How Swiggy helped a 60-year-old sweetshop foray into the online food business.
What does six decades of making Delhi a little sweeter look like? Ask Anupama Sweets and Snacks and they will show you.
Over 60 years, countless orders and millions of customers, the challenges evolved as the brand grew. This is the story of how Swiggy helped one of Delhi’s beloved brands grow digitally.
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In 1960, Sadarilal Chopra started Anupama Sweets and Snacks with one outlet in the main market of Faridabad’s Kailash Colony. They sold a variety of dishes but specialised in Indian sweets, desserts, and snacks, which became popular in the area. Soon, the shop grew to have multiple outlets in the city.
With growing challenges, Sadarilal’s son, Ashwani Chopra decided to join the family business. “I wanted to go abroad after finishing my higher studies. But after witnessing my family go through some tough times, I decided to help them out instead. I didn’t know anything about the profession; I learnt by watching my seniors and following their instructions. While I worked in every area of the business, I found myself focusing customer experience the most,” Ashwani says.
Though he has been a part of this business for 20 years and has been leading the main outlet, Ashwani believes there’s more to learn about the trade. “You’re always growing and learning something new in this field. I learnt that to win over a customer, you have to appeal in multiple ways because people are attracted to a combination of variety, familiarity, and newness, and every day brings something fresh,” he says.
Shifting gears
Though Anupama Sweets & Snacks is a traditional family business, they understood the need forchange and were looking at ways to evolve. But the the rise of online marketplaces turned out to be a greater challenge than expected. “The problem was not whether to enter the digital playground or not; that was a clear yes for us. The problem was in identifying the best way to go online without burning too many resources,” Ashwani explains. And that’s when the association with Swiggy happened.
“It was quite an experiment,” he says about onboarding with Swiggy.
“When the Swiggy team approached us in 2017, though they were new in the market, they were quite popular. It made us want to collaborate with them to help us navigate the digital landscape,” he recounts.
“Swiggy’s account managers have been very helpful. They guide us in offering discounts, as well as designing and launching marketing campaigns. The team also helps us identify where we may be lacking, what we can do to improve, and what new things we can do. They have even helped resolve issues late in the night.”
Swiggy’s Jatin Verma has been handling the Anupam Sweets & Snacks account for almost a year now. He says, “Anupama Sweets & Snacks is a strong brand with a lot of credibility and history to bank upon. But they needed guidance on handling the online business while re-approaching some of the offline factors.”
“We re-engineered their sales funnel, added more dishes to the menu, revised the timing and availability of certain items, changed the pricing of dishes, clicked original food pictures for the menu, ran discounts, and invested in ads. This really helped improve the business,” says Jatin.
The relationship kept growing and Jatin says it has a lot to do with how understanding Ashwani is. “He is a great partner to work with and is very involved in the business. He reviews each activity daily, plays a big role in understanding what works best for the team and is open to new ideas and suggestions. He realised the potential of the online avenue. We have helped the restaurant increase its presence, reach, conversion, and revenue and we’re looking forward to working more on it together,” adds Jatin.
When asked about his experience with Swiggy, Ashwani says, “Swiggy is an amazing partner. At the end of the day, we collaborate, share insights, make people happy through food, and do good business together.”
So what does the future look like for Anupama Sweets and Snacks? Ashwani says, “We plan to expand our brand and also enter the cloud kitchen cum takeaway outlet model.”
With six decades of experience, Sadarilal Chopra’s legacy has many more milestones ahead. And one thing is for sure – the brand knows how to unlock the sweet taste of success.
