Startup idea that haven’t been done in India
Exploring an untapped realm in the startup landscape, this article delves into a novel technology driven startup idea. We’ll examine the potential of an inventory management business idea tailored for the unorganized retail sector in India..
Unveiling an Undiscovered Startup Idea in India
In today’s ideation, I will venture you through a decade-old technology that is still not able to penetrate the unorganized traditional retail business in India.
The fraternity of this technology and organized retail will agree with me that the utility of this technology can be a game-changer for the traditional retail arena like the way it helped the supply chain domain for organized retail.
Hope you can get a hint about what I am talking, it is RFID (Radio-frequency identification).
The RFID came into commercial usage almost 30 years after its invention, and that first utility in organized retail was almost 2 decades ago. So, with this, we can understand the value of technology as it has been continuing for half a century.
Those who have not heard or know about RFID may search the internet and study, which will help them understand this business idea properly.
In short, RFID is a technology that helps asset management, mostly for inventory management, and gadgets tracking that are placed in an enclosed environment as static or dynamic.
This technology has two ends, one is the object on which the radio frequency hit, and the system that records the status of the object.
Challenges in Unorganized Retail Inventory Management
Core Startup Concept
The business will sell an RFID-based inventory management system to small and unorganized retail to enable them to take physical stocks at a required interval at their stores or small warehouse. The product may sound like an SAS solution but in actual terms, it is more on hardware than software.
Note: Do not confuse the product with the inventory/billing management system like POS/CRM/ERP etc. As they are different from this when physical inventory is taken into consideration, they are mostly manual input and scan-based systems. RFID-based inventory management may integrate with POS/CRM/ERP to strengthen the entire in-shop retail management process.
A Practical Scenario
I have a one thousand SqFt floor area apparel store. There I keep hundreds of varieties. I want to take,
- Daily physical inventory to gauge pilferage
- Decide to reorder point, but cannot do it regularly, most of the time I become dependent on my ERP/POS.
I do not know the impact of pilferage on my profitability, and I do miss refills too which most of the time causes customer dissatisfaction. In nutshell, I am losing customers and doubt my business growth is slow.
Investment, Revenue Model, & Process
The business requires investment in RFID hardware and development or source of software to run the physical inventory system. Additionally, the basic software must have the efficiency to integrate physical inventory with the software of existing market leaders of ERP/POS/CRM. Especially those serving small and unorganized segments.
In hardware following are required based on the range and power of each unit.
- A scanning antenna
- A transceiver
- A transponder
Transponders are the RFID tags themselves, and the transceiver works as a reader when combined with an antenna.
Please do not be so worried about the technology, you do not have to be an engineer to understand the concept.
- More than 25% improvements in inventory accuracy.
- 1%–3.5% increases in full-price sell-through tied to better management and lower stock-outs.
- 10%–15% reductions in inventory-related labor hours.
- Reductions in shrinkage and theft that can raise revenue by up to 1.5%.
Embarking on this entrepreneurial journey with the proposed startup idea requires courage and dedication. The potential to reshape the unorganized retail sector is substantial, promising improved efficiency, accuracy, and revenue generation. Good luck to all aspiring entrepreneurs who dare to venture into this exciting domain!
