A novel way to market locally

Remember the days you would run out to the local grocery store and get whatever you needed? Remember how you would meet people along the way, have a quick chat before entering the store and then meet more people there who you hadn't met in a long time? And then the store owner would inquire about your health since you hadn't come around for your regular supply of eggs the previous week? The good old days you say? After all, everyone is now shopping online at some time or the other.

Owing to this, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, the store owners may have had to down their shutters. And as a result, the neighborhood may have gotten more socially distant. Ironically most people who do shop online may in fact prefer the "good old days" of shopping in their favorite physical store.

We all have our preferred local fruit and vegetable vendors, grocery stores, medical shops, bakeries, cafes and convenience stores which play a vital role in our locality and society. Local art and cultural options help build a vibrant local economy. Losing some of these, would be a tragedy given many might not be in a position to re-open when the economy picks up or when the pandemic abates. We need to re-assess the situation as it stands for stores, and also for customers.

David vs Goliath

The e-commerce giants thrive owing to the convenience they offer, their 24x7 availability, the ease of transaction, discounts, and virtually unlimited choice under one virtual roof. They are backed by data insights of user's buying behaviour to adapt their offerings.

How does a local store or vendor compete with the big online names?

• Be reachable, either via phone or an online presence.

• Keep local consumers informed of offerings and promotions.

• Make it convenient by offering home delivery.

• Offer variety and choice for the consumer from one platform.

A recent trend is online chat groups which help consumers and providers connect. However these are limited-member groups which would inherently have limited reach. Customer retention and engagement becomes difficult in a chat group. A consolidation of groups is required to offer variety and choice, which would help customer retention. As we know window shopping more often than not, leads to a sale.

There needs to be a way to-

• Declutter the chats so that individual sellers posts are not drowned in a deluge of posts and replies.

• Retain consumers by giving them options to turn off posts and turn it back on again, to follow their specific interests or to follow/ block providers.

• Choose the coverage area a seller can service or the area a consumer can search for options, even when on the move.

• Showcase user ratings to build trust and give consumers confidence.

• Gain insights from the locality to better meet the needs of consumers.

• Adapt to time based trends to help the local business grow.

The Ripple Effect

Ripple bridges this gap and a lot more. Ripple app provides a platform to connect users locally or while on the move. You don't need to join specific groups. Your network is around you. Advertise, buy, sell, ask, recommend, share, alert, reach out or connect socially within your locality. You have access to all app users in the locality, even when on the move. The coming together of small businesses in the locality, on one platform, to offer much variety and choice is an untapped power of the collective and the yellow brick road to customer retention.

It opens up excellent possibilities for local businesses to socially engage and build a trustworthy brand with customers. After all a business isn't just a faceless entity. It's made up of people, at times built over generations. Lets face it, buying online is always going to be more convenient. All a local store needs to do is find ways to make the trek worthwhile for the consumer. Ripple can help with this too!!!

Local businesses can post from their location to connect with their locality. Ripple allows you to specify a different reach for each of your individual posts. Other users will see that post only if they are within that range from you. You can use a post's reach to better effect, to attract consumers to your local physical store. Brush up those creative marketing skills, tag the post, use relevant visual content and vary the post's reach depending on the intent of the message.

Online presence - Lets say for your initial post you set a max reach of 3 kms radius (28.3 sq. kms coverage area) to inform the locality of your timings, exciting new offerings and recent promotions. You are reachable via the App's chat interface. You don't need to exchange any personal contact details upfront, to connect with consumers.

Convenience - For the next post you advertise value added services like home delivery. In this case set the post's reach to the area you can service, e.g. 1 km radius (3.142 sq. kms coverage area).

Customer loyalty - Post early bird offers and discounts for your immediate locality to incentivize them to visit your store. The post's reach can be set to say 400-500 meters radius (0.5 to 0.8 sq. km coverage area).

You can socially engage with your locality without having to share personal contact information or without having to previously know anyone in your locality. A 3 km radius is approximately 28.3 sq. km coverage area. In a city like Bangalore with a population density of 12K plus people per sq. km this translates into 350,000 people! So even if a fair percentage of people in a locality install and use the app, it could have a BIG impact.

Lets try and get more of the "good old days version 2.0"! Download Ripple now. Get connected today!

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