.
With Zoho commerce,
Bhavani was able to create an online store,
taking her local business global.
My husband was the one who suggested Zoho apps for our business
and we chose Zoho One.
Micro and small retailers
generally need applications
that don't call for heavy customization.
Zoho One's easy-to-develop ecosystem for businesses
helped Bhavani reach a wider audience
while retaining the authenticity of her small business.
By using Zoho commerce,
I learned to upload and list all our products easily.
The next is Zoho Mail.
About Zoho Mail
So, if anyone places an order online,
I instantly get a mail notifying me that I have got an order.
Also, it keeps me updated on my weekly progress
and shares daily sales reports.
This helps me keep a track of my daily records smoothly.
With Zoho Meeting,
Kalpataru managed to host real-time meetings and webinars
run online events,
while engaging with existing customers
and strategically building relationships with new leads.
Zoho Meeting is one of my favourite tools
My two kids learn music online
through Zoho Meeting.
And for the classes,
they are given the link for the meeting,
and my kids find it easier to log in with their ID and password.
'Amma, you don't worry they assure me
and join without a hassle.
That is one thing.
And the next is
we started this store in the month of April,
and in the months of September and October
exactly at the time of Navratri,
there was once again a complete Lockdown.
People were restricted from visiting temples
and paying their respects to the Almighty in person.
Throughout those nine days,
I was wondering what to do
and that was when it hit me,
what if I was not able to visit the temple directly,
I could do something virtually.
By using the Zoho meeting
we decided to conduct webinar sessions.
During the nine days of the Navratri,
we selected some children from the music class.
Each day, we planned to make one student sing online
and those nine days would be covered.
Every day we shared a link with the respective student
and informed them that they should sing.
They also agreed to this
and according to their convenient time,
we shared the meeting link with them.
At the scheduled time,
they joined the meeting
and presented the concert well.
Overall, Zoho Meeting
helped us those nine days
to stream the concert successfully.
So, how Zoho apps helped me in this journey is
though I'm not a tech person,
it was easier for me to use Zoho apps.
Zoho products have been really helpful to me.
Because,
it was not like, you should learn this
and then only you will be able to do this,
instead, it was like anyone can learn
and use it effortlessly.
This was what I felt about every product in Zoho
It does not require much training,
if someone teaches it just once,
anyone can grasp and try it easily.
So like that, Zoho apps have helped me a lot.
Using Zoho One's software platform,
Kalpataru managed
to operate its diverse business functions
such as sales,
marketing,
and finances on the cloud,
from end to end,
resulting in rapid business growth.
We believe
a unified software solution
is a way forward
to run a business effectively.
Zoho One
is THAT operating system for your business.