Sonusingh Kartarsingh Choudhary misses the days when families would get freshly milled flour for their daily needs. Tired of commercial packaged flour, he called it quits after working as a banker for 20 years and founded Wheatmart India in 2016.

Wheatmart India offers a range of food grains and millets that are milled and ground in stone-based mills 60 minutes before the delivery of the order.

“So the flour which is delivered is an hour-old as opposed to the several-months-old packaged flour,” says Sonusingh.

Also unlike the commercially available packaged flour, Wheatmart enables the customer to choose the quality of the grains and millets. It took a few trials for Wheatmart India to establish itself in the market, but today it supplies more than 900 households in Pune. While 50 percent of the business comes from referrals, 30 percent comes via Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

"Wheatmart’s WhatsApp account doubles up as a mini website. It also sends out a clear message that we are an authentic business”

“When we began online promotions, we didn’t have big budgets. So, we began using the WhatsApp Business app, which is the most preferred choice for our consumers,” says Sonusingh. “Today, Wheatmart’s WhatsApp account doubles up as a mini website. It also sends out a clear message that we are an authentic business.”

The four-member team at the startup works towards maximizing efficiency.

“That’s where the WhatsApp Business app’s features such as the greeting message and auto reply are a lifeline for a small business like ours,” says Sonusingh.

Wheatmart India is confident in pivoting into an omni-channel business from a pure e-commerce platform.

“We have just launched our first store in Pune and are looking at opening more stores and expanding our product portfolio,” says Sonusingh. “And, we believe we are going to see a growth spurt.”