How women are Making it Big in Business Via WhatsApp-Based Social Commerce?

By Varun Khurana, Founder, Otipy ( India’s fastest growing social commerce venture)

 

Social commerce is not a new concept in the country major chunk of social commerce existed only in the fashion, beauty, and retail industries. Today, social commerce is gaining popularity for one of the fundamental aspects of life – fresh food. Fresh produce such as fruits and vegetables have become the most in-demand products as people switch to healthier ways of living and are eager to know the source.  

 

A USD 200 Billion fresh produce category is now witnessing major disruption through social commerce. It is garnering the attention of consumer, entrepreneurs, and investors, . In fact, consumers are increasingly preferring their food sourced through social commerce for various reasons such as higher credibility, rational price and most importantly, fresher produce (delivered within a day straight from the farms sometime within 12 hrs). For women looking to be a part of the business environment without monetary investment, social commerce within the food category is the ideal solution. Let us take a look at how social commerce is playing a key role in helping women make it big in business.

 

The rise of social commerce

Increasing internet penetration and social media usage have paved the way for the rise of social commerce. A majority of the population today uses and is in fact hooked onto social media and brands are leveraging this aspect. With the rise in demand for fresh produce, women are joining hands with brands to become resellers within their community to make a mark for themselves in their community by leveraging social commerce. Currently, fresh produce is a supply-led model and social commerce is flipping it to demand-led model that further helps in solving the problem of middlemen and wastage (since there is no inventory). Apart from this, it helps resellers connect with their customers-base efficiently and offer real-time feedback to the farmers regarding the quality of the produce.

 

The emergence of women as dominant sellers

 For the first time, women are taking the center stage in spurring the adoption of e-commerce and helping the industry as well as themselves progress. The advent of technology, rapid digitization of businesses, and easy access have helped drive this change. For women sellers, a slew of features aided by cutting-edge technology such as voice chats/chatbots, real-time updates and feedback to the farmers, and most importantly, WhatsApp-based marketing is coming handy to open more doors to become micro-entrepreneurs.         

Additionally, women sellers also have a higher average order value, better retention and repeat orders, making them more suitable. In fact, not just urban cities, but women resellers hail from tier-II and tier-III catchment areas are hopping on the fresh produce social commerce bandwagon to fulfil their goals and achieve financial independence with almost no investment. A whopping 68% of women in most platforms sell from tier-II and tier-III cities.

 

Women sellers also help customers gain the trust factor for unbranded products since they usually tend to lean towards known/established brands. In return, social commerce platforms offer easy access for women to build an entrepreneurial empire of their own through community engagement without hindrances. Particularly in vernacular language-led social commerce platforms, women are dominating the space, even though the concept is still at a very nascent stage. They are learning the tricks of the trade and are keen on flourishing in the competitive business environment.

 

Social commerce is quickly becoming a multi-million-dollar market in India. However, the country has a largely unorganized market, particularly in tier-II, tier-III and tier-IV cities, especially for the fresh produce category with millions of farmers scattered across the country. Additionally, shopping for fresh produce is a social concept of sorts. Since the pandemic has forced us to adhere to social distancing norms, social commerce is flourishing and women are leading the way. With technological advancements, greater digitization and the availability of regional languages providing easy access and seamless experience, the rise of women entrepreneurs through social commerce is inevitable.  

Infogain Recognized as 3rd Fastest Growing Company in Everest Group’s Engineering Services Top 50™ 2020

Infogain, a Silicon Valley based digital platform and software engineering company­, is pleased to announce that it ranked 3rd in revenue growth and 32nd overall in Everest Group’s Engineering Services Top 50™ 2020, a global list of the 50 largest providers of outsourced engineering services. In addition, ChrysCapital-backed Infogain’s buys of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Azure Expert MSP Silicus Technologies and strategy and design firm Revel Consulting featured in the report’s list of key acquisitions made by engineering companies in 2019.

Third-party providers were evaluated and ranked based on their CY 2019 engineering services revenue and year-on-year growth. This is the second year Everest Group has released an Engineering Services Top 50™ list, with this year’s Top 50™ accounting for $45.9 billion in revenue as compared to $40.5 billion in CY 2018.

Infogain was credited for offering key engineering services across select verticals, including Software Products, Computing Systems, Consumer Electronics, Healthcare & Medical Devices, Industrial & Energy, and Automotive.

Ayan Mukerji, President and Chief Operating Officer at Infogain, said, “We are pleased to make Everest Group’s Engineering Services Top 50™ 2020 list and to be recognized as 3rd for revenue growth. 2019 was a great year for us: we closed several large deals and joined hands with two outstanding companies offering niche, high-value-add services. This ranking is a great testament to Infogain’s software engineering expertise and relentless commitment to delivering value to our customers.”

The Top 50™ list helps enterprises get a better sense of the global third-party engineering services landscape, make more informed sourcing decisions, and identify new ways to leverage third-party engineering services providers. This list also helps service providers make better assessments of their competitive positions compared to their peers.

The Everest Group Engineering Services Top 50™ 2020 report can be viewed here.

About Infogain

Infogain is a Silicon Valley headquartered company with digital platform and software engineering expertise in the travel, retail, insurance, healthcare, and high technology industries. We accelerate design-led transformation and delivery of digital customer engagement systems and platforms. Infogain engineers business outcomes for Fortune 500 companies and digital natives using technologies such as cloud, microservices, robotic process automation, IoT, and artificial intelligence.

A ChrysCapital portfolio company, Infogain has offices in California, Washington, Texas, London, Dubai, India, and Singapore, with delivery centers in Austin, Kraków, New Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, and Mumbai.

Now Google starts cost cutting

Internet search giant Google Inc is known for hosting the most extravagant holiday parties in Silicon Valley, often drawing crowds of over 10,000 and prompting some employees to post ads for party dates on classifieds website Craigslist.

But even Google has decided to scale back its holiday celebrations this year due to a global economic downturn and an ever-expanding workforce that had grown to 20,000 in October, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Silicon Valley has few reasons to celebrate this year as companies, including Hewlett Packard Co, Yahoo Inc, Sun Microsystems Inc and Applied Materials Inc, have cut over 140,000 jobs in the last few months because of the bleak economy, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas consulting group.

Google has fared better than most tech companies, but departments at the Internet company will have smaller events this year to encourage camaraderie between employees and celebrate more economically, said the source. Team holiday activities will include spending an afternoon volunteering followed by evening social activities such as dinner parties and museum outings in San Francisco.

This is a striking difference from previous years, when Google holiday parties included ice sculptures of the company's logo, virtual reality video game stations, karaoke booths, sushi buffets and burlesque dancers.

Last year a party crowd of 10,000 spread throughout the Shoreline Amphitheater, near Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, said workers -- called Googlers. A handful used the Web to find dates.

But this year only one looked for a companion in a recent search on Craigslist. Google declined to comment on this year's change.

Bangalore techies cheer Obama

As Obama creates history by becoming the first Black to adorn the post of US President, these fans in the Indian Silicon Valley are more than a happy lot.

As Democrat Barack Obama has created history in the US Presidential elections by becoming the first Black to take control of the White House, this techie group from Bangalore would be more than happy, as their campaign has bore result.

These Bangalore techies, who had formed Barack Obama Bangalore Fan Club, were probably more enthusiastic than the American youth and they made all attempts possible on their part to fetch vote for the youth icon in his run-up for the most powerful post in the US.

Apart from calling up, SMSing and emailing friends and relatives in the US to vote for the Democrat, the club members also collected more than US$4000 from their circles, which they contributed to the election fund of Obama.

They had even organized rallies in the Indian Silicon Valley, carrying placards supporting Obama and explaining why the US as well as India need Obama in the White House.

The fan club members say they got the money for the election fund from several quarters voluntarily. And they believe that the young Democrat could bring a positive change. But it was Obama only who had played the anti-outsourcing card to woo the American youth in a recent electoral speech.

Will the fan club be able to make him retract from the announcement?

After all the statement had caused the Indian IT sector to press the panic button, as majority of outsourcing works from the US are shipped to India.

At this moment of history, some perennial questions arise.

Will the new President be able to help revive the nose-diving American economy? Will India, especially the IT sector, have to face the heat of the anti-outsourcing card played by Obama to win over the jobless youth of America?