With the objective of expanding its footprint in the tier-II and -III cities and rural areas, the e-commerce marketplace ShopClues has announced a strategic partnership with StoreKing.
The Delhi-based company said that the partnership will enable walk-in customers to avail benefits of ShopClues through 16,000 StoreKing franchises, which includes mobile recharge points, Kirana shops and small shopkeepers.
Founded in July 2011 by Sandeep Aggarwal, ShopClues claims to have 5 crore listed products and over 4 lakh merchants on its platform across the category. The startup entered the unicorn club in January this year after it received a valuation of $1.1 billion in a fundraising round led by GIC.
As per media reports, the retailers using StoreKing earn a 6-10% commission on the sales they make. StoreKing provides small retailers in Tier III and Tier IV towns a platform to sell their products through kiosks equipped with TV monitors and Android tablets.
The delivery of the product is made directly to the store owner, who then hands over the product to the end customer. The StoreKing agents then ensure that customers get assistance in their order placement as well as in cases of return, replacement, or refund requests.
StoreKing has raised $16 million from Malaysian telecom company Axiata Digital in June. It plans to expand to 100,000 retailers by next year and 250,000 by 2019, as well as expand to Axiata’s markets in the future. In February last year, StoreKing raised $6 million from Mangrove Capital Partners.
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