Mother-Daughter Duo Start ‘Desi Cart’ for NRIs, Provide Low-Cost Shipping
Started by a mother-daughter duo Dhatri and Satya Ayyagari, yourDesiCart is a startup that enables NRIs to order items from anywhere in India and have them delivered at an affordable rate.
Since 2009, Satya Ayyagari had been living abroad. She was first living in Singapore and then moved to the US after her marriage. And her mother, Dhatri Ayyagari, had been always sending her stuff like food items and other necessary items. But she did not realize the need for a better option for sending stuff online until 2019 when she was pregnant. Her mother was not keeping well and could not send her stuff online. But sometimes Satya could get some products from India at USD 150 that she would get at USD 500 in the US.
Later that night, Satya couldn’t stop thinking about how it shouldn’t be this difficult for NRIs to source homegrown products. She called up her mother, asking if she felt the same way and wanted to try fulfilling the deliveries she’d made for Satya all this while; only now for other people, too. Her mother agreed. And Satya made a Facebook page and a basic website the same evening to promote their idea of leveraging the cost of Indian products. She shared these with her circle of friends and relatives who are settled in the US, the UK and Canada. Within an hour, she got her first order from California.
Three years down the line, the mother-daughter duo has been able to transform their impulsive decision into a flourishing small business with yourDesiCart, a shipping platform that has delivered close to 2,000 international orders to various countries.
In sync with their tagline ‘You Buy, We Ship’, yourDesiCart enables NRIs from across 220 countries to buy items from anywhere in India and have them delivered within three to seven days. Among their most frequently ordered products are masalas from Delhi’s Sitaram Diwan Chand, pickles and papads from Hyderabad’s Vellanki Foods, authentic herbs from Kerala, ghagras from Gujarat, puja supplies, both commercial and tailored apparel and home decor items.
The platform ties up with domestic delivery partners like Delhivery, Blue Dart and Dunzo to arrange pick-ups from local stores. A bulk of their orders, however, are placed from e-commerce companies such as Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra and Nykaa, says Satya. Since December 2020, yourDesiCart has been fulfilling its deliveries via the international courier service, DHL. yourDesiCart has now launched a mobile app too.
Credits: The Better India
-Staff Reporter
