Avail bundle savings on community shopping

Ecommerce has disrupted the shopping patterns and this is visible in numerous segments with grocery emerging as new entrant and making a mark for itself. The segment already does have popular startups like Bulkwhiz, El Grocer, among others and many have joined bandwagon.
The latest entrant, ValuCart - sponsored and backed by one of the ruling family members of Sharjah - is an online e-commerce platform fashioned to offer bundle options, bulk buys to customers. The startup allows customers to create their own customised bundles and avail discounts on the same with free delivery. The startup has cashed on communities and their buying preferences with a focus on communities such as Emiratis, North Indian's, South Indian's, Chinese, Thai, African, Filipinos an array of their home grown bundles.
The startup allows customer to 'Build your own Bundle' (BYOB) in their Super Saver Zone (SSZ) where a customer potentially with be able to name there bundle and save it and check out the cart, where he/she will be able to get an addition of 5 per cent when orders are more than Dh100.
Valucart.com will be IOS and android driven and has inked partnership with Emirates cooperative society and Meat-one , Al Adil and Nesto. Cabeela Dhahlan, chief executive officer,Valucart, said: "The idea behind ValuCart evolved around mid 2017, when the founder's carried out market research on more than 100 household's (in Dubai and Sharjah) requesting them to list the most essential household items. When the survey results came in, it was quite clear that, in general most households use a common set of goods and hence the concept of procuring the common set of items wholesale and selling retail with substantial savings to customers evolved."
Dhahlan comes with a decade of experience in retail background and is equipped with a degree in computer information. "The UAE grocery industry has long resisted e-commerce with only 2 per cent of sales occurring online. The online grocery sales are on track to reach double digits by 2023, and it could even reach 15 per cent to 20 per cent in just a few years. This puts in a stress to stand alone grocery and retailers to come up with serious strategic, operational and financial challenges," said Dhahlan,
The UAE's population is perhaps the most tech savvy in the region and hence founders tapped e-commerce to make their vision a reality by launching ValuCart. The startup's business model is divided into two parts, deep discount though SSZ and regular buying for convenience.
The funding history of the startup indicates that it so far raised pre-seed, seed funding in excess of $500,000 and plans to raise $1 million in second-half of 2019.
Shaikh Khalid Saqer Majed Al Qassimi, chairman and co-founder, Valucart, said: "The business model was simple and made a lot of sense.We found that with ValuCart consumers can genuinely save and at the sametime the business can generate a decent return on Investment. The startup's USP is SSZ which offers anytime deep savings to customers selecting to buy our pre-designed bundles or bulk, or BYOB with a minimum purchase of Dh100 to get upto 15% savings anytime."
The startups cashed on the diverse population of the UAE to launch the unique concept. The founders realised that suppling quality products with substantial savings on essentials groceries with a convenience of home delivery was possible and most e-commerce was only based on convenience. Valucart was looking into giving a saving and convenience to many diverse customers either keeping to their bundles in mind or make products aware by communities. The idea was to reach out to customers by what they prefer to have and make the platform customer driven rather that supplier driven.
Sanath Edirisinghe, COO Valucart, said: "When I was initially approached to handle only the logistics of this proposed business I was thinking that it was just another e-commerce company. However after hearing the business concept of Valucart I decided to be a part of the team and to take up the challange to make this unique business concept a reality. Valucart was all the more interesting as this was a different model from all other grrocery applications. The "saving" aspect that Valucart offers was something unique and exactly what the customers needed. I was keen to be a partner in making this a reality."
- sandhya@khaleejtimes.com