Dukaan- A First Of Its Kind Mobile-First E-Commerce Startup

Dukaan, a two-year-old e-commerce startup, has liberated small-scale sellers and merchants from the need for high-level technical knowledge and fancy computer setup to launch their own D2C businesses. This startup has allowed businesses from India’s tier 2 and tier 3 cities to scale new heights in terms of sales and recognition. 

It all started about two years back at the height of India’s first wave of COVID, with one of Dukaan’s founders, Suumit Shah, receiving an uncanny yet curiosity-inducing WhatsApp text. The message was from a man trying to make sales using the tedious method of WhatsApp messaging. This is how the idea of Dukaan (a Hindi word for shop) was engendered.

Fast forward to June 2020, Summit Shah, along with Subhash Choudhary, co-founded Dukaan. This e-commerce startup allowed its users to set up their online business in a matter of 30 seconds on their mobile phones as opposed to international e-commerce sites like Shopify that required technical knowledge and advanced electronic devices.

Today, Dukaan has seen immense growth, with over 3 million sellers being a part of this platform. The process of opening an online business using Dukaan is fairly simple. The seller needs to upload their products or services on Dukaan’s mobile app; Dukaan then provides the seller with a unique store link that the seller can share on various social media platforms to initiate and promote their business. 

Internet usage in India has surged in the past decade and has digitized even rural areas. This has enabled startups like Dukaan to reach out to merchants in small towns of India. Dukaan now caters to the needs of a variety of businessmen, from goat sellers to online tutors; anyone can be a part of this platform.

In October 2020, in a seed funding round led by Matrix Partners and Lightspeed India Partners, Dukaan raised about Rs.44 crore. Shortly after, Dukaan received many investment offers from big names like Carl Pei and Beams Fintech Fund.

Dukaan has given about 200 varied categories of businesses a platform, and the numbers seem to be only growing further. Big brands like BigBazaar and Nivea are also a part of the customer base of Dukaan. 

Even though Dukaan enjoys immense popularity today, it also faces some threatening challenges not just from competitors like Dotpe and Bikayi but also from e-commerce giants like Reliance, Flipkart, and Amazon. 

Dukaan seems to be gearing up to keep itself at the top of the game; it has targeted about 70 countries, including Nepal and United States, and has received a positive response from the same.