Taratari.Online

Problem
With the rapid rise of local and international e-commerce companies in Bangladesh, small brick-and mortar stores in the country are at risk of falling behind these fierce new competitors.

Solution
Taratari is a web-based marketplace for non-chain brick and mortar stores around Bangladesh to advertise and sell their products to local consumers. We are currently in Phase 1 of this solution, which is a directory of Dhaka shops.

Impact
Taratari aims to give non-chain brick and mortar stores the ability to continuously reach a large customer base by developing their internet presence and increasing their digital knowledge. At the same time, we aim to improve the lives of millions of consumers by providing a new convenient way to locate and shop for nearby products without having to physically go to a store.

The problem we are solving is that of access to information, internet, and digital literacy. There are thousands of brick and mortar businesses in Bangladesh and we believe many of them are at risk of falling behind or being put out of business by e-commerce competitors if they don't begin developing their web presence soon.

This competition will continue to rise as the e-commerce market in Bangladesh is predicted to be valued at 20 billion USD by 2020 and global giants like Amazon prepare to enter the Bangladesh market. 

With over 90 million active internet subscriptions in Bangladesh and low cost mobile services, consumers are slowly becoming accustomed to shopping online. Currently, the e-commerce field in the country is dominated by a few large companies like Daraz (an Alibaba venture) and Chaldal, who focus on online sales over in-store transactions.

We primarily serve non-chain brick-and-mortar businesses, like the many corner stores, grocery shops, and small pharmacies that operate in Bangladesh. It is difficult to give exact numbers for this combined population due to insufficient research on the topic, but some sources estimate that there are over 1 million grocery shops alone in Bangladesh.

Currently, we are creating our relationships with these businesses by adding them into the Taratari business directory, the first phase of our solution. By seeking out and adding these businesses to our directory, we are beginning to understand what kinds of technological, cultural, and talent gaps may threaten their growth in the digital economy and their ability to be discovered by potential customers. 

Even in phase 1, Taratari enables these businesses to have their own webpage which acts as an immediate promotion for their store. This means potential customers can already find them by searching terms like "Gulshan pharmacy" or "snacks."

Our solution is a web-based marketplace application which:

1. Gives non-chain brick and mortar shops a personalized online storefront from where they can easily promote and sell products to local customers.

2. Enables consumers to digitally browse and pay for local products before picking them up in-store or getting them delivered.

3. Integrates with popular mobile payment systems like bKash to facilitate quick and direct transactions between consumers and businesses.

We are building the Taratari platform as Progressive Web App (PWA), which allows users to access it from their desktop or mobile browser without the need to download an application or use a lot of mobile data. The PWA form is especially useful in a place like Bangladesh where most people use low-end smartphones and feature phones with limited storage capacity and purchase mobile data in small increments.

Additionally, our solution has an education component designed to tackle the digital literacy issues that can also hinder businesses from selling through the internet. Specifically, we plan to hold free local (in-person and remote) workshops where merchants can gain basic (i.e. getting online) to advanced (i.e. social media marketing) digital skills that will benefit them in business and their daily lives. 

Our solution is innovative in the way it combines existing technologies (i.e. e-commerce and mobile payments) with existing infrastructure (i.e. brick and mortar shops) to create a whole new dimension of business for small enterprises. 

Taratari Theory of Change Model

Our theory of change describes a chain of events encompassing the creation of the Taratari marketplace, our digital literacy workshops, and consumer-facing marketing. In short, we have theorized that our efforts in these areas will have three overarching long-term effects: 

1)  Product development: Taratari Marketplace

Taratari can empower businesses of all kinds to participate in the digital economy when developed according to our current vision of a marketplace that seamlessly combines online and in-store retail. As already seen in China, this technological development helps businesses turn the liability that comes with owning/renting a physical store into an asset that helps them compete against e-commerce businesses.

2) Education: Digital Literacy Workshops

Research has demonstrated a positive correlation between a business’s digital presence and their revenue over time. By embracing e-commerce technology through Taratari, brick and mortar stores can not only participate in a rapidly digitizing economy, but make sure they can compete with larger companies.

3) Marketing: Taratari for Consumers

We have also theorized that our initial promotion efforts could ultimately have an impact on the quality of life of Bangladeshi consumers. As evidenced in numerous studies in recent years, heavy traffic and pollution negatively affects the health of city dwellers. Taratari can indirectly make consumers overall lives better in the long run by enabling them to shop from wherever they are, minimizing their time spent in traffic or polluted spaces.

1. Currently serving: 50 businesses in Dhaka City
As of August 2019, we are currently serving 50 businesses with Phase 1 of our solution (free listing in a searchable business directory).

2. 1 Year: 10,000 businesses
We estimate that we will be able to serve 10,000 businesses by September 2020 with a strong sales and expansion team. This 10,000 includes businesses who use Taratari for a free listing, as well as businesses that pay a subscription fee to sell products through the marketplace.

3. 5 Years: 500,000 businesses in Bangladesh
With the right growth strategy, we can serve at least 500,000 businesses in the free and paying segments across Bangladesh in 5 years.

By the time of this application, we have already launched Phase 1 of Taratari (Dhaka shop directory) and have started recruiting businesses into the platform. We will continue to recruit businesses in Dhaka through the end of 2019, with a goal of 2,000 businesses in the directory by the end of Q4. By the end of Q4, we also plan to begin user testing a minimum viable version of the Taratari marketplace with a small group of merchants. We also plan to test run 2 digital literacy workshops by the end of Q4 2019.

By the end of Q1, 2020, our goal is to publicly launch Taratari as a full online-offline marketplace. Over the following 4-5 years, our goals are to:

1. 2020: Build the foundations of a replicable and scaleable platform by continuously refining Taratari, utilizing feedback from merchants and consumers in Dhaka; perfect our digital literacy workshops through pilot runs in Dhaka and other major cities

2. 2021: Secure partnership with mobile payment organization like bKash to integrate into the platform; continue testing and finalizing Taratari's business model in Dhaka

3. 2022: Open up Taratari Business Directory to all major cities in Bangladesh

4. 2023: Expand Taratari marketplace to every major city in Bangladesh

5. 2024: Expand Taratari all across Bangladesh as a fully established online-offline marketplace ecosystem with over 500,000 brick and mortar businesses.

The main barriers to realizing our vision for Taratari are:

1. Backend technical talent: We currently do not have anyone on our team with the technical expertise to build a marketplace meant to be used by thousands of merchants and consumers.

2. Financial: To reach our goal of getting 10,000 businesses on Taratari by September 2020, we will need funds to hire a large and capable on-the-ground sales team to recruit merchants.

3. Cultural: We anticipate pushback and skepticism from merchants about taking their businesses online due to a lack of knowledge of digital tools and the financial benefits of using them.

We plan to tackle the barriers listed above in the following ways:

1. Backend technical talent: Our first hire for Taratari will be a backend developer to build the first version of the platform. This crucial hire will be funded through the founders' personal investment in Taratari.

2. Financial: To address our need for funds to hire a sales team, we will appeal to external investors in Bangladesh, and pray that we win the Tiger IT Challenge.

3. Cultural: To overcome skepticism or dismissal from merchants who don't see the benefits of taking their business online, we will make free to low-cost digital literacy workshops a part of our customer acquisition model. These workshops will be a way to provide upfront value to merchants before they're asked to join our platform.

We currently have two people working full-time on Taratari.

We plan to hire 1 backend developer in Q4 2019 on a contract basis.

Our team is best-placed to deliver this solution as we have diverse skillsets  and resourceful attitudes. Hasin is a designer, data analyst, and marketing professional with private and nonprofit experience. Samiha has a private and nonprofit background in digital marketing, UX design, and business development. We are both fluent in Bengali and English. Together, we have an international reach with personal and professional connections in Bangladesh and the US.

Additionally, we are best-placed to deliver an online-offline marketplace solution to Bangladesh because we have already put work into it. We started by identifying an information gap in our nation's retail landscape and have spent the past year developing, refining, and modeling a socially-conscious way to fill this gap. 

Currently, our business model accounts for revenue from two channels: 

1) Merchant Subscription Fee: We will charge merchants a nominal monthly subscription fee (i.e. 500 BDT to 800BDT or 6 to 10 USD) to maintain and run storefronts on Taratari. This pricing is based on the 2018 per capita income of 12,000 BDT (~$145) per month in Bangladesh, enabling businesses to potentially increase overall revenue by investing less than 7 percent of the owner's monthly income in our platform. 

2) Consumer Transaction Fee: We are exploring the idea of charging consumers a convenience fee per transaction on Taratari. The exact percentage of this transaction fee is TBD as we learn more about our target market.

To get Taratari started right away, we are personally investing funds into it as founders. Simultaneously, we are also pursuing external investments. 

In the long term we plan to be sustained by revenue generated through our merchant subscription fees and transactions fees on sales made through our platform. According to our latest projections, we can have a profitable business by June 2020. 

We are applying to the Tiger Challenge because we have a big idea, but not an impossible one. In fact, we have already begun making the concepts behind Taratari a reality and we will continue working on this solution regardless of whether we are chosen as Tiger Challenge finalists. 

However, we believe that with the support of the Tiger IT Foundation, Taratari can change the lives of many Bangladeshis, whether they are sellers or shoppers. Mentorship from the Tiger IT Foundation and Solve will guide us in building a robust product that meets the needs of everyday Bangladeshi merchants and consumers. Additionally, operational help from the Foundation will help us build a business that is truly impactful and far-reaching in Bangladesh.

We would be honored to partner with local workforce development and trade organizations that already work with small brick and mortar businesses owners in Bangladesh. As our business model includes a digital literacy component, we could partner with such organizations to train their communities in doing business digitally, while also gaining direct access to merchants who could benefit from joining Taratari.