AI in Retail: Google Cloud and Accenture to Use Gen AI To Enhance Best Buy's Customer Support Experience

Best Buy, Google Cloud, and Accenture have joined forces in a new collaboration to enhance customer support services using generative AI (gen AI). This initiative aims to provide more personalized and efficient experiences for Best Buy customers. Best Buy has selected Google Cloud as its AI innovation and strategic partner for several of its key customer care initiatives

Self-Service Support Option

Starting in late summer 2024, Best Buy's U.S. customers will be able to connect with a gen AI-powered virtual assistant for self-service support.

The assistant can help with tasks such as troubleshooting product issues, rescheduling or combining order deliveries, and managing software, Geek Squad subscriptions, and My Best Buy Memberships™.

Customers can access these services while shopping on BestBuy.com, using the Best Buy mobile app, or calling the customer service line directly.

Enhancing Customer Care Agents

Best Buy will launch new gen AI-enabled capabilities for customer care agents.

These tools will assess conversations in real-time, detect sentiment, and provide relevant recommendations.

The goal is to reduce the mental workload for agents and allow them to better connect with customers.

Front-Line Employee Assistance

Best Buy plans to develop a Gen AI-powered assistant specifically for its front-line employees in stores. This assistant will provide solutions like finding internal company resources or pulling up specific product guides to better serve customers.

By leveraging Google Cloud's AI platform, Vertex AI, and Gemini models, Best Buy aims to stay at the forefront of customer support experiences. The future of retail continues to evolve, and Best Buy is committed to serving its customers in innovative ways.

In addition to implementing tools to assist customer care agents, Best Buy will work with Google Cloud and Accenture to develop an AI-driven assistant specifically for its front-line employees serving customers nationwide. This assistant will aim to provide a broad array of solutions to support employees in stores with things like finding internal Best Buy company resources or pulling up specific product guides to help better serve a Best Buy customer.

“These new gen AI-powered capabilities further enhance our commitment to deliver better, more personalized experiences to our customers by unlocking the power of people,” said Brian Tilzer, Chief Digital Analytics and Technology Officer at Best Buy. “We are excited to leverage and tailor these innovations with great partners like Google and Accenture so we can continue to serve our customers in unique and differentiated ways and make our employees’ jobs easier.”

Best Buy will tap into a range of Google Cloud products including their Gemini models and Vertex AI, to create and launch these AI capabilities, as well as Contact Center AI to develop state-of-the-art conversational agents. The selection of Google Cloud’s generative AI technologies builds on how Best Buy uses AI across a number of customer care fronts.

Best Buy and Google have a long-standing relationship with existing collaborations across other Google products and services, including Advertising, Hardware, Google Chrome, and more. Powering some of Best Buy’s upcoming gen AI deployments will be a coordinated effort across Accenture, Google Cloud Consulting, and Best Buy’s internal teams to build, test and scale new capabilities for Best Buy.

Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) is the world’s largest specialty consumer electronics retailer. Our purpose is to enrich lives through technology, which we do by providing our customers a unique mix of advice, products and services in our stores, online, and in homes. Our expert associates advise customers on our curated assortment of the latest, name-brand technology, while our highly trained services teams help with designs, consultations, delivery, installation, tech support and repair.

Retail Tech Startup Daalchini Raises $4 Mn in Series A Funding Led by Unicorn India Ventures

Daalchini Team (L to R) - Ayush Rastogi, Prerna Kalra, Vidya Bhushan, Anupam Saxena

• The largest Series A round raised by Daalchini in the smart vending segment.
• Funds to be primarily used for R&D of Daalchini’s autonomous retail solutions to further adopt Daalchini’s product for 10 million retail points across India and 400+ D2C brands in the F&B sector.

RetailTech startup Daalchini has raised $4 million in a Series A round led by Unicorn India Ventures. The round also saw participation from prominent and existing investors like Artha Venture Fund, Ajay Kaul – former CEO of Dominos India, and VSS Investco – the investment vertical of Vijay Shekhar Sharma – CEO of Paytm. So far, this is the largest round raised by a company in the smart vending segment.

A large part of this funding will be deployed to expand their industry footprint and further their tech capabilities. The Company wants to make its solutions asset-efficient and accessible to 10 million retail points in India and 450+ F&B D2C brands.

Founded in 2017 by ex-Paytm colleagues Prerna Kalra and Vidya Bhushan, Daalchini takes affordable snacks and home-style meals to its customers through technology-efficient models like automated kiosks, mobility retails, and smart vending machines.

Currently, the Daalchini app has more than 2 lakh monthly active users.

Daalchini has grown 300% in the last 12 months, making it one of India’s fastest-growing RetailTech startups. The Company has achieved a Product Market Fit (PMF), with ₹12 crores revenue in FY2022. More than 90% of their vending machines are EBITA positive within 45 days.

Daalchini aims to clock ₹50 crores in revenues with a GMV of ₹130 crores in 12 months. The Company intends to grow from 850+ to over 5,000 smart and autonomous retail points in the next 12-18 months. The new funding will enable Daalchini to continue executing its growth strategy and strengthen its position as the largest network of smart retail stores.

Ruchi Pincha, Investment Associate, Unicorn India Ventures, says, “The RetailTech segment in India is going through a massive transition from its traditional physical store form to a digital one, the speed of which has been intensified by the pandemic. In this phase, Daalchini represents the best of both worlds with a ubiquitous physical presence backed by a strong technological framework that prioritizes its customers’ needs and convenience. At Unicorn India Ventures, we are always looking to support such companies that retain the unique essence of their sector and work on enhancing the overall customer experience with technological innovation.”

Setting new milestones in the intelligent retail field, the Company provides a plethora of food and beverage options, available 24*7 and accessible without delivery charges or long wait times. Daalchini has tied up with leading companies like Reliance, Aditya Birla Group’s Hindalco, Vodafone, GE, Genpact, NITI Aayog, Housr, MX Player, Samsung, Paytm, Snapdeal, Byjus, EY, OLX, OYO, Loreal and VIVO, among others. The Company’s vending machines have become a familiar fixture in corporate and co-working spaces, educational institutes, hospitals, and railway stations, offering food and beverage products from over 160 brands.

Prerna Kalra, Co-founder & CEO of Daalchini Technologies, says, “Daalchini aims to establish its footprints at every 200 meters of habitable area with its autonomous smart stores and vending machines. Today, our country has just a few thousand vending machines, while the US or Japan has more than one autonomous store for every 200 people. We are far from the true potential of this kind of retail.”

“We quickly expanded our network to 11 states and 23 cities with 850+ stores. We will continue leveraging our unique tech and supply chain for fresh and packaged food to reach 50+ cities,” Prerna adds.

Providing a high-return customer acquisition platform for D2C brands, Daalchini has collaborated with more than 160 brands like Sleepy Owl, The Whole Truth Foods, Open Secret, Yoga Bar, Slurrp Farm, BRB, Cremica Opera, Cravova, Millet Bowl, Yogapulp as well as industry giants like Dabur, Nestle, Mars.

Daalchini’s Retail-as-a-Service platform enables these brands to grow in hundreds of physical stores while tracking real-time insights digitally. The unique vending machine ecosystem created by the Company enables brands and entrepreneurs to reach their customers all over the country within a week.

Anirudh A. Damani, Artha Venture Fund, says “As the earliest backer of Daalchini, we are excited to see the Company deepen its footprints within the industry through its fully integrated IoT solutions. They provide a convenient, safe, and affordable snacking solution for the working population while delivering real-time insights, vast reach, increased accessibility, and better control of marketing spending to food brands, all at the click of a button. What excites us most is that with this fresh infusion of capital from Unicorn and VSS, Daalchini can continue expanding its offerings with a broader reach and a highly efficient capital utility!”

According to the Kearney India Retail Index, the retail industry, dominated by the food and groceries sector, will grow at a 9% rate from $779 billion in 2019 to $1,407 billion in 2026 to $1,884 billion in 2030. Despite the pandemic, research finds that the industry has and will continue to grow on the back of value e-commerce and an unprecedented reach across Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. These trends align parallelly with Daalchini’s growth trajectory and plans, which will help unlock growth opportunities in untapped markets of the country.

About Daalchini

Daalchini is the brand of Daalchini Technologies, which makes your essentials accessible anytime, and anywhere. It provides instant, affordable, 6-meals-a-day food options through IoT-enabled ‘phygital’ (physical+digital) vending machines. It serves 100+ start-ups, co-working spaces, large MNCs, hospitals, educational institutes, and residential complexes.

Daalchini is a brand of full-stack smart retail offerings that cater to on-the-go food consumption with a specialized supply chain designed to serve the 6-meal-a-day needs of our customers. Its product suite has a complete platform to launch vending machines, micro-markets, automated kiosks, and mobility solutions.

Daalchini is present in 20+ cities in India. It has 200+ franchise partners and 160+ brands selling on its platform.

Unicorn India Ventures is a Mumbai-based early-stage fund house started in 2016 by Anil Joshi and Bhaskar Majumdar. From its first Fund, UIV has invested in 18 companies like Inc42, Sequretek, Pharmarack, Genrobotics, NeuroEquilibrium, SmartCoin, and Open Bank to name a few. Unicorn India has also announced Fund II, a Rs 300 crore fund launched in 2019 which has invested in 19 companies so far like Gamerji, ForeignAdmits, Probus, and SocialSwag. The Fund has emerged as the best performing early stage fund in India with the stellar exits provided by the fund to its LPs.

Artha Venture Fund (AVF) is India's first early-stage micro-VC firm with a corpus of $33 million. Since its inception in late 2018, AVF has primarily funded and supported multiple startups that operate as enablers and entities focused on solving the challenges of Indian consumers and businesses. The current fund allocates thematic investment for B2B, B2C/D2C, and D2C enablers.

Led by Anirudh A Damani, a second-generation investor, the firm has a network of limited partners, co-investors, founders, and family offices that traverse the globe. AVF's portfolio includes Agnikul, LenDenClub, HobSpace, PiggyRide, Daalchini, Kabbadi Adda, and more.

Artha Group of Companies, the umbrella entity of AVF, has investments in 90+ startups across India, the US, Israel, and Africa, like OYO Rooms, Purplle, IconBuild, Tala, LeveragEdu, Coutloot, Karza Technologies, Mobilewalla, Interstellar and more.

US-based Pactera Edge and IIIT Hyderabad Announce AI Innovation Challenge for Retail and Manufacturing Startups

• Pactera EDGE, a USA-based AI digital technology services company, today announced the launch of an AI Innovation Challenge in India, in partnership with IIIT Hyderabad
• Targeting innovative ideas and start-ups in thematic focus areas under Computer Vision for Human Activity Detection, and Visual Inspection in manufacturing
• With a 12 lakh grant for each selected startup, the program will focus on enabling domain connection and market access for startups having AI solutions in the retail and manufacturing sectors

Pactera EDGE, an AI and Digital technology company headquartered in Redmond, USA today announced an AI Innovation Challenge in association with IIIT Hyderabad for early-stage startups with technologies that can address problems in the Retail and Manufacturing sectors. Specifically leveraging computer vision for Human Activity Detection, Visual Inspection in manufacturing. Pactera EDGE has partnered with International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad( IIITH) for this initiative.

Pactera EDGE and IIITH are looking for startups with technologies addressing specific problem statements. The ideas include strategy, technologies, expected outcome and impact. Early-stage startups leveraging Computer Vision which have adjacent tech that can be pivoted to address retail or manufacturing problems. The program helps startups with Research connect, general strategy mentoring, specific domain use cases and problem identification, assistance through the solution pivot for this domain, and then connect with a few prospects globally.

Selected startups will go through a structured immersion program for four months to help them pivot the product for specific domain use cases, enrich tech through inputs from research, and align with the market areas chosen by Pactera EDGE. They will also receive a INR 12 lakh equity-free grant.

‘’Pactera EDGE believes in reinventing customer experience using revolutionary AI technologies and give our customers the winning EDGE in the digital era,’’ says Dinesh Chandrasekar, CIO, Pactera EDGE.

Pactera EDGE will also support these ideas with mentorship across spheres including technology, business strategy, design, and product development. IIITH will leverage its deep tech research capabilities and vast experience incubating startups to provide research and business mentorship to selected startups.

CIE at IIITH, over the past 13 years has incubated over 400 startups. And since founding T-Hub, has focussed on deep tech startups, specifically through accelerator programs like Avishkar and Ojas. In recent years the corporate accelerator programs have helped connect these early-stage startups with markets.

“CIE-IIITH is very happy to be partnering with Pactera EDGE for through market access program. As an early-stage incubator, helping startups with market access is the most significant challenge. And such corporate programs help are a key enabler towards this goal” said Prof Ramesh Loganathan, Head of Outreach, Professor of Co-innovation at IIIT Hyderabad.

More detailst at https://cie.iiit.ac.in/pactera-edge-ai-innovation-challenge/

Pactera EDGE brings together data, intelligence, and experiences to deliver human-centric solutions to complex business challenges. Pactera EDGE is a consulting and technology services partner headquartered in Redmond, USA, offering inventive solutions in AI and Digital Transformation space, which includes Cloud, RPA, Data Monetization, and AI enablement services. With over 2800 employees worldwide and a 500000+ crowd-sourced global workforce, Pactera EDGE creates business value for Fortune 2000 companies by accelerating business innovation, enabling new growth, improving operational efficiency, and transforming the user experience.

International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, is a research university with deep tech capabilities and established centres of excellence focusing on natural language processing (speech and text), image processing, computer vision, machine learning, and applications of artificial intelligence to population-scale problems. IIIT’s CIE is one of India’s oldest incubators, has enabled 40+ startups and has raised $25Mn+ external funds for partner startups. For more information, visit https://www.iiit.ac.in.

Retail Tech Company Vendekin Technologies Secures INR 8.5 Cr in Pre-Series A Round Led by Better Capital

• Targets USD 100mn (GTV) gross transaction value globally in unattended retail transactions by 2025
• Plans expansion into new global markets like USA and Europe
• To explore new avenues of unattended commerce such as EV chargers, amusement parks and laundromats
• The capital raised will be used to strengthen R&D and technology teams to drive superior consumer buying experience in vending machines and micro-markets

Vendekin Technologies, global pioneers in unattended retail technology solutions, today announced that it has raised INR 8.5 crores in a pre-Series A funding round. The round is led by Better Capital with participation from existing investors CP Gurnani's Family Office and Vineet Nayyar’s Family Office. The capital will primarily be used to strengthen R&D and technology teams to drive superior consumer buying experience at vending machines and micro markets.

The company further plans to expand into global markets such as USA and Europe, explore new avenues of unattended commerce such as EV chargers, amusement parks and laundromats as well as create a new channel of unattended retail in India through its one-of-a-kind V-commerce platform. It aims to power USD 100mn (GTV) gross transaction value globally in unattended retail transactions by 2025.

Founded in 2016 by Aroon Khattar, Vendekin Technologies is India's first hardware-enabled SaaS startup that is making waves globally in the unattended retail space. The company provides its proprietary technology solutions to large multinational companies as well as helps small vending operators digitize their business. The plug-and-play hardware solution, called Retrobox, can fit into any traditional vending machine without the need for 4G/5G, upgrading it to a smart, touch-less vending machine. The solution has been widely accepted by global players such as SandenVendo,Cantaloupe, Nestle to name a few.


The company has also recently launched the world’s first unattended retail aggregator platform called ‘V-commerce’ in India. This new platform is the first of its kind, one-stop solution anywhere in the world that brings consumers, vending machine operators, FMCG companies, vending equipment and technology providers and financiers on a common platform. Leading vending machine operators like Vendiman, Instago and Snackit and FMCG players like Coca Cola, Nestle, Godrej are a part of the platform.

Aroon Khatter, Founder and CEO, Vendekin Technologies said, “We are excited to have Better Capital as our strategic investor in our mission to revolutionize to digitize the unattended retail sector globally. The team at Better has steered several SaaS companies towards success in both domestic and international markets. We have a very special product in the unattended retail space and Better’s expertise will be instrumental in helping us gain market share globally. We are also excited about our plan for India where we have launched our V-commerce platform which is spawning many entrepreneurs in the unattended retail space. We already power the highest number of machines in the country, and you will see significant action from our side as we multiply this number many times over in the next few months.”

The global market for vending is projected to reach US$146.6 billion, growing at a CAGR of 1.3% by 2027. India, on the other hand, is expected to grow at a much faster clip at 14.9% CAGR, growing its market by 10 times within this period, as per a recent report by ResearchAndMarket. Vendekin aims to ride this wave and grow its presence from 4,000 to 50,000 machines and unattended kiosks by 2025. The company’s revenue has grown 400% year-on-year since 2020 and it currently facilitates around 1 million unattended retail transactions a month in India.

"Vendekin is building Stripe-like infrastructure for unattended retail, and we are excited to partner with Aroon and team as they scale their proven stack to serve a global customer base", said Vaibhav Domkundwar of Better Capital, an early backer of breakout SaaS & infrastructure companies like Teachmint, Stader Labs, Khatabook and Airmeet.

About Vendekin Technologies:

Founded by Aroon Khatter in 2016, Vendekin Technologies is India’s leading hardware-enabled SaaS company which aims to democratize the global unattended/unmanned retail market. The company provides its proprietary technology solutions to a rich depth of partners/customers. From customized private labelled technology solutions to large multinational companies to helping small vending operators digitize their business, Vendekin’s solutions are reliable, flexible and agile. With multiple patents in the US, UK, EU and India, Vendekin is at the forefront of innovation and development in the unattended retail industry.



Vendekin currently operates in six countries including India, UAE, the UK, the US, Saudi Arabia and Oman and has enabled over 2 million transactions worth USD 5 million to date. The company has partnership with leading OEM manufacturers in the retail, refrigeration and vending space like SandenVendo, Nestle, Cantaloupe, Godrej, Elanpro, Vendiman, Instago etc. The company's early backers include CP Gurnani’s Family Office, Vineet Nayyar’s Family Office, Charudutta Palwe and others. To know more, visit: https://www.vendekin.com/

Bengaluru-based DaveAI Joins Intel’s Open Retail Initiative to Accelerate the Pace of Innovation in the Retail Sector

DaveAI; a visual AI platform empowering businesses to leverage AI to augment customer experience & sales, has collaborated with Intel; the founding member of ORI (open retail initiative) to scale innovative digital solutions in the retail sector.

The Open Retail Initiative

Intel has launched an open retail initiative (ORI) in collaboration with various organizations in the industry to initiate digitalization in the processes of retail sector that transcend the existing traditional roles. The open retail initiative is a program that consists of a group of organizations doing work for the retail sector coming together to bring about a successful transformation in retail.

Challenges faced by organizations

With the advancement of AI, the arrival of digital transformation in retail has driven a need to update current working methodologies and enhance the customer experience. Fluctuating customer demands have led the supply chains to re-evaluate the dynamics of the domain. There are many challenges organizations face to bring about this evolution. A unified strategy across all departments is hard to build. Fulfilment of the requirements of technical, operational, and financial feasibility becomes difficult that leads the organizations to slow down their approach.

The partnership solution

To overcome such challenges, the ORI has deployed an open framework for businesses to build scalable solutions on a common platform mitigating the circumstantial need for resources. Seamless integrations are enabling business owners to understand and upgrade all aspects of the retail sector. ORI benefits retailers, SIs, ISVs, OEMs/ODMs, and solution aggregators by making interoperability easily possible to deploy new systems on the go.

About DaveAI

The DaveAI lens projects the ultimate goal of deploying complex AI use cases easily that meets the objectives ORI has. With an understanding of the market and deployment of real time data, DaveAI provides a unique blend of personalization and accuracy with its AI based product solutions. DaveAI's platform enables a seamless customer journey while easing out the process of product discovery.

The chain of improvements seen today, highlights the use of immersive technologies driven by AI when customer satisfaction is seen bubbling with the sales in retail hitting the roof. Speaking about the partnership, Dr. Ananthakrishnan Gopal, Cofounder & CTO - DaveAI said, 'In partnership with Intel, DaveAI will keep contributing to the retail sector by deploying higher value solutions to humanize digital experience and help build meaningful customer relationships.

Retail Platform Jumbotail Raises an $85 Mn Series C Round Led by Invus

Jumbotail, India’s leading New Retail platform and B2B ecommerce marketplace for food and grocery products, has raised an $85M Series C round led by Artal Asia Pte. Ltd., an affiliate of Invus, a global equity investment firm with over $10 billion of evergreen capital under management. Ajax Capital, the family office of veteran FMCG entrepreneur Ajay Gupta, also participated in the round. This Series C round was a combination of primary and secondary investments, with early investors Nexus Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital taking minor part-exits in the secondary. This takes the total capital raised by the company to $125M.

Francis Cukierman, Managing Director, Invus Asia and Benjamin Felt, Managing Director, Invus US will join Jumbotail’s Board of Directors. Cukierman and Felt commented, “Our evergreen structure enables us to partner for the long term with companies who seek to transform their industries, and we are thrilled to embark on such a partnership with Jumbotail, which is rapidly emerging as an industry-defining company in B2B eCommerce. We share Ashish and Karthik’s vision of digitising kirana stores to transform India’s food and grocery retail landscape at scale."

Ashish Jhina, Co-founder & COO, Jumbotail, said, “We nearly quadrupled our scale in 2021 and are looking to further accelerate our growth trajectory in the coming year. We will continue to invest aggressively to make Jumbotail the pre-eminent destination for food and grocery brands to reach the overwhelming majority of India’s consumers through our pan-India network of kirana partners.”

Ajay Gupta, Ajax Capital, said, "Having spent nearly 25 years building FMCG brands in India the hard way, I believe Jumbotail will make it infinitely easier for the next generation of FMCG brands to scale rapidly and cost effectively. I am excited to be part of this journey"

“I knew in my first meeting with Jumbotail's founders that I had discovered a company unlike any other in my career. This fundraise is a validation of the top-notch execution demonstrated by the Jumbotail team throughout the Covid pandemic and the immense value they are creating for brands and kirana store entrepreneurs in an incredibly capital efficient manner" said Tom Williams, sole GP of Heron Rock, and a Board Director in Jumbotail.

Jumbotail connects nearly 2000 FMCG & staples brands and sellers to ~150,000 kirana stores across 38 cities and towns in India via its full stack e-commerce model consisting of its B2B e-commerce marketplace platform and its industry leading warehousing and logistics supply chain network. Jumbotail’s New Retail platform transforms kirana stores into modern omni-channel convenience grocery stores under the J24 brand within 24-48 hours - offering kirana retailers a full suite of Retail Operating System for digitizing in-store operations with Point-of-Sale (POS), inventory management, real time data and merchandising insights, daily fulfillment of thousands of products, a B2C online store as well as loyalty and digital marketing solutions to better connect retailers to their consumers. The company provides direct and indirect employment to over 2000 people across the country.

Jumbotail will use the funds to triple its engineering, product, design, data science, category management, marketing, and finance teams. It will also scale its core B2B marketplace to 100 cities and towns across India, expand its network of J24 stores, invest in large scale kirana entrepreneur skill development initiatives, and further strengthen its Go-To-Market services to support regional and new age FMCG brands.

Jumbotail was founded in Nov 2015 by Stanford MBA classmates S.Karthik Venkateswaran and Ashish Jhina. Karthik served with the Indian army in hard combat and is a marketplace tech/product veteran from eBay-US and Flipkart. Ashish Jhina is a 3rd generation apple farmer, and a former consultant with BCG, with deep experience in agricultural production and supply chains.

An estimated 14 million kirana stores in India control more than 95% of the country’s $500B+ food and grocery market. Startups like Jumbotail are poised to transform the kirana store ecosystem at an unprecedented pace and scale over the next few years.

About Invus

Invus is a global equity investment firm with over $10 billion of evergreen capital under management, operating out of offices in the US, Europe and Asia. Invus is the exclusive investment advisor of Artal Group, based in Luxembourg, and its Singapore-based affiliate Artal Asia Pvt. Ltd.

Since its founding in 1985, Invus has focused on empowering entrepreneurs to transform their industries. Invus has been an active investor in India’s food and FMCG sector since 2013.

5 Best Kirana-Tech Apps For Your Retail Store

Pretty much everyone is well-aware of what a retail store is: a business place that is usually owned and operated by a retailer and sometimes even owned and operated by a manufacturer. In some situations, the place can be owned and operated by someone else than the retailer in which merchandise is sold first to ultimate consumers.

When it comes to Kirana-tech apps that you can use for a retail store, the options are almost endless, and we’re glad to mention the best of them:

Peel-Works

Peel-Works focuses on order management and extended salesforce management. Getting real-time reports and updates at the store level for the brands won’t be a problem anymore with Peel-Works, as the app consists of a network of retailers who are connected to the platform of the company itself. There are two products for retailers that are offered: Taikee and Stores 98.

With Taikee, retailers can take advantage of an ordering platform to order products from numerous brands and provide facilities. Stores 98, on the other hand, is a platform for optimizing the inventor, and there are also sales automation features included.

Lua

You certainly cannot survive as a retailer without a powerful tool for dealing with text files. That’s exactly where Lua comes in handy, as it’s an online application built for those willing to convert document files of various formats: PDF, PPT, DOC, Excel, Word, and more. The online service even allows the user to convert image files such as those of the JPG to PDF and PDF to PNG formats.

Lua works on pretty much any device that’s capable of opening a webpage, regardless if it’s a laptop, tablet, or phone. Any uploaded files will be automatically deleted from the app’s servers. Any conversion process through Lua will be done in literally seconds.

MaxWholesale

MaxWholesale is an online B2B grocery company that has its location in Delhi (India). MaxWholesale usually caters to restocking needs when it comes to grocery businesses. The service uses data science-based tools as well as real-time optimization algorithms for reducing distribution cost in the case of companies and increase the ROI for some stores. The company claims to have tied up with about 1,000 mom-and-pop stores from Delhi. Both Android and iOS devices are capable of running the app.

TradeDepot

TradeDepot is an online platform that provides management software, and that has its location in Lagos (Nigeria). Suppliers are able to build a dashboard based on their current organizations’ shared information. Suppliers can also manage secondary distribution, orders and inventories, and more. There’s also a real-time view of the prices and discounts available from all major brands.

TradeDepot is easy to use, safe and secure, and last but not least: it provides worldwide shipping. The app allows the user to connect with trusted suppliers from all over the world. 

SnapBizz

SnapBizz is known to provide technology solutions for offline retailers, and it also has its location in India (Bangalore). There are plenty of hardware solutions for brands aimed to show their products in offline retail stores. SnapBizz also offers retailers the chance to set up an online store and manage both order and inventory.

From the multitude of useful features of SnapBizz, we can mention stock management, an inbuilt CRM, billing automation, and more. The company in charge of SnapBizz had been working with over 2500 retail stores from India. The SnapBizz POS billing solution was specially developed for Kirana stores, and it helps the owners to increase their business operations, sales, store walk-ins, and more.

Retail stores will always be important, as they play a major role in high-level exposure of businesses and widespread product distribution. Furthermore, you can promote products to these stores and also provide the chance of testing products before deciding to buy them or not.

Amazon Acquires Bengaluru-based Retail Tech Startup Perpule for ₹108 Cr

Perpule co-founders

Amazon Technologies, the research and development subsidiary of e-commerce major Amazon.com Inc, has acquired Bengaluru-based retail tech start-up Perpule for about Rs 107.6 crore.

Founded in 2016, Perpule provide offline commerce solutions by offering customers self-checkouts and self-ordering solutions for offline stores, outlets, malls & cafeterias. This improves the shopping experience of customers and solves the problem of queues at checkout counters.

The Perpule acquisition will allow Amazon to offer Perpule's 'UltraPoS' Point-of-Sale device and other new technology products to its kirana partners.

The acquisition will allow early investors in Perpule to exit with 4-5 times returns, Mint, which accessed the regulatory filings filed by the start-up with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said.

In November 2018, Perpule had raised $4.7 million in Series A funding from Prime Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital and Venture Highway.

Amazon is also likely to pay additional remuneration to Perpule's employees, which will take the deal value to about Rs 150 crore, the publication cited two sources as saying.

Most of Perpule's employees, including co-founders Abhinav Pathak, Saketh BSV and Yogesh Ghaturle, are likely to join Amazon, it said.

Confirming the news of acquisition, an Amazon India spokesperson said Perpule's cloud POS will help offline stores manage their operations better. "Perpule has built an innovative cloud-based POS offering that enables offline stores in India to better manage their inventory, checkout process, and overall customer experience. We are excited to have the Perpule team join us to focus on providing growth opportunities for businesses of all sizes in India while raising the bar of the shopping experience for Indian customers," the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Retail Tech Platform, Arzooo Raises $ 7.5 mn in Series A led by US-based WRVI Capital

Retail Tech Platform, Arzooo Raises $ 7.5 mn in Series A led by US-based WRVI Capital 

The B2B Retail-tech firm will leverage funds for technology and market expansion 

Arzooo, India's fastest growing retail-tech startup today announced that it has raised $7.5 mn in Series A funding led by WRVI Capital. Arzooo's existing investors 3Lines Venture Capital, another US-based investor and Jabbar internet of UAE also participated in the current round. The startup will leverage funds for tech-upgradation and market expansion.

Arzooo, which currently operates in Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad will be scaling operations in Eastern and Western regions of the country. The startup will also channelize funds to ramp its 'Tech platform, "Go Store. Arzooo's "Go Store" is the unique technology platform by Arzooo that solves the big problem of selection, price and complex supply chain & sourcing for offline retailers. The company aims to serve 50,000 retailers in the next year.

Commenting on the fundraise, Khushnud Khan, cofounder of Arzooo.com says, "Our strong growth over the past year is a testimony to the positive impact Arzooo has had on the business of physical retailers. The current fundraise will help us boost our Technology, Quality of service and reach to fulfil our goal of equipping each retail store with technology to grow and perform profitable business."

Sudhir Rao, Managing Partner WRVI Capital India Says, Arzooo has in less than two years, through it's initial focus on $50 Billion consumer durable segment , demonstrated a highly scalable product market fit, especially in a country where local medium & small retailers dominate the market. Arzooo's technology and localised demand-Supply integration offers great scalability to retail stores for both product expansion and profitability, which is a win-win for all.

Arzooo recently announced the launch of its new digital credit lending product, 'Arzooo Credit', for offline retailers, that will offer working capital cushion to Arzooo's partner stores, especially during the time when the retail is just on its way to recovery from covid impact. With Arzooo Credit, retailers can avail from Rs 1,00,000 to 10,00,000 credit on Arzooo platform. At present, the service is open to over 5000 retailers across 10 cities.

About Arzooo.com:

Arzooo.com is a retail technology venture empowering physical retailers to compete and grow against e-commerce platforms like amazon and Flipkart, with its technology platform.

Arzooo's unique technology platform is India's fastest growing integrated retail network with over 5000 partner stores. Spread across 10+ cities, Arzooo enables a partner store to overcome broader limitations of physical retail and offer its customers the largest inventory selection, best price and fastest delivery, without them having to stock everything. This is backed by attractive payments and financing solutions to drive up sales and conversion in- store.

Arzooo is founded by ex-Flipkart colleagues and IIT-Kharagpur alumn, Khushnud Khan and Rishi Raj Rathore, in the year 2018 in Bangalore. Since its inception, Arzooo has seen tremendous growth and has enabled over 5000 partner stores to grow sales and compete with bigger sellers and online marketplaces.