Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Narasimhan Vallur, CEO of Shoperies, located in Redmond, WA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

We are an online grocery delivery service delivering fresh produce, ethnic groceries, and fresh home-cooked food to ethnic communities. We deliver

  • Fresh produce like cilantro, tomato, methi, okra, hot chili from local farms to nostalgic tasty Indo-Pakistani mangoes, custard apples.
  • Fresh groceries such as A2 ghee, milk, cheese, turmeric, chili powder, to traditional long grain basmati rice.
  • Freshly cooked ethnic meals like chicken tikka masala to Mor Kozhambu from local food chefs. You are a vegetarian or non-vegetarian, We have your taste buds covered.
  • You are planning for a morning snack or party to entertain any age group. You can use us as a single source of procurement to procure all your cooking needs or fully cooked meals.

We have fantastic prices and separate portals to engage both households(https://www.shoperies.com) and restaurants(https://www.shoperiesbulk.com). Both customers buy all their kitchen needs from us and enjoy same-day deliveries.

Tell us about yourself

My family and their minimal hardships made me enter this business. Seeing me or my wife go to multiple grocery stores during our free time in a rush to get what we need to plan for next weeks cooking needs. Our family did our planning at the grocery store instead of at home with what we wanted to cook. Delivering fresh ethnic groceries to your doorstep is still an ancient concept outside the greater Seattle area. We can bridge the gap today and have 25,000+ happy ethnic families and 150+ happy restaurants in and around the greater Seattle area.

Our happy and engaging customers motivate us to work hard and keep our service intact. We are working hard to expand more in the greater Seattle area and extend our service to other cities without breaking our bank or increasing the cost to our customers. We have put a shorter footprint in 2 cities (Boston, MA, and SF Bay area, CA.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

The contacts and customers whose confidence our business has won with the help of our growing team is my most substantial accomplishment as a business owner.

Our ecosystem has solved so many business problems and made so many individuals and restaurant's life easy with still keeping everyone's profitability in check.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Since over-customers ingredient collection is our problem, supply issues and rising labor inflation cost are two of the biggest challenges. We take innovative steps to create locally manufactured brands instead of depending more on imports. Rising inflation and labor costs are the biggest challenges that need more scrutiny. We are working on creative strategies and more transparent pricing to show the cost directly to customers.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Strong monetization strategy.
  2. Strong customer acquisition strategy and cost per customer acquisition.
  3. Keep your services consistent.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Starting a business of your own and making the teamwork synchronously to fulfill your mission is an accomplishment in itself. The experience is great and very hard to learn in a school. Excellent, responsive, and consistent service is the one thing that will keep any business carving out its own space.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.shoperies.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shoperies
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shoperiesusa/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.