Guwahati: Just as necessity is the mother of invention, chaos is a ladder for those who sense opportunities. In a world where a pandemic is the new normal, it is only fair that people also shape our startup ideas around it.
Two youths: Ayaan Rahman Hazarika and Subroto Chetia, might still be in college. But it is clear that they have understood the dynamics of the Guwahati delivery market better than most. With just Rs 500 as investment, the duo started QuickDel to ensure last-mile deliveries for both small and medium-sized businesses.
Ayaan is in his final semester of Travel and Tourism Management at Jamia Millia Islamia, while Subroto is pursuing his final semester of B.A. English Honours from Gauhati University.
QuickDel took shape in October 2020 when Ayaan’s close friend, a home-baker, faced logistic issues in the aftermath of the first wave of the Coronavirus. She approached Ayaan to help her with delivery, who discussed the same with his childhood friend Subroto and both of them grabbed the opportunity.
Although Ayaan planned to return to Delhi, he decided to give the startup culture in Guwahati a try and dive right into it. “I don’t have any such plans of moving back to Delhi as of yet and am currently completely focused on making QuickDel more successful,” he added.
Ayaan and Subroto took care of the deliveries in the initial months using their vehicles. Nearly three months later, as bulk orders started pouring in, they hired their first delivery person.
“Delivering goods helped us develop some personal relationships with the client which is quite helpful now to increase our clientele. There’s a good market in Guwahati for home bakers and chefs. To capture our target audience, we started with Instagram marketing and got more clients. In the second wave of COVID-19, many were home-quarantined. If an entire family was home quarantined, they did not have the resources to get their essentials delivered. So, we stepped in to provide these families with groceries, medicines,” said Ayaan.
When asked how QuickDel is different from other such existing delivery services in the city, Ayaan said, “Our delivery model stems from the objective of helping hyperlocal businesses in the city of Guwahati. I won’t say that QuickDel is the first-ever initiative taken to meet those requirements, even in the delivery services sector. However, other such services soon faded away due to their focus on offering services at prices lower than their competitors in the market. There is a minimum cost and charging below it disrupts the whole balance, making it difficult to provide quality services and sustain the business at the same time.”
No wonder, such a simple, clear objective has helped the duo deliver over 2,500 orders, including groceries, medicines, covid meals, and even couriers within the city. So far, QuickDel has delivered over 2,500 orders.
“We have received a good response in the past eight months. We have delivered over 1,600 cakes in the past eight months. We have also recently started collaborating with Foodio Tech, a hyperlocal business promoting home chefs and home bakers. Since we are on similar lines, we thought it would be good to collaborate with them,” said Subroto.
“Social media is the strongest platform to run a business. As Guwahati is a city of youngsters, we decided to use social media, especially Instagram, to conduct our marketing. QuickDel was our interest in helping the home bakers, but the growth has been unexpected and tremendous. Ayaan and I are currently planning to get a partnership deed once the COVID restrictions are lifted, and we will also consider registering QuickDel as an official business officially.”
Apart from their aggregator service Bikozee (a business-to-business model which only deals with bulk orders), QuickDel has two other members currently, their friends Jakkiyah and Suranjana, who help them with social media content.
The operation of QuickDel is quite simple. Customers send their requirements over WhatsApp (8724023386/7002596610), upon which the startup acts quickly to get the items in the list delivered to their doorstep.
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