By Sunil Davis Kolangaden

Many developing-country enterprises have realised that supplying rural consumers entails more than just selling items. They have expanded the nature of their operations from only commercial to social motivations. Businesses frequently flourish when they go above and beyond their profit mandate. The future is dependent on three paradigm shifts occurring in rural approaches: innovation, company transformation into social enterprises, and technological improvements that bring rural consumers closer to companies.

Indian rural markets are a gold mine that still has a lot of untapped potential to contribute to national revenue growth. Rural markets are one of the main economic engines, accounting for more than 10% of the country’s GDP and more than 8% of all jobs. With the exception of a few large locations, all districts and industrial townships in India are linked to rural markets.

Rural areas are home to around 65% of our population, making it critical for corporates to focus on them to improve their top line and bottom line.

According to recent data from Research and Markets, the retail sector was valued at Rs. 62.90 trillion in FY 2022 and is projected to increase at a CAGR of 14.22% to reach Rs. 120.59 trillion by FY 2027. India is now the fifth-largest international retail market in the world as a result.

A New Change

Rural marketplaces are no longer a dump for low-quality goods. Rural customers are becoming more aware of urban brand consumption as connectivity, infrastructure, and telecommunications improve, and so the distribution plan for any product should be designed keeping these developments in rural India in mind. Indian rural consumers are growing more brand and price conscious, as well as more aware of current trends, particularly rural youths who are well-connected with the outside world via social media. Rural youth are emerging as thought leaders in brand and product selections in a market that has long been dominated by the senior population of rural areas.

Rural clients are increasingly becoming the decision-makers in the marketing of new products. They are challenging inventors to find the optimal combination of utility, aesthetics, and features with pricing.

In the Right Direction

Riding on this growing trend, Prowess Selling Skills Pvt Ltd. (PSSPL), a start-up incubated by Vector Consulting Group, formed a strategic alliance with Rural Relations (founded by Pradeep Lokhande) to offer consumer goods companies a full-stack Sales-as-a-Service, to capitalise on this enormous potential. The goal is to assist brands in expanding their reach to rural areas and forging closer ties with local customers.

With the help of this strategic partnership, PSSPL will be able to connect consumer goods and services companies in the nation to their last-mile sales channels using its enormous rural network of over 18,500+ villages spread across seven Indian states, built by Rural Relations. This will aid these businesses in expanding their market share in rural areas.

Tapping the Roots

The broad network of Rural Relations seeks to reach 80,000 ‘hub’ villages, affecting five lakh villages in India, in the coming years. Over the next two years, the combined alliance would invest close to 4,000 lakh to expand its rural reach to nearly every corner of rural India.

In the opinion of Sunil Davis Kolangaden, CEO of PSSPL, “Rural communities are an important part of our country’s economy, and we believe that they deserve access to quality consumer goods. Through this agreement, we seek to bridge the gap between urban and rural areas, expand our network mobilization/infrastructure offering towards deep rural penetration, and give rural consumers the same options as their urban counterparts.”

“The government has also shown a significant interest in improving rural marketing over the years, seeing a rural market as an asset to the economy. The government has boosted rural marketing by boosting infrastructure, connectivity, electrification, and branding of homemade items, among other things. The government is also investing in rural market development.  This tie-up with PSSPL will help us accelerate our speed.”

(The author is the CEO of PSSPL. Views are personal)