Triveni Enterprises, India’s first in-vehicle retailing service company, has just completed four months of operating its unique retail format through AC buses of Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT). The service was rolled out on January 26, 2010. The service reaches more than 5,000 commuters of AC buses every day.
Triveni Enterprises’ Business Head Sunil Jha says, “We are a start-up and wanted to explore a new channel of servicing. Considering the number of commuters and the products that are meant for on-the-go customers, this is a perfect concept.”
Triveni Enterprises has tied up with several major food and beverage companies, including PepsiCo, Parle Agro, Bisleri, Nestle India, etc, to offer a host of snack choices for commuters on NMMT’s buses.
A trained Service Representative of the company boards the bus with the products and sells them to the commuters. “We are very concerned about the convenience of the commuters; therefore, we do not force our Service Representative to push sales. We believe in giving right product and serving it well. In fact, we conduct research on periodic basis to understand the product or service mix that we need to offer to commuters,” Jha adds.
NMMT’s General Manager Jitendra Papalkar states, “This is a new initiative by NMMT, which will be replicated by other transport operators soon. We constantly strive to give better and innovative service to our passengers and promote public transport usage. Considering the higher cost of our operation, we are happy to develop this completely new revenue stream for NMMT.”
Triveni Enterprises manages entire back end logistics operation and contributes around 6% of sales to NMMT. “Although contributing a part of sales is costly for us, the customer response has been fantastic and we are sure to bring in more products and offer new services such as internet surfing, bill payment service, etc. which will give us break even,” Jha notes.
Triveni has received requests from major transport operators from across India, including BEST Mumbai, Metrolink (Pune) etc, and has plans to replicate this model across India by the end of this financial year.
IndiaRetailing Bureau
