2020 has undeniably been a year of extremes. There have been widespread disruptions for companies across verticals with a slump in growth and revenues. However, for certain sectors, 2020 has been a surprisingly good year and as it draws to an end, businesses are gearing up to accelerate their revival process and maintain an upward growth trajectory in the next year. For MaxWholesale, the fastest-growing digital distribution platform for kirana stores, 2020 has been a year of growth and expansion.
Having started at a run-rate of USD 4 million, the up-and-coming platform crossed US $50 million over the year, clocking a 12x top-line growth. Among the multiple drivers behind this stellar growth, the foremost is perhaps its increased coverage. The platform that identifies the pain points of kirana stores, has onboarded more than 25,000 retailers since inception.
With a steadily growing retailer base and increased awareness about its tech-powered solutions, the number of listed products on its platform has crossed 7,000, while the number of warehouses the company owns has touched 7. In another win, the company’s team size has grown 3x despite losing over 70% of its team at the beginning of the lockdown phase. On average, MaxWholesale has grown 35% month-on-month. Additionally, the company also expanded its footprint by launching its data-driven services in Chandigarh, thereby becoming a multi-city player.
Alongside these impressive growth statistics, MaxWholesale also developed two new products for kirana stores – Radius and MaxPe. Radius is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) app for kirana stores to connect with their customers, manage catalogs, communicate, receive orders, and even run marketing campaigns to enable them to compete with other stores in the neighborhood. MaxPe is an exclusive UPI-based payment gateway for kirana stores to securely pay and receive money without handling cash transactions, a feature that comes in handy at a time when almost the entire country is resorting to digital payments on safety grounds.
Furthermore, the burgeoning platform also launched the Unnati Scheme, under which kirana stores can optimize costs by earning loyalty-based cash-back rewards for purchasing inventory on the MaxWholesale’s app. When it comes to revenues, MaxWholesale’s FY 20 revenues comprise USD 18 million for its top line and net revenue of US $0.5 million.
Speaking on the platform’s noteworthy progress during the year, Samarth Agrawal, CEO, and Co-Founder of MaxWholesale said, “2020 was a year of supply chain disruption for offline distribution with retailers shifting to online purchasing of inventory. We capitalized on this opportunity by quickly bolstering our operational capacity by launching new warehouses, adding more products, and partnering with established as well as emerging brands. This year has left plenty of lessons in its wake for businesses to learn and grow. We have learned that India has a vast, highly reliable, and resilient network of kirana stores and that distribution is more important than the product. We look forward to stepping into 2021 and continuing to address the pain points of kirana stores through innovative tech-driven solutions.”
