How resellers can earn the highest in social commerce, the GlowRoad way

It wasn't until a few years ago that Rajni Jain's life was all about ensuring that everything in her house was well in order. A homemaker living in Punjab who wasn't keen on a regular job, Rajni knew her options were limited unless she wanted to build a business from scratch with sizable seed capital.

Her views changed once she came across digital reselling platform GlowRoad and got to know how she could reach out to hundreds of customers across the country selling a wide array of products online while staying at home.

The platform offered her the perfect opportunity to strike a balance between her personal and professional life and contribute to the household income. That was two years ago, today Rajni is managing a network of over 1,500 customers.

“The team at GlowRoad helped me build my online business from scratch. I mostly deal in jewellery and I get around 60 orders per day. I make around Rs 90,000 per month and the extra earnings help a lot. I believe social commerce can be a tool of empowerment for many women like me," says Rajni.

Rajni is among the hundreds of success stories that GlowRoad has helped script across the country with a technology-driven platform that enables individuals to take the entrepreneurial plunge and tap into the potential of social commerce.

From social commerce to social empowerment

At the same time, GlowRoad has maintained a strong presence in India’s social commerce ecosystem since its launch with a combination of reseller-friendly tools and the power of automation. With a strong focus on how automation could make the platform more user-friendly, GlowRoad can be credited with catalysing reselling by leveraging technology.

GlowRoad’s journey can be traced back to 2017 when its co-founders — Dr Sonal Verma, Kunal Sinha, Shekhar Sahu, Nitesh Pant and Nilesh Padariya — got together to create a sustainable digital platform for individuals, especially women, to earn from home with zero investment.

After registering with the social reselling platform, resellers get access to a digital inventory, an online shop, as well as sellers with payments and shipping facilities. These tools enable resellers to create a customised brand with an independent channel and build a countrywide sales network.

Till now, GlowRoad has received funding from top investors such as Accel, CDH, Vertex and Korea Investment Partners.

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How GlowRoad transformed social commerce with tech-driven tools

Social commerce is a rapidly growing sector that's offering new opportunities to not just resellers, but also platforms like GlowRoad to drive impact and expand their network. If there was a formula for success, GlowRoad seems to have cracked the code early on.

With its operations spread across 26,000+ pincodes, the reselling platform has been making strides with a host of tools that give its resellers an advantage over most of the other reselling apps in the world. GlowRoad app provides one of the most advanced tools to the resellers so they can share product images, create their own website and provide self-service to their end customers. Effectively, a reseller earns more money on GlowRoad by spending an hour on the app than spending an hour on any other social selling app.

For starters, a regular reseller would share photographs and descriptions of products with prospective buyers, ensure quality and negotiate prices. The order is processed only once the customer agrees to a mutually beneficial cost. As simple as the process looks, it only gets more complex once the volume of orders goes up and the reseller’s business starts to scale.

GlowRoad makes this process hassle-free by enabling resellers to create their own shops online for free and add the products they would like to sell with their preferred profit margin. They can go on to share either the entire catalogue or just the product's images as a link. The process makes it easier to share product information irrespective of how vast a reseller's network is and enables one to scale without any glitches. The feature also works for customers as they can browse products with just a link. At scale, order processing in high volume is also easy and hassle free for resellers, as it is fully automated and they do not have to assist the end customer for each order to be placed or for the order shipment status to be tracked.

For many resellers on GlowRoad, the feature has led them to explore new ideas in social commerce. It's not uncommon to see GlowRoad resellers host live-commerce sessions on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to spread the word about their brand and widening their customer base by sharing their online shop links

Take the case of Andhra Pradesh-based Hanumanthu Vani Chandana, a fashion influencer, a GlowRoad reseller and a white-collar professional with a regular 9 to 6 job. She sells mostly western wear for both men and women and her reselling network boasts of more than 800 regular customers.

“I earn Rs 55,000-60,000 extra every month, thanks to GlowRoad. The app has shown me how I can run a business and pursue my passion for fashion even with a 9 to 6 job. Social commerce has made it possible for anybody to become an entrepreneur without quitting their jobs,” she says.

Exploring new avenues in reselling

An exciting feature about the GlowRoad platform is that it enables resellers to share videos for their products and upload them to their shop. These videos drive user engagement and enable customers to get a better idea about what the product looks like, just like visiting a shop. These new-age capabilities not only boost incomes earned by resellers but also lead them to grow as a brand.

The social commerce startup's foray into technology is in tandem with how the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed innovation to the forefront. With videos, live sessions and online shops, more individuals are getting interested in the potential of reselling.

Suraj Kumar Singh, who's native to Chhattisgarh, started reselling on GlowRoad after the pandemic started affecting his finances.

“On a regular day, I make Rs 100-150 per sale and that too by working just for an hour or two each day. I mostly sell menswear. My next target is to earn Rs 1 lakh per month with GlowRoad. Social commerce has enabled many individuals like me to gain financial freedom during a crisis like COVID-19,” he says.

“Because of our focus on automation and having a technically advanced product, a reseller earns more money on GlowRoad for each hour of time spent on the app as compared to other earning channels. A lot of end customers of the reseller can complete the transaction or can track their package on their own and this leaves the reseller with additional time to acquire new customers. This is a key reason why GlowRoad has shown hypergrowth post COVID.” says Kunal Sinha, CEO of GlowRoad.

A 2020 survey showed that India is already the leading Asian market for social commerce. It is projected to become a $100 billion vertical of e-commerce by 2025. The figures indicate the potential of a sector that’s growing steadily and paving the way for a more empowered country.