kalyan parbat kolkata a n apple iphone a sony xperia tablet a nikon d5200 camera or even a snazzy fisher toy could soon be at the fingertip of a potential cashrich consumer living in a small town in india gee pee infotech a kolkatabased lowcost cellphone maker selling its devices mainly in the countrys hinterlands is planning to roll out a costefficient franchisee model for potential customers living away from the city and have no clue where to buy such aspirational devices or are too paranoid to shop online or just dont know of the online shopping concept yet zaplist hub allows a rural indian shopper to buy the latest gizmo or personal care product online through a local gee pee franchisee eliminating the fear factor or apprehension at an online transaction a model quite unique to india but used in some south east asian markets according to experts a potential buyer just has to approach the individual or a family that acts as a franchisee it will then place the order online and the product will be delivered directly by zaplist to ensure timely delivery zaplist has teamed up with the countrys top shipping and logistics service providers like gati and blue dart the company plans to appoint 50000 franchisees in the first six months and are hoping that the number will go up to a whopping 1 million over the next two years these franchisees representing the gee pee brand will serve as mass connect points to help rural shoppers buy online from the zaplist shopping portal a rural customer will have the option to pay while taking the product delivery at his home or at his local franchisees premises weve decided to use local franchisees to increase a rural customers comfort factor and make online shopping a more trustworthy experience as our research suggests that 60 of indians with internet access are still afraid to buy online from faceless companies or merchants said kirty kedia founder and ceo zaplist technologies zaplist technologies owned by the 1000croreplus gee pee group will soon roll out zaplist hub in tier2 3 and 4 towns across eastern states like west bengal orissa across the northeast and then move to uttar pradesh and delhi before finally reaching out to south india noted brand specialist harish bijoor agrees that ecommerce in rural markets is purely a trustcentric business and zaplists plans to use local franchisees will lead to empowerment of that trust factor since the customer buys online through a person he knows the concept is unique and should translate into more online transactions given the mismatch in demand and availability of aspirational products in the smaller towns he adds the franchiseebased online retail business model has worked well in key south east asian markets like vietnam malaysia and indonesia but is yet to take off in a big way in india although there have been some regional forays by smaller companies says bijoor a newgen entrepreneur and internet enthusiast 28yearold kedia