Axiata Digital, a wholly owned subsidiary of Axiata Group Berhad, has made its first investment into India through assisted eCommerce player,
StoreKing run by LocalCube Commerce Pvt Ltd.
With presence in over 1200 towns, StoreKing’s simple model enables rural retailers to sell over 50,000 products to walk-in customers via its digital kiosks. Operating on an assisted eCommerce model, the retail shop owner helps customers use the Mobile kiosk, select products and make cash payment to the retailer. In return a receipt is given and StoreKing ships the products to the retail store within 24-48 hours. Users then can collect their order from these retail stores.
“From the beginning our goal was to help thousands of small businesses in Rural India to achieve a brighter future by enabling them to use technology. We hope to benefit from Axiata's experience in extensive geography based services and we couldn’t thank them enough for investing in the idea of StoreKing,”said Sridhar, CEO, StoreKing.
The service has grown from 400 StoreKing retailers during the first year of operation to over 16,000 Mobile kiosks with a network of Kirana stores across south India. It currently delivers over 150,000 orders every month from a base of over 1 million. Targeting retailers in Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities, StoreKing has also partnered with Mobile Wallet companies to enable cashless payment at all its retail stores in Rural India.
“StoreKing has created a platform that solves the fundamental constraints in ours markets with last mile logistics and payments, while building trust amongst mass market consumers. It is pivotal in bringing the rest of our consumers into the digital sphere. I am extremely pleased to bring StoreKing into the Axiata Digital Service portfolio of businesses and look forward to their further expansion across all of Axiata footprint,” said Mohd Khairil Abdullah, CEO, Axiata Digital.
Moving forward, StoreKing aims to reach 100,000 retailers by 2017 and up to 250,000 in 2019. With Axiata on board, they hope to be scaling this model across most of its footprint markets in the very near future.
Axiata Digital Service (AD), the digital services arm of Axiata Group Berhad (Axiata), was established to support the increasingly digital lifestyle of Axiata consumers. In three years, this portfolio now consists of 26 digital brands, servicing growing demands in mobile money, mobile adverting, e-commerce, entertainment and education among which are 11th Street, Elevenia, FreedomPop, StoreKing, AdKnowledge Asia, Yonder Music and WSO2.Telco.
