SMALL BAG: Shopping Management App for LocaL Buyers And Grocers

A system for (1) SMS-based E-Tokens, (2) E-Tokens by Email, (3) Ordering online locally

Contact: Bhaskaran Raman (IITB), KV Subrahmanyam (CMI)

This is an initiative with ISRC (Indian Scientists' Response to CoViD-19)

Long queues, crowding

Customers wait less

Physical distancing

SMS-Based E-Tokens for Shops/Markets/Clinics

Live token status

Steps:

1. Customer sends SMS
2. Gets E-Token via SMS
3. Checks live status (updated by vendor)

Costing:

• App/system: always free, open source
• Set-up support from IITB: free now
• Rs. 0.20 per SMS

Contact: 7208588199, smallbag@cse.iitb.ac.in

Prof. Bhaskaran Raman, Dept. of CSE, IIT Bombay.

Easy to set-up, use

SMALL BAG: Shopping Management App for LocaL Buyers And Grocers

Workflow for Email Based E-Tokens

Prep-step: SMALL-BAG team creates the necessary google-docs for a vendor (1 customer form, 1 spreadsheet)

1. Vendor advertises customer form URL (paste in front of shop)
2. Customer fills form, gets automated email with:
1. Auto-generated E-Token
2. URL for online checking of current token status
3. When token is about to come, customer goes to the shop
4. Vendor marks ‘y’ in spreadsheet after serving that token
5. Vendor can also give ‘photo’ tokens, or paper (discouraged)
• For those who come to shop without a smart-phone
• Note: even feature phones have camera for photo token

Workflow for Online Ordering

Prep-step: SMALL-BAG team creates the necessary google-docs for a vendor (1 customer form, 2 spreadsheets)

Actual Usage

• Vendor advertises customer form URL
• Optionally, fills spreadsheet with partial product availability info
• Customer fills google form to place order
• Vendor sees order spreadsheet, packs order
• Vendor marks order as ‘ready’ on same spreadsheet
• Customer gets email saying ‘order ready’, picks up order

Try it out

https://bit.ly/smallbagiitb