Today, I reviewed some photos taken in India during the last months. I came across some photos showing Indian people selling different items – in a very simple way – sitting on the ground, behind a table fixed on a bicycle, at a simple booth. 

An essential, but from marketing perspective neglected business

 A business that with a different look and feel and maybe more advanced way on how and where to sell could lead to more profit: The smiling tea maker with his amazing tea preparation rituals, the beach lady selling nuts mixtures with excellent fruit to pilgrims, the fish ladies with really fresh fish, the hot paprika ananas vendor at sightseeing points, the farmers who becoming suppliers of larger stores could sell fruit and vegetables for a larger number of customers.

Not all vendors have the opportunity to sell well
Some of them miss the knowledge of becoming part of optimized market cycles, some lack simply of vehicles to take the products to better selling points. Some are not aware about the potential of online sales and have no access. 

So, what if they got some opportunities to learn, to get access to tools and infrastructures that allows them to sell at a larger scale even their ideas and to connect to the real commercial world?

I can imagine that pineapple pieces with paprika as take-aways and snacks would work well in some McDonalds and Subways of this world. Small business ideas a little bit more elaborated and shown off at sightseeing points could for sure lead to more income. Connecting these local vendors to a larger network could lead to infrastructural benefits and allow them to do the business in a different way, couldn’t it?

Optimized activities

It is not that much about innovative products, but just clever ways on how to prepare, how to connect with customers and how to sell in a more attractive way to target groups they do not reach at the moment. It could help to develop more sustainable marketplaces and make them able to gain more money in the future which is essential to pay for health insurances, offer better education to their children and to create a healthier environment. What is needed longterm-wise is trade, not donations. Development work should focus to make this happen.

What do you think? Do you know organizations who help them to optimize their business models?