UrbanClap, enabling hyperlocal services in India
UrbanClap, enabling hyperlocal services in India
Hyperlocal, a strong buzz in the fast-scaling eCommerce market in India with the kind of response it has got clearly states the way things are shaping up and that this trend is here to stay. Now, take a look at this Delhi-based hyperlocal marketplace called UrbanClap that helps you find the right services for all your important activities, its tagline "a sure-shot destination for all your service needs."
In a candid conversation with Retailer Media, Varun Khaitan, Co-Founder, UrbanClap, shared the present and future vision of the company and what this rapidly growing convenience oriented segment has in pocket for consumers as well as for the eCommerce landscape.
 
Talk to us about Urbanclap.com and the journey so far?
The journey has been exciting, and of course, not easy at all. The idea was, is, and always will be, to control the market place of service and make it very simple for a person anywhere in India and the world to be able to hire a service provider to fulfil their service needs. It started off with an idea and 3 people sitting out of an 8X6 office in Bhikaji Cama place less than a year ago, trying to build a website, on boarding of service professionals onto our platform and finding customers to a present scenario where we have over 2,500 customer requests coming in on a daily basis, 4,000 active professionals on our platform, a team of 200 and an office of almost 20,000 sq ft where we're already running out of space. 
How do you select and verify the quality of your service providers?
We have a Business Development team with over 50 members that just work on on-boarding of service professionals. We actively run campaigns on social media and other popular channels to bring on board service professionals. Strict checks are in place to ensure that a professional can qualify to be onboard. In fact, we even have a quality team that ensures that a professional has met the minimum parameters which include previous customer's references, police verification etc. 
What is your outreach in the country and how soon do you plan to expand?
Right now we are in Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai. We are looking at Pune and Hyderabad as the next cities where we will launch our services within the next 2-3 months. Ahmedabad is another promising city, but we're not sure what the timelines towards the Ahmedabad launch are. We are currently driving 2,500 requests on a daily basis which in the next two months we will easily take to 5,000 requests per day from these cities alone.
What were the initial challenges faced while rooting this business in the market?
The biggest challenge is always to find the right product for the market. This involves a huge investment of time with the consumers and figuring out what will be accepted and what's going to work. With limited resources, this can take months. 
How important is technology being in your kind of a business? How do you manage your technology wing?
Technology is, of course, super important. Often it's the product that makes your name in the market. You can have a brilliant concept and execution but without a great product, the business will never be a real success. The product needs to be sleek and intuitive and big free and for this a strong technology team is absolutely vital. All three founders of UrbanClap are personally involved in the tech hiring. Raghav Chandra, one of the co-founders, heads the tech team. We have a team of Android and iOS app developers for our two apps (customer as well as provider), back end and front end engineers, testing engineers etc. It's a huge team and one has to keep them motivated as their work is stressful and deadlines are usually tight. 
Where do you see the future of eCommerce 5-7 years down the line? Will it be mCommerce or a mix of both?
The sky is really the limit and I think we haven't even touched the tip of the ice berg yet. The future will definitely be a mix of e and m commerce though I feel the tide will be in favour of mCommerce, we can already see that happening with even food and wellness veering towards the mobile commerce direction. The idea behind UrbanClap is that we want to give customers the luxury of being able to order any and every service through a tap on an app.
Talk to us about your marketing strategy?
The aim is to use all available channels to reach out to potential customers. We've been very digital heavy in the first couple of months of inception, but now a lot of focus in going into below the line marketing and print. We are also taking our community management piece very seriously and though that won't drive volumes but we will create a buzz through that channel.
Who are your market rivals and what makes Urbanclap a class ahead in the competition?
As such we do not really have any neck to neck competition. Apps like LocalOye, Near.in and Qyk are based on a similar if not same model, but are yet to achieve that kind of scale. None of them are available in 4 cities yet, and we've achieved that in a very short time. Having said that, they are good and well executed products and services and run by good teams. The services space is so huge that even with 4-5 players in the market, there is a lot left for others. It's going to be a long while before one starts eating into the business of the other. 
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