LoveLocal launches free online shops for local retailers in essential items category

In the wake of lockdown extension, LoveLocal (erstwhile m.Paani) has announced to offer its services for free to local grocery, food and vegetable shop owners, enabling them to set up online shops, take orders digitally and make contactless delivery.
Local retailers will now be able to cater to their customers safely when people are isolating themselves in their homes due to the novel coronavirus, and there is a fortnight’s extension on the same. This is of utmost importance at present when the majority of e-commerce companies are facing operational issues nationwide. Nearly 80,000 LoveLocal shops are serving over 10million consumers across India with No Touch Delivery and No Touch Shop Pickup. The service can be enabled by downloading LoveLocal app on Play store or iOS, or by visiting LoveLocal.in.
“We are offering the LoveLocal platform completely free to all retailers in the essentials category across India indefinitely for the duration of this crisis, to support the provision of essentials goods to consumers everywhere.” said Akanksha Hazari, Founder and CEO of LoveLocal (Erstwhile m.Paani).
“Local retailers stand out compared to large online retailers, thanks to the innate understanding of their core shopper base, lineage and tradition. In recent times, we have helped a large base of retailers in setting up online shops and continue to serve the cutomers digitally, in times of social distancing,” she added.
The company recently rebranded itself as LoveLocal from m.Paani. Hazari further shared, “For our retail partners, we choose LoveLocal because it puts our promise and commitment to you – local shopkeepers – in our name itself. This is how seriously we take our mission to provide local shops with all the tools and support you need to go online, digitize and grow your business. LoveLocal is a name that you as a local shop owner can feel ownership of and proud of – it is your business, your dream, and this is your platform.”
Since its inception in 2015, LoveLocal (erstwhile m.Paani) has been leading a revolution for India’s 12 million local retailers against modern retail, by helping them digitize and deliver the neighborhood shopping experience of the future. Founded by Akanksha Hazari, a Princeton graduate, m.Paani is a Google Launchpad and Google Studio company. By empowering local shops and retailers to establish themselves as e-tailers, m.Paani is providing them with the platform to conduct their business effectively, safely and efficiently. Retailers set up a complete online shop with all their products, prices, offers and shop details, thus allowing the retailers as well as the consumers to experience online shopping and keep up with the rapidly changing environment.
Recently m.Paani raised US$ 5.5 million in a Series A investment round led by AC Ventures, Henkel, Candy ventures, in addition to noteworthy angel investors including Kevin Aluwi CEO and Co-Founder of Gojek and Survir Varma. Existing investors Chiratae Ventures and Blume Ventures also participated in the round.