It is often said about Bombay that the most magical of stories
find its roots in this charming city. It is a place which witnesses a
co-existence of 12 million people from all walks of life. The poor and the
rich, the big and the small, the old and the young – this city houses them all.
Amidst all of them, one group of people who have been an integral part of
Mumbai’s culture are the city’s famed chaiwalas, or tea
vendors.
Mumbaikars have always loved their tea, and that is the reason
why thousands of chaiwalasline the streets everyday
to serve the city its favourite drink. Everyone loves a sip or two, be it
executives discussing strategies while puffing on a cigarette or labourers
taking a break after toiling hard in the summer sun.
The Idea
We’ve always been fascinated by the organized nature of
the chaiwalas. From sunrise to sunset, they cater to
hundreds of customers everyday. In addition, they also follow a strict
timetable of tea deliveries to offices and residences in their locality. Their
discipline was the inspiration behind the conception of ChotuChaiWala.com.
At Zepo, being an eCommerce
website building platform, we took up the initiative of better connecting
the chaiwalas of Mumbai to its residents. With more
than 1000 online stores running on Zepo, probably the only category missing was
a chai ki dukaan!
Wouldn’t it be awesome if everyone in Mumbai could order tea
online while sitting at home or at work? Not only would it be great for the tea
lovers, but also for the chaiwalas who
could get hundreds of new customers through the internet. Because after all,
who likes to shop offline anymore, right?
The Execution
Once the basic plan
was chalked out, we got to work. We picked Bandra as our first destination to
start out from, simply because it is one of the biggest business centers in
Mumbai. We approached many tea vendors in and around the famous Linking Road
and put forward our idea to them.
Within a couple of days, we had 4 chaiwalas ready to pitch in together and purchase
an online store from us. Because they weren’t that tech savvy, we helped them
build their website completely within a day. We uploaded their photos, added
their ‘products’ and ChotuChaiWala.com was up and running. We also provided
them with customized T Shirts and paper cups to help them market their online
store to their customers.