The Quest to Digitize the Supply Chain Industry

When ApnaKlub launched in May 2020, the Bengaluru, India-based startup had one goal: to help small, rural retailers get high margins and earn a better living. It does this by providing fast-moving consumer goods like shampoo, soap, and deodorant directly from brands to small retailers at low, wholesale prices.

While retailers had an opportunity to slash costs and increase margins, uptake was slow—largely because ApnaKlub couldn't efficiently communicate with its growing user base. The company had adopted WhatsApp as its primary communications tool—500 million people in India use the instant messaging service—but all messages, whether about onboarding, products, or order status, had to be answered individually. "It was very hard to manage," says Ekta Sharma, ApnaKlub's product marketing manager. "We were trying to communicate important updates, but each and every message was sent manually."

Finding a better way

In October 2021, ApnaKlub found out about Connectly, a San Francisco-based startup that helps businesses use WhatsApp to better communicate with their customers. Connectly enables companies to create a more personal communication experience, keeps the company top of mind, makes it easy to recall past conversations, and lets businesses send messages in bulk and collect key information on the customer journey.

Making better connections

Before Connectly, ApnaKlub could only keep track of a few customers at a time, and it would take about 24 hours to respond to an inquiry. Now, ApnaKlub can send messages to all of its 2,500,000+ users, while Connectly makes it possible to predict and respond to incoming questions via an AI-powered bot.

In just five months, Connectly has dramatically changed the way ApnaKlub does business. In March 2021, prior to using Connectly, a Holi campaign reached over 25,000 users. That number jumped to 65,000+ the following March after using WhatsApp-first campaigns. More generally, it's seeing a 12 percent clickthrough rate on its campaigns. "That's massive," she says.

Watching the company grow

"Connectly has metric dashboards where we can see everything. If I send someone an image with some text, I can see how that performs compared to a message with only text or different images. We can now analyze all of that and build upon that feedback."

Thanks to Connectly, ApnaKlub's monthly orders have increased, and it has more time to work on getting new customers. "We want to digitize how the entire supply chain works and empower micro businesses to make a better life for themselves. We can do that with Connectly, because we can communicate efficiently."