MSMEs contribute to over 90% of the retail transactions of consumer goods in India, especially the non-branded consumer products that account for over $300 billion worth of B2B transactions. Unfortunately, they suffer losses in excess of $30 billion due to the unorganised nature of business, inefficiencies, damage, theft, unrecovered debts, and mismanagement of records and unavailability of credit, among other ancillary issues. This impacts over 20 million micro and small manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers etc.
While brands have their own distribution channels, the micro and small businesses lose out to middlemen. The reach of these manufacturers is mostly local and is limited to around 500 to 1,000 retailers. According to a survey by SpanBuy, a B2B marketplace exclusively for micro and small businesses, there is a minimum of 3 layers of middlemen before a product reaches the retailers. This significantly increases the cost and reduces the margins for small-time retailers. Since these products are not known brands, retailers show a lack of interest in buying and selling these products.
SpanBuy addresses this problem with its AI-powered Business Assistant, Jugni, which helps MSMEs save money, increase efficiency and scale businesses by leveraging the real-time intelligence it gathers around the dynamics of how day-to-day businesses run in the micro and small enterprise world.
“Jugni will soon be active to serve over 20 million MSMEs in India, before going global. With this highly trained sourcing specialist wholesalers and retailers can discover a wide range of goods with higher margins”, said Abhishek Pattnayak, co-founder and CEO of SpanBuy.
Jugni also serves as a ready platform for small manufacturers and importers to directly access SpanBuy’s current network of over 500,000 wholesalers and retailers, and even guides them on the nuances of e-commerce, added Abhishek.
The vision of SpanBuy is aligned with that of the Indian MSME Minister, Nitin Gadkari, who proposed an indigenously built platform, on the lines of Amazon or Alibaba, for the MSMEs in India.
“We are a startup and aim to work hand-in-hand with the Indian Government to create solutions for the MSME sector which is currently contributing 29% to our GDP with a potential to contribute 50% to India’s GDP. MSME can be a significant growth driver as India envisions to become a 5 trillion US dollar economy,” said Rithesh Monnappa, co-founder & COO, SpanBuy.
“Along with a good platform to sell, the MSMEs need solutions on trade-finance, analytics, logistics, CRM, accounting etc. SpanBuy aims to be the single source of truth and an all-in-one solution platform for over 20 million MSMEs. We understand the traditional ways and processes of the small business operations and provide solutions for each of these processes,” said Abhishek.
A sector driven by trust and references, SpanBuy spent a concerted effort of seven months to engage with and leverage the network and influence of old-time MSME players. Currently, the platform has onboard businesses from over 15 verticals which include over 750 manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers like Funkrafts, Yuma Mobile, Concept Store, Live Basil, Mrigya Clothing, among others. “We would scale to 2000 manufacturers and provide them with the requisite business solutions by the end of 2019,” informed Rithesh.
About Jugni
It is the first-of-its-kind AI-powered business assistant who understands the business functions and market dynamics simultaneously. Jugni is designed and developed exclusively for the MSME industry and is capable of processing a large volume of data points at a time to derive meaningful insights which can be consumed by users. The sole objective of Jugni is to grow the business of its users.
About SpanBuy
An AI-Powered trade and business management platform for micro and small manufacturers, importers, traders, wholesalers, and retailers in consumer product categories. SpanBuy was launched in November 2018, where anyone can buy directly from manufacturers at wholesale quantities and prices. As of today, the platform has on-boarded 600+ manufacturers who can sell their goods at wholesale quantities and prices.