Monday

16


April , 2018
Shift Karado for hassle-free relocation
15:34 pm

B.E. Bureau


Shift Karado is a tech-enabled company offering best-in-class packer and mover services.  Created by the promoters of Star Worldwide who are the leaders in international relocations, Shift Karado gives customers the option of doing a site survey over their laptop or mobile, reducing the overall time taken to get a quote and book a move in less than twenty minutes. With its services launched in 2016, the company is focused on providing superlative, reliable, time-effective and simplified solutions to consumers looking to relocate a home, an office or a vehicle. BE’s Varsha Singh spoke to Amanjeet Singh Sethi, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Shift Karado about his venture.

 

Q. How do you see entrepreneurship in India and what are the constraints that entrepreneurs face in the country? Is the government providing any help?

A. India ranked sixty eighth on the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index in 2017. Although this is an improvement from previous years, the rank suggests that it is still very difficult to start a new business in India in comparison to most other countries. However, with the digital revolution and tech adaption within the government and the populace, things are getting easier. The government has taken a few good initiatives to help the new entrepreneurs like the Atal Innovation Mission and the Make in India initiative among others.

Q. What is the idea behind Shift Karado?

A. Shift Karado was rolled out to plug the gap in the highly fragmented and unorganised Indian relocation segment. The promoters of Star Worldwide observed that the pricing and relocating process was opaque, time-consuming and challenging. With an aim to eliminate these challenges and offer instant and transparent shifting experience, they created Shift Karado, a technology enabled platform. With Shift Karado, the founding team’s overarching goal is to leverage technology to make the relocation process as instantaneous and transparent as possible and the customer more self-reliant. This solution has been made possible because of the palpable shift of the Indian market towards tech-based solutions.

Q. What are the services that are provided by you?

A. Shift Karado provides three key services within the packing and moving spectrum, covering household goods, office relocation and vehicle transportation. As far as household goods are concerned, the company takes care of everything from fragile crockery, books to valuable appliances while providing transit insurance. For office relocation, from shifting servers, moving and storing office documents to relocating desks and chairs, Shift Karado helps to plan the entire office move to make it as seamless as possible. Additionally, as home relocation is complete only when the family vehicle moves along, Shift Karado provides a secure transport for a customer’s vehicle.

Q. Since middle class people still prefer using local means of transportation for shifting, how successful will you be in approaching the majority of population?

A. The middle class looks for a reliable, time-effective and simplified solution for their shifting. They have to use local means because it is what is available to them. We are confident that with the Shift Karado website and app, our clients will be happy. It will save their time, effort and simplify the entire process for them immensely through its InstaPrice technology. Since we are providing a solution which the middle class is actively looking for, our approach to the majority of the population will be successful.

Q.  Who are you major clients?

A. Our major clients include Dainik Bhaskar, Prop Tiger and CIANS, for whom we have done office relocations recently. Additionally, we have an agreement with OYO Rooms for relocation of their employees across India. In the direct customer segment, our majority clients come from the cities of Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai where early tech adoption is more prevalent.

Q. Are you only operating in big Indian cities or do you offer services in small cities as well? Is it available in rural areas as well?

A. The current outreach of Shift Karado includes the early tech-adopter cities of Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai in the southern zone; Chandigarh, Mohali and the six cities of NCR, including Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad in the northern zone and Pune, Mumbai, including Navi Mumbai in the western region. By recently launching services in Jaipur, Kolkata, Goa, Lucknow and Patna, Shift Karado plans to venture into Tier II cities soon and eventually expand its footprint into every Indian city and metro, offering the convenience of its services to as many Indians as possible. The rural areas will be covered as soon as we develop proper supply chain and logistical capabilities to cater to the specified requirements. We add a region in our portfolio only after we are certain that we can provide the same level of quality services in that region.

Q. How cost effective is it and what are the safety precautions that you keep in mind? How technologically advanced are your services?

A. Shift Karado provides two kinds of service – standard and premium. The standard option helps our price sensitive clients to get a cost-effective solution. Standard option is available for local movement within the city. The premium option is offered to our clients for movement across cities, because their belongings are in transit for a longer period and hence need better packing. The premium option is also offered to clients for local moves if they have specialised equipment or lot of fragile items. When it comes to safety precautions, we have learnt from our parent company, Star Worldwide, an international name in fine arts relocation for over 20 years. They have perfected safe shifting services over the years and have imparted us with the same knowledge. These set of processes and procedures help us to ensure that our clients get the same safety from our services. The Shift Karado website and app platforms provide a standard user interface that makes the booking process effortless and as simple as ordering an item from an e-commerce portal.

Q. How is the Indian market in packer and mover services when compared to international markets?

A. In comparison to the international market, the Indian scenario is highly fragmented and unorganised. With the entry barrier very low, almost anyone with a commercial vehicle can call themselves packers and movers. There is less number of professional players in the Indian scenario who can provide reliable services. However, the tech adaptiveness of Indian customers is at par with their foreign counterparts. This is one of the main reasons for which we feel that providing a solution online will be in sync with what our
clients need.

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