Building a value-driven startup: The story of Sabse Sasta Dukaan

Founders of SSD – Anish Agarwal and Anant Jain

Two years back a pair of young entrepreneurs from Kolkata started providing assistance to consumers on shopping by building an innovative value-driven startup, Sabse Sasta Dukaan.

“We got this idea while we both were sitting at the airport when suddenly Anant’s dad called up & asked him to order a television online”, say co-founders Anish Agarwal & Anant Jain. The two college friends studied at IEM college in Kolkata. Anish was a former renowned networker & Anant was a high tech web developer at cognizant.

“We founded SSD to provide convenience on shopping & also to save money & time of the consumers”, says Anish.

Sabse Sasta Dukaan via its smart retail stores provides assistance to consumers on medicines, electronics, flight tickets, hotel bookings, fashion, beauty products, groceries, bills & recharges. SSD smart retail store is like an “online shopping mall” for the consumers where they can get everything from a pen to Dubai hotel bookings. The retail shopping empire has now expanded to over 5 states with most of its stores in West Bengal.

Anjali Sarkar from Kolkata says, “I am a medical student & my life constantly revolves around books and other academic works. I don’t get the time to browse online websites. A call to SSD retail store operator & they do it all”. Also, “I am too lazy to do it” she smiles.

Team Sabse Sasta Dukaan

An inhabitant of Sikar named Abhishek Rastogi planned a family trip to Hong Kong along with his fifteen family members. He found himself in trouble when travel agents quoted him high flight ticket charges exclusive of their commissions. Then he came to know regarding SSD store from reliable sources. Mr Rahul received almost 10% more discounts on the tickets via SSD retail store & guess what? The store operator did not charge any commission for his service. This “no service charge” is a unique & excellent feature of all the SSD stores.

Such unique services by SSD stores have brought a revolution in the shopping industry. Sabse Sasta Dukaan directly promotes e-commerce, travel & the retail industry.

Sabse Sasta Dukaan runs on the ‘franchising business model”. It franchises out its retail stores. It is tying up with local entrepreneurs to expand its presence. SSD franchise can be started with low investment. The ROI is very high because one deals in different segments altogether. The store owner does not have to maintain any inventory as the inventory & delivery part is done by it’s leading e-commerce companies with which it has partnered with.

“We are planning to open around 10,000 stores with the majority of the stores to be located in rural areas .’’, says CEO Mr Anish Agarwal. Be it selling product from every segment on the stores or providing a big business opportunity to small entrepreneurs, the company stands for converting every challenge into an opportunity. On the brighter aspect, with such a good number of franchises & consumer base, there lies a potential of India producing a consumer-centric company. The founders want SSD to be that company. The goals are set & the next step is to implement strategies.