Suumit Shah and Subhash Chaudhary launched the application ‘Dukaan’ during the lockdown which aimed at empowering small shopkeepers. In just 20 days of the launch, over 1.5 lakh online stores registered on the platform.
Suumit Shah, born into a middle-class family in Mumbai, began working at his uncle’s shop in Satara after completing his schooling. He pursued an engineering degree in Sangli while simultaneously learning digital marketing and web design. In the year 2014, he crossed roads with Subhash Chaudhary, hailing from a small town in Bihar. The two made good friends and shared dreams of building a career in digital marketing. Their dreams materialised into a marketing agency called Risemetric. During the lockdown, the two launched a startup ‘Dukaan.’ Today, Suumit serves as the CEO of the company.
'Dukaan'
The lockdown period severely affected the businesses of retailers. One day, Suumit received a message from a radio jockey about accepting orders via WhatsApp. This idea inspired him to come up with new business solutions. Within the next 48 hours, Suumit and his friend Subhash collaborated to develop an Android application called ‘Dukaan.’ It aimed at empowering the inexperienced retail shopkeepers to establish e-commerce stores.
Aiming for success
In just 20 days of the launch, over 1.5 lakh online stores registered on the platform. More than 5 lakh products were listed, with over 75 thousand orders received through the app. During this difficult period, Suumit and Subhash’s app enabled small businesses to continue operations. Some reports suggest that at the time, a total of 20 lakh and medium-sized businesses used the platform.
A successful startup
Dukaan is a thriving business which continues to empower small shopkeepers. It’s truly incredible how these two friends managed to take this business to the heights of success in such a short time. One of the best features of the application is that it allows you to create digital catalogues and share them across various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The other operations like marketing, payments, logistics, inventory and more are managed by the application.
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