In sync with their tagline ‘You Buy, We Ship’, yourDesiCart enables NRIs across 220 countries to buy items from anywhere in India and have them delivered within three to seven days. The platform has delivered close to 2,000 orders to countries like Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Ethiopia, the UAE, Mauritius, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Germany, among others.
Started by a mother-daughter duo Dhatri and Satya Ayyagari, yourDesiCart is a startup that enables NRIs to order items from anywhere in India and have them delivered at an affordable rate.
In 2009, software engineer Satya Ayyagari (36), a resident of Nasik, Maharashtra, moved to Singapore for better career prospects A few years later, she met her San Francisco-based husband on an online matrimonial app and moved to the States shortly after their wedding. Since 2017, the two have been based out of Austin, Texas, USA.
She says, “All through these years, my mother would send me parcels of kaju katli, peanut chikkis, homemade pickles and tailored sari blouses from Hyderabad. It never occurred to me that there was the need for a business [model] in this space until October 2019 when I was about five months into my pregnancy.”
“I was looking to order baby winter caps and jubbas, among other postnatal products, and even a few matching outfits for the cradle ceremony. But my mother had been keeping unwell and couldn’t keep a tab on the deliveries at her home, let alone ship these parcels to me. Despite living in the US, it was hard for me to come across such products in an affordable range — something that I was getting for around USD 500 here, I could get from India in USD 150,” she adds.
Later that night, Satya couldn’t stop thinking about how it shouldn’t be too difficult for NRIs to source homegrown products. She called up her mother, asking if she felt the same way and wanted to try this on a larger scale for others in a similar situation.
“She agreed readily and in a spur-of-the-moment decision, I made a Facebook page and a basic website the same evening to promote our idea of leveraging the cost of Indian products. We shared these within our circle of friends and relatives in the US, the UK and Canada. Within an hour, we got our first order from California. It was from a woman who was pregnant herself, and wanted to buy nutrition supplements from India,” she adds.
Three years down the line, the mother-daughter duo has been able to transform their impulsive decision into a flourishing small business with yourDesiCart, a shipping platform that has delivered close to 2,000 international orders to countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Ethiopia, the UAE, Mauritius, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Germany, among others.
“I learnt the hard way how important it is to choose the right shipping partner. Even until four years ago, the international delivery infrastructure wasn’t quick enough and it would take up to 10-15 days for me to receive an order in the US.
Several shops, both offline and online, don’t provide an international shipping facility. If they do, buyers end up spending an exorbitant amount for the smallest of orders. With yourDesiCart, we have been able to bridge that gap. Now, I don’t bother my mother and place my orders here,” Satya smiles.
The platform ties up with domestic delivery partners like Delhi-very, Blue Dart and Dunzo to arrange pick-ups from local stores.
A bulk of their orders, however, are placed from e-commerce companies such as Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra and Nykaa, says Satya.
“As soon as users register on our app, they’re provided with a unique locker address at our warehouse in Hyderabad. This is a personalised ID that is valid for every subsequent order that they place. So while we don’t have a marketplace of our own, we facilitate the completion of our users’ orders by providing them with a temporary storage facility.
Several shops, both offline and online, don’t provide an international shipping facility. If they do, buyers end up spending an exorbitant amount for the smallest of orders. With yourDesiCart, we have been able to bridge that gap. Now, I don’t bother my mother and place my orders here,” Satya smiles.
At the warehouse, products are inspected for damage and packed once again. Users may also order multiple items and place a shipment request only after all of these are delivered and consolidated into a single package,” she explains.
Since December 2020, yourDesiCart has been making its deliveries via international courier service, DHL. “Earlier, we used to make use of other third-party delivery services but it made for a costly affair. Owing to our official partnership with DHL, we are now able to offer users timely deliveries at a competitive range, which is even cheaper than the services offered to their customer base,” says Satya.
“For instance, a user may have to spend as much as Rs 12,000 to have a 10 kg order shipped to the US via DHL. But if they make use of yourDesiCart, the same order costs only Rs 6,500.”
“The final cost of a shipment depends on the weight of the package, but the base price is fixed at Rs 750. We also have a shipping calculator that takes into account a package’s dimensions and a particular city’s postal code, allowing our customers to arrive at an estimate beforehand,” she adds.
For users who don’t have access to an Indian phone number and currency—often mandated by online retail merchants—or simply don’t have the time to buy an item, yourDesiCart’s provides an add-on service of ‘personal shoppers’ who make the purchases for them.
************************************************************************
Readers