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Distribution model — one business with many shops

Wholesalers with several godowns

Your biggest supplier is your own back godown. You just cannot see what is in it.

You run a wholesale business with more than one godown, perhaps one in the market and others on the edge of town. Kiranas and small shops buy from you on credit. Before every festival you stock up hard. Vyavora shows every godown's stock, separately and together, so you stop buying what you already have and start selling what has been hiding.

How this trade really works What changes with Vyavora

The trade

How this trade really works

From the factory to the customer, each person in the chain wants something different. Most of what goes wrong comes from the gaps between them.

The companies and big suppliers

Sell to you in large lots, often with a scheme for taking more before a festival or at the end of their own month. Want you to take full loads and pay on time.

You, the wholesaler

Keep stock across your godowns and your shop in the market. Sell to shopkeepers in large packs and cartons, mostly on credit. Want to never say no to a customer, and to keep your money moving.

Your godown staff

Each godown has its own in-charge and loaders. They know where things are in their own godown. They move goods in, load trucks and tempos for orders, and rarely look at what sits in the far corners.

The shopkeeper

Kiranas, general stores, sweet shops and small traders in the town and nearby villages. Order by phone or through your salesman, take goods on credit, and pay in parts. Go to the wholesaler who always has the item and gives a little extra time to pay.

You buy what you already have

A shopkeeper asks for an item. Your market godown says it is finished. You call the supplier and order a fresh load. Meanwhile, cartons of the same item are sitting in your other godown, behind the stack that came in last week. This happens more often than any wholesaler likes to admit.

Slow items hide at the back

Goods that come in last go in front, because that is easiest to load. Goods that came earlier get pushed further back. A slow brand, an odd pack size, last festival's gift packs. They sit there for months. By the time someone finds them, the packing is faded and the shopkeeper does not want them.

The scheme fills your godown, not your customer's shop

A company offers extra margin if you take a large load before its month closes. You take it, because the scheme is real money. But your shopkeepers are not buying faster. The extra stock goes to the back of a godown and waits. Your discount scheme made you take stock. It did not make customers buy.

Credit is the real business

Shopkeepers buy from the wholesaler who gives them time to pay. Most of your sale is on credit. Your money is spread across many small shops, each paying a little at a time. A wholesaler with a full godown and a long credit book can be short of cash every month.

Festivals stock you up all at once

Before Diwali you stock dry fruits, sweets, gift packs, oil, sugar and decoration items. Before Holi, colours. Before the wedding season, large packs. Every godown fills to the roof. After the festival, what did not sell stays, and much of it cannot wait for next year.

Each godown runs like its own small business

Each in-charge has his own way. One keeps careful counts. One relies on memory. Goods move from godown to godown on a tempo without anyone writing it down. When the count does not match, nobody can say if the goods were moved, sold, or simply lost.

Where the money quietly goes

What you cannot see today, and what it costs you

You cannot see all your godowns together

Each godown knows its own stock, roughly. Nobody sees all of them at once. So you cannot answer a simple question: how much of this item do I own today? Without that, every purchase is a guess.

You do not know how long things have been lying

An item that came in before last Diwali looks the same in your register as one that came in last week. The old one is the one that will not sell. You do not know it is old until a shopkeeper refuses it.

Godown moves go unrecorded

Stock goes from the main godown to the market shop on a tempo, and from there to a customer. If the move is not written down, one godown shows extra stock and the other shows less. Missing goods hide inside those mismatched counts.

You do not know which items earn

Some items sell in huge amounts at a margin so thin that the credit cost eats it. Others sell slowly but leave real money. In the rush of daily orders, they all look like sales. You push the busy items and neglect the profitable ones.

Dead stock is money you have already lost

Every slow item in every godown is cash the supplier already has. It is not earning. It is often paid for while the shopkeeper who should have bought it has not yet paid you for something else. Old stock standing in a godown is a discount you have not given yet.

A season, the way it usually goes

The story you already know

It is September in a wholesale market in Ludhiana. You run a wholesale business in packaged food and household goods, with a shop in the market and godowns on the edge of town. Diwali is coming and the companies are offering schemes on large loads. You take them all, because the margin is real and every shopkeeper will want stock.

In the rush, the market shop keeps running out of items. Each time, you order more from the supplier. Nobody checks the far godown, where some of the same cartons arrived weeks ago and were stacked behind the new loads. A shopkeeper asks for a gift pack size you thought you had. The in-charge says it is finished. You buy more. A tempo moves stock from one godown to another and nobody writes it down.

After Diwali, the godowns are still full. In January, someone clears the back of the far godown and finds gift packs from last year, with faded boxes, and cartons of the item you kept buying fresh during the rush. The shopkeepers' credit is coming in slowly. You sold more than ever this season. Yet there is less cash than last year, and much of it is sitting in your own godowns.

What you can now decide

Decisions you could not make before

Check your own godowns before you buy

Before you place an order with the supplier, see how much of that item you already own across all godowns. Often the answer is enough. Move it, do not buy it. Same goods, no new cost, and your money stays with you.

Clear old stock while it can still sell

When you see an item has been lying in a godown for months, push it to your shopkeepers now, with a small offer if needed. It sells at a little less today. Left alone, it sells at a lot less next year, or not at all.

Take schemes only for items that move

Look at how fast an item has really sold before you accept a large load for the scheme. Take the scheme on items that move quickly. Refuse it on items still lying from the last scheme. The margin is only real if the goods sell.

Stock the festival from last festival

After one festival on Vyavora, you know exactly which items sold in the rush and which were left over, godown by godown. Next time, you stock for what actually sold. Less is left in the back corners in January.

Record every tempo

Every move between godowns is recorded, so stock leaves one godown and arrives in the other on paper as well as on the tempo. When a count does not match, you know whether the goods were moved, sold, or are really missing.

Push the items that actually earn

Profit per item shows which goods leave money after the scheme and the long credit. Your salesman pushes those first. The thin-margin items still sell, but they stop taking up your best godown space.

Where you get ahead

Where your competitor keeps losing

You always have the item

Because you see every godown together, you never tell a shopkeeper something is finished when it is lying in your other godown. The shopkeeper stays with the wholesaler who always has it.

Your money is not stuck in your own godown

A wholesaler who stops buying what he already has, and clears old stock before it fades, needs less cash for the same business. He can give credit where it matters and still pay suppliers on time.

Suppliers trust you with better schemes

A wholesaler who takes loads he can actually sell, and pays on time, is the one companies call first in a short year. You get stock when others are waiting.

The same season, with Vyavora

The story, told again

The next September, the same wholesaler in Ludhiana. The market shop and every godown now run on Vyavora. Each in-charge sees only his own godown. You see all of them, on one screen.

When the schemes arrive before Diwali, you look at what each item really sold last year before you take the load. When the market shop runs short, you see the same item lying in the far godown, and a tempo goes out with the move on record. The list of slow items shows last year's gift packs, months old, still sitting. You push them to your shopkeepers in October with a small offer, before the new ones come in. When the internet in the far godown drops, billing carries on and catches up later.

After Diwali, there is still stock left. There always will be. But it is less, and you know where every carton is and how long it has been lying. You did not buy the same item again and again while your own cartons waited behind the stack. The credit still comes in slowly. But the cash that used to sit in your back godown is now in your hand.

Why the others agree to it

Everyone in the chain is better off

For the godown in-charge

He sees his own godown's stock and nothing else. When goods come in or go out on a tempo, the move is recorded, so he is not blamed for stock that was moved somewhere else. His count matches what is really on the floor.

For the owner's accountant

Every sale, purchase and move is stamped with its godown. GST is kept per godown and added up for filing. The books agree with the stock, without a long count at the end of the year.

For the salesman

He knows what is in stock across all godowns before he takes an order. He stops promising items that are finished, and stops saying no to items that are lying in the other godown.

What this does not do

Vyavora does not tell you what shopkeepers will buy before a festival. It shows what actually sold last time, item by item and godown by godown, so you decide from that. It does not track batches or the date printed on a packet. It shows how long stock has been lying, which tells you well before that date that it will not sell in time. It does not plan delivery routes or track your salesmen on the road. It does not collect your credit for you. It makes sure you know what you own, and where, before you buy more.

Straight answers

Questions people in this trade ask

My godowns are in different parts of town. Can I see them all together?

Yes. Each godown's stock separately, and all godowns together, with a switch between them.

Can my godown in-charge see the other godowns or my sales?

No. Each staff member is tied to one godown and sees only that godown.

We move goods between godowns all day. Will this slow us down?

Each move is recorded once, and it updates both godowns' stock. It takes less time than sorting out the mismatch later.

Will it tell me which items have gone old in the godown?

It shows how long each item has been lying, and names the dead stock with the money attached. You see the old items before a shopkeeper refuses them.

We have years of records in Excel. Do we start from zero?

No. Vyavora reads the Excel and PDF files you already keep, so your past comes in without retyping.

Does billing stop if the internet goes down at the godown?

No. Billing carries on without internet and catches up when the connection returns.