How long does it take to get started?
The platform side is weeks. The catalogue and the operations decide the real timeline, and for a supermarket the catalogue is usually the longest single task. We scope both before you commit to anything.
For shops and restaurants
How does a shop start its own home delivery?
In this order: decide how far you will deliver, get your catalogue and prices right, set up ordering that works on WhatsApp and the web before an app, then put one or two riders on the road and keep the area small. Start narrower than feels ambitious. Almost every failure we have seen came from covering too wide an area too early, or from a catalogue that did not match what was actually on the shelf. The software is the quick part. The operations are what take time.
- 30 to 45
- minutes for food in Thodupuzha
- 10 km
- radius, grown into over years
- ~5
- riders cover the whole town
The order to do it in
| Step | What it involves | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Set the area | Draw the radius you can actually serve well, and keep it small at first. | Covering the whole city on day one. Long trips destroy delivery times and rider earnings at the same time. |
| 2. Fix the catalogue | What you sell, real prices, and whether it is actually in stock today. | This is the slow part and always underestimated. A customer who gets three substitutions does not order again. |
| 3. Open ordering | WhatsApp and web first, an app after. Take orders the way your customers already message. | Building an app first and then discovering nobody installs it. |
| 4. Put riders on | Start with one or two. Work out payment before you scale, not after. | Hiring for a volume you do not have yet, then paying people too little to stay. |
| 5. Answer the phone | One person owning late orders and missing items from week one. | Leaving it to whoever is free. The second order is where customers are won or lost. |
| 6. Then widen | Extend the radius once the times hold up inside it. | Widening because a competitor did, before the current area is working. |
Start smaller than feels ambitious
We cover roughly a 10 km radius in Thodupuzha and that took time to reach. A tight area means shorter trips, faster deliveries and riders who earn properly on their shift. A wide area at the start means every one of those goes the wrong way at once, and the customer experience it produces is the one people remember.
The catalogue is the real work
For a supermarket this is most of the effort and none of the excitement. Every item, every price, and some honest way of knowing what is actually on the shelf. Get it wrong and the substitutions start, and substitutions are the most common reason a delivery customer does not come back. Restaurants have it easier here, which is why restaurants get live faster.
Ordering before apps
In a Kerala town a lot of customers would rather send a message than install anything. Ordering has to work over WhatsApp and the web from the start, with the app as something regulars adopt later. Building the app first and expecting installs is the most expensive way to learn this.
Where we come in
The platform side is weeks: customer app, ordering, order management, rider assignment and tracking, under your brand or ours. The operations side is where our six years are useful: how wide to go, how many riders, how to pay them, what the catalogue needs, and what to fix first when the times slip. That is the part you should not have to learn twice.
If you do not already have customers, this sequence is the wrong one. Everything here assumes people in your city already know your shop and would order from you if they could. Building demand from nothing is a different and much harder job.
Questions
Common questions
How big should the delivery area be at the start?
Smaller than you want it to be. A tight radius keeps delivery times short and rider earnings reasonable, and both of those decide whether customers order twice. We run about 10 km in Thodupuzha and grew into it.
Do we need an app to start?
No, and starting with one is a common mistake. Take orders on WhatsApp and the web first, because that is how people in most Kerala towns already message a shop. The app matters later, for regulars.
How many riders do we need?
Fewer than most plans assume. We keep about five on the road at a time for a whole town. Start with one or two, and work out how they are paid before you add more rather than after.
What is the most common reason this fails?
Two things. Covering too large an area too early, which wrecks delivery times and rider earnings together. And a catalogue that does not match the shelf, which produces substitutions and loses the second order.
Can we do this ourselves without a platform?
Plenty of shops start on WhatsApp alone and it works up to a point. It stops working when order volume outgrows one person tracking it, which is usually where people come to us.
Also worth reading
Talk it through
Tell us your city and what you run
Or see the numbers first in the Thodupuzha case study.