SamagriWale: Door-to-Door Puja (Worship) Offerings Delivery Service

• Role: Project Leader (Operations and Execution)
• Duration: April 2022- July 2022
• Overview : Launched a service-based startup aimed at providing door-to-door delivery of Puja (worship) offerings, addressing the local need for fresh and high-quality Puja (worship) offerings/ items in a spiritual and devotional market. The idea was born out of the difficulty many individuals faced in sourcing fresh flowers, incense, fruits, and other essential worship items, particularly during festivals and high-demand periods.

Recognizing the challenge faced by individuals in obtaining fresh flowers and other items for worship, especially during festivals, the initiative aimed to streamline the delivery process through an app-based ordering system. Our primary goal was to build a reliable, timely, and customer-centric delivery service, offering convenience for those engaged in daily worship or temple visits.

My Role & Key Responsibilities:

• Market and Competitive Analysis: Conducted an extensive analysis of the local spiritual and devotional market, benchmarking against existing competitors and identifying gaps in current delivery services. This included mapping customer pain points, such as inconsistent item quality and lack of timely delivery, and devising a strategy to address these issues.
• Validation Process: Designed and implemented a validation process involving 50+ individuals across different religious institutions, such as temples and churches, to collect user feedback and refine the service offering based on their needs and expectations.
• Operational Execution (only for Pilot testing):Spearheaded day-to-day operations, ensuring the timely delivery of fresh offerings, managing vendor relationships, optimizing stock levels, and coordinating a team of delivery personnel. This also involved setting up a simple logistics model to track deliveries and reduce delays.
• Pilot Testing: Lead the dry run of the service by facilitating orders through WhatsApp, successfully delivering to 20+ customers, validating the service concept.

Key Achievements:

• Customer Engagement: Successfully engaged with 50+ potential customers to validate the service idea, gather feedback and refine the service concept, achieving a 92% positive response rate regarding the convenience.
• Pilot Success: Delivered Puja offerings to 15+ customers during the pilot phase, achieving 100% customer satisfaction for delivery speed and item freshness. This success helped validate the business model and provided valuable insights into scaling operations.
• Operational Efficiency (during the Pilot Testing): Established a streamlined process for sourcing and delivering products, reducing stock management issues by 30%, ensuring the freshness of items, and minimizing delivery delays through an efficient logistics system.

Challenges Faced: