Rapido Store launched by bike startup for business deliveries amidst COVID-19

Rapido Bike Taxi has launched Rapido Store, a one-stop solution for all business deliveries. The new service is aimed at offline and online businesses to help the online bike-taxi startup reach out and deliver products to its customers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At present, Rapido Store has been launched in Bengaluru and Vijayawada with plans to scale it to close to 100 cities, where Rapido is present, in the coming months.

In an exclusive interaction with YourStory, Aravind Sanka, Co-founder, Rapido said,

"India is home to 30 million small and medium enterprises, with many of them at the nascent stage of their digital transformation. The sudden and prolonged changes in social and business landscape has caused a significant apprehension within local and smaller businesses."

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He added, "Rapido Store will give these businesses and entrepreneurs an opportunity to maintain continuity and also increase sales by reaching out to new customers by leveraging Rapido’s extensive network. The service will allow these businesses to overcome manpower and mobility challenges by helping them deliver their orders and save time."

Rapido claims to have already onboarded over 200 SMEs for Rapido Store. The base price of the service starts at Rs 35 for 3 km in Bangalore, and Rs 30 for 3 km in Vijayawada. It will also help users track all their deliveries. All a user needs to do is recharge their wallet and create an order on the app.

Aravind said, "With COVID 19 disrupting life and business continuity, the country, its citizens and businesses are rebooting themselves for a new normal. SMEs today contribute to about 30 percent of the country’s GDP and it is both essential and challenging for them to consider rapid digitalisation to avoid loss of productivity and business. Rapido Store is that next-gen service that will aid SMEs with the delivery of goods solution, saving them time, effort, and money."

Rapido, today claims to have more than 15 lakh registered Captains (Rapido’s driver-partners) in close to 100 cities. Rapido Store will be leveraging the already existing fleet of Captains to ensure prompt, quick and secured deliveries.

According to Aravind, the Captains have undergone training to ensure timely and safe delivery methods in times of COVID 19. Rapido has also put in place mandatory safety guidelines – use of mask, gloves, and sanitisers – that they will follow for each delivery.