LOCAL BUSINESSES. GLOBAL DISCOVERY.
Our mission
To put a million Indian store owners online on their own terms: discoverable, direct and free of commission.
Our story
Local businesses deserve to be found, without giving up their margin.
India's shops, makers and service providers power the country's retail economy. Most of them are still invisible online, or dependent on platforms that take a cut of every sale.
Why we exist
India has an estimated 12–13 million physical retail stores. They employ tens of millions of people, yet the overwhelming majority still have no meaningful digital presence beyond a WhatsApp status update.
The options available to them have been a false choice: list on a marketplace that charges commission, owns the customer relationship and puts competing sellers on the same page, or build a website that needs technical skill, agency fees and a marketing budget most neighbourhood stores do not have.
VDOlocal exists to end that false choice. We give every local business a branded storefront it fully owns, so it can be discovered and sell online without losing its margin, its customers or its identity.
Store estimate: Retailers Association of India (RAI) industry reports; Bain & Company "How India Shops Online".
Why video-first
Static photos rarely tell the full story. A Banarasi saree needs to catch the light as it moves; a pair of earrings needs to be seen from every angle; a haircut needs to be watched, not photographed. Video is how customers judge products at the counter, and VDOlocal brings that experience online.
A store owner records a short video on the phone they already use, in their own language. Our content engine turns it into product listings, search-ready pages, short clips and shareable cards, so customers can watch, ask on WhatsApp and pay the business directly.
The result is fewer steps between a search and the counter, and a storefront that works for the business rather than for a platform.
“Digitise the business. Don't make the business become a technology company.”The principle behind everything we build