`Jhelum Cart’:  Three Kashmir techies create India’s first e-shopping platform where buyers can bargain for goods online

Srinagar:  When e-commerce was taking the world by storm, three techies decided to create a platform where customers can get an experience of physical shopping though virtually.

Nabeel Wani, Naveed Qadir Wani, and Arif Ahmad Najar burnt the midnight oil to create a website that can stand out in the saturated e-commerce market. 

Two years on, `Jhelum Cart’ was born. It is a unique e-commerce platform where the customer has an option to bargain with the seller and purchase goods at the lowest prices.

“This is the first e-commerce platform where customers can communicate with the seller and bargain for the lowest price. This e-commerce shopping platform gives much more power to buyers over sellers, which is not in the case with other e-commerce websites,” said Nabeel, one of the co-founders of Jhelum Cart.

 From organic foods to apparel, footwear, furniture, books, handicrafts, et al, Jhelum cart sells everything and they have a customer base of thousands.

“Kashmir did not have an e-commerce platform that could sell products to the rest of the country. One fine day we met on the banks of Jhelum and discussed the idea. Finally, in November 2020, we launched an e-shopping platform,”  Nabeel said.

The real-time bargaining feature gives customers the satisfaction that they pushed hard for cheaper rates. This also helps the sellers to create a personal rapport with customers for future dealings.

“An automated system has been put in place. Customers may ask for a reduced price and if the seller accepts it, the transaction could be processed. The approval happens in real-time. Buyers can bookmark and follow their favorite online stores. We have incorporated the social media strategies into the interface,” he said.

Sellers at Jhelum cart have a personal dashboard and it is easy to check orders, manage delivery and sales and keep a record.

 “It is like a virtual shop, where an entire store of a seller is uploaded with details of every product. It is more of an interactive kind of shopping, where a seller can have his followers, who will get updates on products available in the store, ” Nabeel said.

 The e-commerce portal works on a low internet speed also. “Since the idea was generated in 2018, we decided that it should work at least low speed also,” Nabeel said.