In Mumbai, cutting chai goes online: Tea vendors in Bandra take to internet to boost sales

Residents of Mumbai’s upmarket suburb of Bandra appear to be warming up to the idea of ordering cutting chai online. The Economic Times has quoted a tea vendor who is a part of an initiative named www.chotuchaiwala.com as saying that his business increased from 700 cups a day to 1,000 cups a day.

The initiative was launched by e-commerce platform Zepo in May last year, the Indian Express had then reported. The report quotes a marketing executive from the platform as saying that once subscribers register themselves, it receives an SMS, which it forwards to the vendor, who delivers the tea according to the order.

At present, the website gets piping hot tea delivered at five locations in Bandra- Waterfield Road, Linking Road, National College, Post Office and Hill Road. Customers can ask for a one week, two week or month-long subscription.

DNA quoted the marketing executive Varun KR as saying that the objective was to see the impact the internet could have on the unorganized sector. He was reported to have said that it was easy to convince the vendors to take part in the experiment as several of them had smartphones and were familiar with the internet.

Chai vendors are not the first example of a component of Mumbai’s unique food culture going online. In July, Mumbai’s dabbawalas launched their own website www.dabewale.com, on which people can register themselves to get their lunchboxes delivered to their offices.