Vegetables play a very important part of our daily meals. Consumption of fresh vegetables is good for both our taste buds and our general health.
It is because of the benefits of fresh vegetables that we are driven towards pushcarts in order to purchase them on a regular basis. However, the experience is not always a smooth one. Often, the cart is out of the items you want to buy or the quality of the vegetables isn’t that good. Sometimes you might end up missing the cart completely. Rajiv Rao, with his start-up, Fresh World, aims at improving this customer experience.
Background Check!
Rajiv established Fresh World in 2012 and over the course of these 8 years, claims to have served over 50,000 customers. The start-up gives a modern touch to the age-old vendor system by bringing technology into the mix.
All the vegetables are produced directly from the farmers and then distributed with the help of e-rickshaws. With the help of an app, a customer can know beforehand about the route a particular vendor would be taking along with the items it has and their prices.
The vendors reach all the lanes on their route at a fixed time which helps consumers in coming up with a routine. With the help of an SMS, users are notified about the availability and price of the fruits and vegetables on the cart coming to their doorstep.
The Reason For Its Success
What has made the model so successful is that the process of purchasing vegetables and fruits has become very organized for the consumers and vendors by using GPS-equipped carts and an Android app that provides a digital bill for every purchase.
At the same time, it has not taken away the ‘touch and feel’ experience which the customers prefer when purchasing F&V items, something which they can’t get when purchasing the same things via e-commerce websites.
Future Plans
The journey that started with just 5 carts and an initial investment of Rs. 40 lakh, has been a massively successful one as Fresh World now has 45 carts and has been able to earn a revenue of almost Rs. 6 crores.
All of this revenue has come from Bengaluru which is currently the only city where the start-up offers its services.
Rajiv has big plans for the future of Fresh World as he aims to add 100 more carts and begin operations in Delhi within the next couple of years before gradually expanding to other parts of the country.
