We realized that India’s vast consumer goods distribution network is more than just a supply chain, it is also the backbone of the entire economy, controlling the flow of goods and determining which brands thrive or fade away.
The story has remained the same for the past 5 decades. This network is the lifeline of consumer companies. In a market where hundreds of brands jostle for space, success isn’t just about having a great product—it’s about mastering distribution. If a brand is placed right, it will sell. But reaching that spot isn’t easy. It’s a steep mountain, one that can take years to climb without the right strategy
Why Did Badho Choose To Be In The Traditional Retail Space?
At Badho, we saw this mountain as an opportunity. The first few months of figuring out the way forward were truly eye-opening. We knew exactly what we wanted Badho to be. Years ago, Google had a simple yet powerful vision statement: "Don’t be evil." We, too, wanted to build a technology solution that created real value, not just for businesses, but for society too. Just as importantly, we knew what we didn’t want to be. We had no interest in following an inventory-led model like Udaan.
However, for brands, breaking into this distribution network is no easy feat. The landscape is complex and distributor and retailer relationships take years to build.
Traditionally, when a D2C FMCG brand wants to break into kirana retail or a regional player aims to go national, they turn to sales consultants. These consultants make big promises- "We’ll build your sales strategy, hire your team, and get your brand into the market." They charge hefty retainers, draft beat plans, and structure sales operations. But when the dust settles, the real work still falls on the sales officers (SOs).
They’re the ones pounding the pavement, scouting retailers, and pushing for placements. Because if they don’t, distributors won’t replenish stock, retailers will have empty shelves, and customers will either leave disappointed or pick a competitor’s brand. And just like that, the brand starts slipping, losing ground in a market where visibility is everything.
At Badho, we decided to change that. We set out to build an app that wouldn’t just streamline operations, it would give autonomy to the very people who keep this ecosystem running. A technology platform that would make every distributor and retailer more effective, more connected, and ultimately, more profitable- and we had a HUGE unfair advantage to hit the ground running.
How did Badho Leverage Its Biggest Unfair Advantage To Grow?
Our biggest unfair advantage? That we had was the unbridled access to the Kapila Pashu Ahar sales team, retailers, distributors etc. So we knew that the first market we wanted to enter was the cattle feed industry.
So we set Milestone#1 for ourselves : Going live on the Google Play Store.
Day and night, Saurabh and I worked on designing the Badho App for distributors. We were very clear – the deadline will have to be met whether the product was ready or not. “Bas Live Jaana hai!” We did meet the deadline, and not surprisingly, the product malfunctioned gloriously! There were several teething issues; language translation was not working properly, the retailers had to reattempt OTP requests etc. So we went back to the drawing board to fix those issues one by one.
But when Gyanendra Bharti joined Badho in Feb 2023, that is when the rigour for execution really went through the roof. What he brought to the table was a very strong orientation for operations and execution, so with him in the team, we started doing things strategically and properly.
What does Kashipur have to do with Badho’s journey?
All this while, we had also been seeking insights from a key distributor of Kapila Pashu Ahar, Mr. Rajiv Kharbanda, one of the most tech-savvy distributors I’ve ever met. He was instrumental in helping Badho take its first real steps by opening up his network for us. Since he was based in Kashipur, Uttarakhand, Gyanendra and I packed our bags and moved there in February 2023.
Those 3 months were surreal. We lived in a tiny hotel where our room doubled as our office space. We had just one agenda in mind, to get retailers to download and start using the Badho app. Every day, we hit the streets, visiting shops, convincing retailers, and guiding them through the app installation. But it wasn’t always smooth. Bugs showed up. Features didn’t work. Many nights were spent debugging, questioning, and fixing.
Of course there were moments of self-doubt, but we kept our heads down and kept working. Within just 2 months, all retailers under that single Kapila Pashu Ahar distributor had moved to the Badho app. I will never forget that sweet taste of success! With renewed confidence and proof that we had something real, we decided to bring in even more distributors in our fold.
So then we did a Distributor Meet, a cocktail evening where we invited all the remaining Kapila distributors in the region. To make it interesting for them to understand the app and its benefits, we even did a skit to show them how the app works. What happened next was beyond anything we had imagined. Within a month of that event, we had onboarded 60 distributors onto the platform, driving nearly ₹5 crores in monthly transaction volume!
After establishing Kashipur as a model, the next question was, what next?
We wanted to have 80,000 registered retailers of Kapila on our app, which is when Milestone #2: Mission 80 was born.
The team energy was at its peak, and we quickly started onboarding every retailer and distributor we could find that was in Kapila’s distribution network. The eventual aim was to bring the complete volume of Kapila’s universe of distributors and retailers on the Badho platform. After 3 months of sustained efforts, we got almost 60%-70% of Kapila’s volume on the Badho platform. Once that started to stabilize, we used the Kashipur playbook and replicated it in other territories. Then we started targeting other distributors that were outside Kapila’s ecosystem. By Jan 24, Badho was recording almost Rs 40-50 crores of volume per month!
Most of the volume that we were seeing was from Kapila’s distribution network. And that’s when the next Eureka moment happened!
Read The Badho Story: Part 3 to know how Badho is leading a technological ‘kranti’ in traditional retail.
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