All of us live in a fast-paced world. We are doing multiple activities and producing new technology-led innovations in order to make life easy and convenient. But however, there still remains the never answered question of how long to wait for what. Wherever we go, queues are everywhere, from ticket counters at the theatres to the billing counters at the shopping malls.
Apprehending this scenario, DroptheQ came into the inception with its unmatched blend of online Phygital solution to real-time problems.
DroptheQ is a retail convenience start-up working towards a mission to digitize the Indian retail industry. As the name suggests, it provides technology to remove queues at the billing counters of any food court, modern retail stores or a quick serving restaurant, a corporate café, institution canteen to exponentially enhance the customer experience and remove the bottlenecks from retails.
The company has enabled its customers to organize and execute their shopping needs without waiting in checkout lines and by offering them contactless and time-saving services. It has mobile and web-based digital solutions including indigenously developed ‘scan and go’, for digital self-checkouts for all who need it.
It is hugely contributing to the Digital India Mission by building global AI/ML-based retail technologies in India. This can be used for better analytics, theft prevention, reducing wastages and shrinkages.
The company was initially a bootstrapped start-up. Later, it raised US $ 1.15 million from angel investors
Vaibhav Singhal, Co-founder and CEO of the company, an IIM Indore alumnus, mentioned- “still 70% of the retail is governed by walk ins, however there is no digital intervention yet to improve the customer experience.We identified this problem and started working on it in 2019 and by early 2020 our product was ready for beta testing”
Nikhil Monga, Co-founder and CTO, with 25 yrs of tech experience said that- building the technology is the easisiest thing to do, however building a relatable and robust one is challenging. Our user interface is capable of providing multiple dimension experience to the user. Architecture is well thought of and is capable of handling multiple use cases.”
Let us go through the journey and services provided by the company in the most innovative and convenient way possible.
The Problem-solving Approach
The concept of queues is always irritating, and no one likes to wait in line, especially in rush hours. The industry data reveals that every minute spent waiting in queues increases customers dissatisfaction proportionately. This was the very idea behind DroptheQ.
This idea struck when Vaibhav realized that, on average, a person spends more than 20 minutes to get his/her things billed, and sometimes even more time is consumed if there are technical errors or manual delays. When he looked deeper into this matter, he realized that it’s a matter of concern for the industry as well.
Swati Agarwal, Co-founder and COO, who is a Delhi University Gold Medalist from Lady Sriram College and MCA, mentions that the entire idea of removing the queues from the billing counters was not only to increase customer retention but also to increase the average order value while decreasing the TAT (Turnaround time) considerably. This further widens the gap between the Top-line and the expenses of enterprises. DroptheQ saw this as an opportunity to digitize and make billings convenient while generating smiles across customers and also retailers.
What’s in it for Companies and Customers?
- Pre-ordering for restaurants, cafeterias, canteens, and messes for takeaways and dine-in.
- Orders to serve for food courts
- Self-checkout for retail.
An Uphill Climb
The company had its fair share of challenges as well. Since DroptheQ was a new concept, it was a challenge for the company to convince its customers to accept it.
Mr Singhal states, “Customer behaviour is the most difficult thing to change.” But as the team has been persuasive in its approach, it has successfully been able to convince its customers to believe in it.
The Pandemic Diaries
The pandemic has been very harsh on everyone. Since DroptheQ works entirely on the retail industry and because the industry was shut down or in partial lockdown, it made severe impacts on its revenues. But as the company provides technical solutions, it was able to help clients in making their stores contactless, cashless, and queue-less.
Pan India Concept
When it comes to the future, DroptheQ plans on spreading its wings in Pan India within a year while providing convenience and ease to its customers. The company is in close talks with several brands and malls across India that are willing to take the benefits it is offering. This will only make their business expand currently in the country and further globally.
A Note of Advice
We asked Mr Singhal for his advice to the aspiring entrepreneurs who want to make a mark in this segment, to which he says, “Make sure that you are solving a real-world problem, the solution is scalable and the market size is worth taking that risk.”
