‘BigBox’, India’s first-ever video commerce (V-comm) marketplace, launched its operations by onboarding over 100 retail stores across Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai. BigBox is a first-of-its-kind SaaS platform that would help retailers go online within 30 minutes. The start-up aims to target the hyperlocal retail stores that have suffered tremendous business opportunities on account of the Covid-19 lockdown. BigBox is looking to disrupt the day-to-day shopping experience by enabling customers to shop from the comfort of their homes via a video call to their neighborhood retail stores and have their orders customized to their better-suited interests.

“The Indian brick and mortar players have suffered severe business losses due to the multiple lockdowns. While restaurants, pharmacies and even e-commerce players managed to gain some traction, it was the traditional retail outlets that had to bear the brunt. Not only did walk-in customers disappear overnight, but the traditional shop owners also had no means to take their business digitally,” said Santhosh Palavesh, Founder & CEO.

Looking at this huge opportunity, Palavesh partnered with Balachandar R, Co-Founder – BigBox, who has a wealth of experience in retail heading leading retail brands and is also the Council member and lead volunteer of the Retail Association of India, Chennai and both launched a pilot of BigBox in Chennai.

Unlike the big e-commerce players who charge a commission of anywhere between XX% = XX%, BigBox works on a pure-play SaaS model charging only Rs 2,500 per connection. The app is available both on iOS and Android allowing the customers to video call and shops from anywhere across the world.

“Bigbox was founded with the objective of empowering the physical retailer to connect personally with the consumer through the video without the limitations of physical space and make digital sales easy for retailers by providing features of catalog, billing, and logistics with easy plug n play and low costs. Going forward, we would be onboarding more than 2000 retailers and over 100 national chains across India in the next 6 months,” said Balachandar R, Co-Founder of BigBox.

Retailers need not require e-commerce expertise or a website to start video selling, nor do they have to burn cash for digital marketing. BigBox handles door-to-door deliveries through third-party logistics providers, for these sellers. “BigBox offers 27 categories of video shopping spanning Mobiles & Electronics, Grocery, Jewellery, Furniture, Footwear to Services, Restaurants, Pharmacy, Men’s Wear, Women’s Wear, Industrial Goods, Sports & Outdoor, among others,” added Palavesh.

To start video selling on BigBox, retailers have to download the BigBox Seller App and sign up using their mobile number. After choosing a subscription package, to begin with, and entering payment details, they have to enter store location and other details to start selling.