Mall91
About Mall91
The aim of building this app is to help Indians from Tier-3 & beyond and help them buy products at an affordable rate. This is our initiative towards a better India. We created Mall91, India's first vernacular social commerce platform, combining live video-based shopping, local language voice recognition-based catalog discovery, and Whatsapp-like chat/messaging-based checkouts, Mall91 has reached 2,000+ Tier 2/3/4 towns/villages of India. It creates a new massive market by enabling Bharat users to perform their life's 1st e-commerce transaction.
It lets consumers come, play games, consume content, earn rewards, participate in group buying & re-selling activities, and purchase online goods. Within 6 months of launch, the company has reached ~250k monthly users, 45 minutes spent per day per user, and ~3 e-commerce orders per transacting user per month. Its unique approach of offering additional high engagement, high-frequency use cases around social gaming, entertainment, content, and payments is resulting in becoming a daily first-screen app for the next 400M users.
The aim is to build an app for Indians from Tier 3 & beyond to help them buy products at an affordable rate. Mall91 combines live video-based shopping, local language voice recognition-based catalog discovery, and Whatsapp-like chat/messaging-based checkouts. It has reached 2,000+ Tier 2/3/4 towns/villages in India. It lets consumers come, play games, consume content, earn rewards, participate in group buying & re-selling activities, and purchase online goods.
Tech stack
Implementation
To make it easier for every user, we have integrated a simple user interface with easy-to-understand modules.
- 1 Courier91
- 2 Ticketing tool
- 3 Voice calling
- 4 KYC management
- 5 E-Learning
Courier91 was a last-mile delivery service and logistic management of Mall91. It is an interface that implements a micro warehouses strategy to keep track of every product from its dispatch to its delivery for logistics optimization.
Interface- We created a front-end of the app with a backend on the Odoo platform with exposed API for front-end functionalities.
Odoo interface- It is an interface used by the support/product team for completing their process like process orders, state management of orders, user management, payments, and more. Admin or the Product Team to track SLAs, NorthStars, and other OKRS.
Survey- We created a Survey where end-users can provide feedback for our delivery partners to improve the platform's services.
- Courier91- manages last-mile deliveries for Mall91, using micro warehouses to optimize product tracking from dispatch to delivery.
We created an in-house ticketing tool that helps support teams to register queries or complaints from users for an effective and quick resolution.
User interface- We used the Odoo platform for creating the tool, offering a wide range of exposed APIs for front-end functionalities. From the front end, the user creates a ticket assigned to the support team.
Ticket management- We used CRM to manage tickets raised by the user, their response, resolution time, and other details to keep track.
Cross-platform response- We integrated different channels to send responses via messages or email for effective communication.
Reporting- it keeps track of customer satisfaction and other analytics measures.
- Ticketing tool- helps support teams to register queries or complaints from users for an effective and quick resolution.
This feature was implemented to connect with users who abandon their carts. Call back users who have items left in the cart and still need to complete checkout.
Admin dashboard- it helps to initiate the call, track the result, and verify if this call converts into a lead.
Third-party integration- for ecommerce cart abandonment we created a voice calling service where we generated automated audio via a third-party provider.
- Voice calling- allows to connect with users who abandon their carts and still need to complete checkout.
During Covid, we integrated this feature to ensure KYC is done seamlessly irrespective of your location, from your doors.
Video call integration- we used a video calling facility to connect with new users to do their KYC and renew KYC for old users.
- Video KYC- ensure KYC is done seamlessly irrespective of your location, from your doors.
We integrated different online courses on various topics and fields.
Admin interface- all the content on the system is handled and created by the support team.
Diverse courses- from simple Q/As to certificates, video courses, yoga tutorials, learning English, French, and others.
- E-learning interface- integrated different online courses on various topics and fields.
Challenges
Launching India’s first e-commerce platform for tier 3 and beyond users came with several challenges. Understanding their needs and delivering the same while keeping a simple yet accessible interface and ensuring they get consistent and fast delivery service, was the challenge. Apart from that, below are the technical challenges faced during the project.
- 01. Availability
Our users who were 24x7 using our app required some support solutions. Similarly for last-mile delivery, our delivery boys were using it for last-mile delivery so our system should be up 24x7 - 02. Application support
As our audience and users are optimally from tier 3 and beyond, we had to consider their mobile device configurations in mind so that our app supports the minimal configuration possible, ensuring scalability, speed, performance, and localization for all languages. - 03. Security
Another challenge we faced was the security issues related to different roles working together like operations, development, and management. Managing access and authentication for that diverse team was another challenge.
Solutions
- 01. Multiple instances
To solve this, we run a load balancer on multiple instances, backing up data so that in case of any failure we could roll it back and keep multiple copies of data backup. We ensured that backup has been taken within every 3 hours. - 02. Scalable app
We have implemented different approaches to make the app scalable, like microservices division, continuous data backup, and other software engineering practices.
Agile approach: We implemented an agile development approach to accommodate frequent changes in the requirement.
Data compression: we encoded data so it could be compressed using gzip. It made the app loading easier and improved performance.
Reduced app size: We created an app with minimal size so it could run on fewer mobile device configurations for every user within tier 3 and beyond, Using tools like a lighthouse to compare our performance with industry-standard benchmarks.
Additional functionality support: Due to weak mobile device configurations, we provided UI add-ons to support the functionality on all types of devices. For example, we created a scanner that takes a manual entry for weak support for cameras. We ensure internet APIs are strong enough to work on weak bandwidth. - 03. Built-in security
We used Odoo's in-built security features that manage security from a role perspective where each role has specific access.
-
Multiple instances
We run a load balancer on multiple instances, backing up data keeping multiple copies of data backup, and ensuring that backup has been taken within every 3 hours.
-
Scalable app
We implemented an agile approach, reduced data by compressing it, and reduced app size for easy app scalability.
-
Built-in security
We used Odoo's built-in security features that manage security from a role perspective where each role has specific access.
5 Million+
Successful deliveries processed
30%
Reduced cart abandonment
INR 7.5 Million+
Seed and Series A funding secured
Results
5 Million+
Successful deliveries processed
30%
Reduced cart abandonment
INR 7.5 Million+
Seed and Series A funding secured
Let’s have a conversation today!
India
SDF L-1, NSEZ,
Sector 81, Block L, Phase-2,
Noida, Uttar Pradesh-201305
USA
OnGraph Technologies,
120 Bethpage Rd, Suite 304,
Hicksville, NY 11801, USA
Canada
7-1039 CEDARGLEN GATE,
Mississauga, Ontario,
Canada L5C 3A7
UK
89 Banstead Road South,
Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5LH
United Kingdom
Malaysia
G-3A, Amaya Maluri, Jalan
Jejaka 2, Taman Maluri,
KL–55100, Malaysia
Singapore
10 Anson Road,#26-04
International Plaza,
Singapore (079903)
