One system for the orders that today arrive on WhatsApp, the phone and the counter: a customer app with a one-tap monthly list, final bills set by the weight actually packed, khata credit families can see, milk and bread subscriptions with pause and skip, and a rider app that proves every drop. Built for kirana stores, supermarkets, dairies and fruit and vegetable sellers in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune and across India.
Reply within one business day · Navi Mumbai team · Website, app and admin under one roof
The counter, the packing table, the delivery route and the customer’s phone working from one product list, one stock figure and one ledger per family.
A light website that opens fast on a basic phone and shows the details the law expects on every packed product page.
An Android and iPhone app for repeat families, plus a separate app for delivery riders and milk boys.
The back office where orders are picked, weighed, billed, dispatched and reconciled.
Most grocery stores we speak to in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Pune run on the same mix. A billing counter on desktop software, a WhatsApp number that gets forty order messages before 10 am, a landline the owner’s brother answers, a notebook of khata balances for families who settle at month end, and two or three delivery boys on bicycles or scooters. A dairy adds a milk route of a few hundred households, run from a register and the milkman’s memory.
A customer writes ‘1 kg onion, half kg tomato, Amul butter small’ and the packer guesses. Loose items go out heavier than billed and nobody charges the difference. A WhatsApp order sent late at night is missed and the family orders from a quick commerce app instead. A khata balance is disputed because the notebook says one thing and the customer remembers another. A delivery boy collects cash on COD orders and the evening count is short. None of these shows up in the billing software, because most of them happen before or after the bill is made.
Families in societies now compare you, every morning, with quick commerce dark stores that deliver in minutes. You will not out-run a dark store on speed, and you do not need to. Kiranas still win on things the big apps find hard: credit for families you know, the monthly list that the owner already understands, fresher vegetables, a son who will bring the gas cylinder upstairs, and a milk route that has run for fifteen years. Software should protect those strengths, not copy the big apps.
The rules have become stricter too. Food safety regulators expect any business selling food online to show its FSSAI licence or registration, sell products with enough shelf life left at delivery, and keep warehouses and handlers to hygiene norms. Packed goods sold online must show MRP, net quantity and the maker’s details on the product page. Infoways, a web, app and software company in Mahape, Navi Mumbai, builds grocery apps, store websites, rider apps and admin panels. Below is how each part works, the rules it has to respect, and an honest view on when a ready-made app is enough.
Talk to us about your grocery businessEight modules, who works on each screen, and the awkward cases that decide whether the software actually saves time.
Used by the store manager. Each product is set up once as sold by piece, by pack or by weight. Packed items carry the details the Legal Metrology rules expect online: maker or packer, net quantity, MRP, country of origin for imports and the best before date. Loose items like dal, rice, onions and dry fruits carry a price per kg with steps of 250 g or 500 g. The same rice can be listed as a 5 kg packed bag and as loose by weight, each with its own stock. Products can be hidden by outlet, by time of day, or when stock falls below a level you set.
Solved in your appUsed by the families who order every week. The home screen shows last order, the saved monthly list and the milk plan, not a banner carousel. A customer can reorder the whole list, change quantities, add a note (‘ripe bananas, not green’) and pick a slot. Older customers can send a photo of a handwritten list, which staff key into the same order. The cart shows the estimated total for loose items, with a clear line that the final bill follows actual weight. Hindi and Marathi labels can be switched on, and the app is built to run on low-cost phones and slow data.
Solved in your appUsed by packers on a tablet or phone at the packing table. Orders arrive as a pick list sorted by aisle. For loose items, the packer enters the actual weight from the scale (or the scale sends it where it has a connection), and the line is re-priced. If the order goes over a limit you set, the extra is charged; if under, the difference is refunded to the wallet or khata. Out-of-stock items trigger the customer’s choice: substitute, refund or call. The final bill is then locked, sent on WhatsApp and printed for the bag.
Solved in your appUsed by the owner and the cashier. Each family has one ledger for orders, payments, refunds and adjustments, with a credit limit you set per family. The customer sees the same ledger in the app, line by line, which ends most month-end arguments. Payment reminders go on WhatsApp on the day you choose, with a UPI link that settles straight to your account. Counter sales on credit can be added from the billing screen. If a family crosses its limit, the app asks for payment or owner approval before the next order is accepted.
Solved in your appUsed by dairies and stores with daily routes. A customer picks the item, quantity and days (daily, alternate days, weekends) and can pause, skip tomorrow, add an extra half litre or set a holiday from the app until a cut-off time you set, usually the night before. At the cut-off, the system builds tomorrow’s route sheet and the quantity to order from the dairy or distributor. Billing runs monthly from actual deliveries, not the plan. Price changes from the dairy apply from a date you enter, so the bill shows the old rate before and the new rate after.
Solved in your appUsed by delivery boys and milkmen, often with basic phones and little English. The route is shown in drop order by building and flat, with big buttons: Delivered, Not home, Skipped, Returned. A photo at the door can be required for high-value orders. Cash and UPI collected on COD orders are recorded against each order, and the evening settlement shows what each rider should hand over. Where the regulator expects food and non-food items to travel apart, the bag list shows which items go in which bag. The owner sees which orders are out, delivered or stuck.
Solved in your appUsed by the store manager and the person who receives goods. Stock comes in by purchase bill with batch and expiry date per lot for packed foods. The system sells the earliest-expiring lot first and warns before a lot is too close to expiry to send online. You set the minimum shelf life you will send out by category, in line with FSSAI’s expectation for online sellers, and items below it are moved to counter sale, a clearance offer or return to the distributor. Near-expiry and dead-stock reports show where cash is stuck on shelves.
Solved in your appUsed by the owner and accountant. UPI, cards and wallets are collected through a payment gateway in your store’s name, so money settles to your bank. COD cash is tied to the rider who collected it. Every evening the panel matches orders, payments, refunds and rider cash, and flags gaps. Invoices carry your GSTIN and FSSAI licence or registration number, and the right GST rate per item, since many staples are exempt while packaged items carry 5% or 18% under the structure in force since September 2025. Sales and stock export to Tally or sync with your billing software.
Solved in your appTell us how many outlets you run, how orders reach you today and whether you run milk routes. We will tell you which module to build first.
These are national rules as reported by the regulators and legal publications. States add their own inspections and approvals, especially for dark stores and warehouses.
| Term or rule | 1What it means | 2How the software handles it |
|---|---|---|
| FSSAI registration or licence | Every food business, including one that sells online, needs basic FSSAI registration or a state or central licence depending on its size and activity, applied for on the FoSCoS portal. Online sellers are an activity of their own. | Your licence or registration number is stored once and printed on the website footer, product pages and every invoice. Expiry of the licence triggers a reminder well ahead of renewal. |
| Licence number on bills and on screen | FSSAI asked e-commerce food businesses in December 2024 to show their licence prominently on their interface, and in July 2025 to print it on every receipt, invoice and cash memo, with information on the Food Safety Connect app for complaints. | Invoice, cash memo and order confirmation templates carry the licence number and a line on how to raise a food safety complaint. |
| Shelf life left at delivery | Reported from an FSSAI meeting in November 2024: online food should reach the customer with at least 30% of its shelf life left, or 45 days, whichever applies to the product. Check the latest advisory text before you rely on the exact figures. | You set a minimum days-to-expiry per category. Lots below it cannot be picked for online orders and are flagged for counter sale or return. |
| Legal Metrology declarations online | Under rule 6(10) of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, added in 2017, sellers of packed goods online must show the maker, packer or importer, country of origin, common name, net quantity, best before or use by date where relevant, MRP and dimensions where relevant. The month and year of packing may be left out online, but the pack itself must carry everything. | Each packed product has required fields for these declarations, and the page cannot be published while any is blank. Best before is shown per lot where you track it. |
| Unit sale price | Pre-packed retail goods carry a unit sale price, such as the price per kg or per litre, under amendments notified from 2021. It lets buyers compare a 1 kg pack with a 5 kg pack. | Unit price is worked out from MRP and net quantity and shown next to the price on product and cart pages. |
| Weighing scales used in trade | Scales used to sell by weight must be of an approved model and verified and stamped by the state Legal Metrology department at set intervals. Loose goods are sold by the weight shown on that scale. | The packing screen records which scale was used and the weight entered, so a disputed bill can be traced. Reminders can track each scale’s verification date. |
| Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules 2020 | An online seller must show its legal name, address, contact details and a grievance officer, acknowledge a complaint within 48 hours and resolve it within one month, and show return, refund and cancellation terms before purchase. | Seller and grievance officer details sit on every page. Complaints from the app get a ticket number at once, with the time limits tracked on the admin screen. |
| Dark patterns guidelines and the June 2025 advisory | The 2023 guidelines list practices such as false urgency, basket sneaking and drip pricing. In June 2025 the Central Consumer Protection Authority asked e-commerce platforms to self-audit for them within three months and not to use pre-ticked consent. | No items added to the cart without the customer’s action, no fake ‘only 2 left’ messages, delivery and packing charges shown before checkout, and opt-in boxes left unticked. |
| GST on grocery items | From 22 September 2025 GST moved to a main structure of 5% and 18%. Fresh produce and pouch milk stay exempt, UHT milk and paneer were moved to nil, and items such as butter and ghee to 5%, as reported. Rates are by HSN code. | Each product carries its HSN code and rate. The rate table can be changed on a date when the GST Council changes it, and invoices show tax by rate as your CA requires. |
| Personal data under the DPDP Act 2023 | Names, phone numbers, addresses, purchase history and khata balances are personal data. The store must take consent for the purposes it states and protect the data. | Consent at sign-up, marketing messages only to those who opted in, access by role so riders see only the address and order they need, and a way to delete an account. |
We have summarised these points from FSSAI announcements, the Legal Metrology rules and e-commerce rules as reported by regulators, the press and legal publications. Rules and advisories change and states add their own conditions. Confirm each one with your food safety consultant, Legal Metrology office or CA before it goes into the software. We build the settings your adviser approves; we do not give legal advice.
Most owners who call us have already been pitched three options. The first is to sell through a large platform or the ONDC network through a seller app, which brings new customers but also commissions, the platform’s rules and little control over the customer relationship. The second is a ready-made online store builder such as Dukaan, Shopify or DotPe, or the online ordering features bundled with retail billing software such as GoFrugal, Marg ERP or Vyapar, and khata apps such as Khatabook for credit. The third is a custom app built around your own routes, credit and catalogue.
For a single kirana that mainly wants to take orders online and print a link on its counter, a ready-made store builder or the ordering add-on from your billing software is often the right first choice, and we will tell you so. It starts in days, the vendor carries the upkeep, and you learn what your customers actually order online before spending more. Before you sign, check that it handles loose items sold by weight, lets you change the final bill after packing, shows the Legal Metrology details on each product page and lets you export your customer and order data when you leave.
A custom build earns its place in a narrower set of cases: a dairy or store whose milk and daily subscriptions are the core business, a supermarket chain with several outlets and a central warehouse, a store where family credit is a large share of sales, or an owner who wants its own brand, its own riders and its customer list held only by the business. Our guide on custom software vs off-the-shelf walks through the trade-off in detail, and starting an online store in India covers the basics if you are at the very beginning.
A plain comparison. The right answer depends on how many orders you take, how much is on credit and whether daily routes matter.
| Factor | 1WhatsApp, phone and notebook | 2Platform listing or ready-made store app | 3Your own grocery app and admin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | A single store with a handful of online orders a day | Stores testing online orders, or wanting new customers | Dairies, multi-outlet stores and credit-heavy kiranas |
| Loose items by weight | Guessed and adjusted by hand | Check whether the final bill can change after packing | Re-priced on actual weight at the packing table |
| Milk and daily routes | Register and memory | Rarely built in; check carefully | Plans, pause, skip, holiday and route sheets |
| Khata credit | Notebook or a separate khata app | Usually prepaid or COD only | One ledger per family, visible in the app |
| Who owns the customer list | Scattered phones | The platform or vendor, under its terms | Your store |
| Legal details on product pages | Not applicable | Depends on how you fill in the vendor’s fields | Required fields that block publishing when blank |
| Time to start | Already running | Days to a few weeks | Weeks to months, in phases |
Product and platform names are given only to help you compare. Their features and terms change often, so check each one’s current offering directly.
Each one comes straight out of the order, packing and stock records. None needs an accountant.
Families who ordered at least twice in the last 30 days, divided by all families who ordered in that period. This is the number that tells you whether the app is building habit or only taking one-off orders. Track it by society or pincode to see where it is working.
Solved in your appTotal order value for the week divided by the number of orders, split by app, WhatsApp and phone. If app orders are smaller, families may be using you for top-ups and buying the monthly list elsewhere; a reminder before month start can change that.
Solved in your appActual weight packed minus weight ordered, summed across loose items for the day, in kg and value. A steady positive figure is margin walking out in bags. It usually points to one packer, one product or a scale that needs checking.
Solved in your appOrder lines delivered as ordered, divided by all lines ordered. Every substitute and refund lowers it. A low fill rate on the same items each week means your reorder levels are wrong, not that customers are difficult.
Solved in your appOrders delivered inside the promised slot divided by orders in that slot. Track morning and evening separately. A slot that keeps missing is usually a packing bottleneck, not a rider problem.
Solved in your appTotal credit split into 0-15, 16-30, 31-60 and over 60 days. Fresh balances are normal; old ones need a call from the owner. Watch which families keep ordering while an old balance grows.
Solved in your appValue of stock whose remaining shelf life is below the minimum you send online, by category. It shows what must go to the counter, an offer or a return to the distributor this week, before it becomes a write-off.
Solved in your appCash each rider should hand over from COD orders, minus cash received, per day. A small gap now and then is normal; a pattern is a conversation. It also shows which riders’ customers prefer UPI.
Solved in your appSay you run two supermarkets in Kharghar and a milk route of 210 homes. The numbers here are only to show the flow. At 9 pm the night before, the subscription cut-off closes. Twelve families paused milk for a weekend trip, four added an extra half litre, and two new households joined. The system builds tomorrow’s route sheet in building order and the quantity to order from the dairy. At 5:30 am the milkman opens the rider app, delivers in sequence and taps Delivered at each door. One flat is marked Not home and the half litre goes back.
By 10 am, 64 app orders and 11 WhatsApp orders are in. Staff key the WhatsApp ones into the same queue, including a photo of a handwritten list from an older customer. Packers work from aisle-sorted pick lists. A customer ordered 1 kg onions; the scale shows 1.08 kg, inside the limit you set, so the bill stays as estimated. Another ordered 500 g cashew; the scale shows 540 g and the extra is added. Paneer is out of stock in one outlet, so the customer gets a push to choose: substitute with another brand, refund, or take it from the second outlet in the evening slot.
At the receiving desk, the morning delivery from a distributor is entered with batch and expiry per lot. Two cartons of a juice brand have less shelf life left than your online minimum, so the system blocks them from online orders and moves them to a counter offer. Meanwhile, three families get their month-end khata reminder on WhatsApp with a UPI link; two pay within the hour, and the ledger updates on both sides.
At 9 pm the owner opens the panel. Orders, payments, refunds and rider cash are matched, with one rider short on cash for a single order that the customer later paid by UPI. The dashboard shows repeat order rate for the week, weight variance by product, fill rate, near-expiry value and khata ageing. Sales and stock export to Tally for the accountant, with GST worked out per item at the rates in force.
We spend time at your counter and packing table, read a week of WhatsApp and phone orders, and write down how you sell loose items, which products go online, credit limits, slot timings, the milk cut-off and your minimum shelf life by category. You check the food safety and weights points with your consultant.
The slowest and most important step. We pull products from your billing software, merge duplicates, mark each as piece, pack or weight, and fill in MRP, net quantity, maker, origin and HSN code. Photos come from distributors where possible, and your staff shoot the rest on a phone with a simple guide.
Customer app, rider app, store website and admin are built on one backend, usually in Flutter so Android and iPhone share one codebase. You see a working build every week, not only at the end.
You open a payment gateway account in the store’s name, and we connect stock and bills with your billing software or Tally. Opening khata balances are loaded family by family and checked by you, because the app carries forward whatever it is given.
We run one store or one milk route for two to three weeks with real customers. Packers and riders are trained at the store in Hindi or Marathi, shift by shift. We fix whatever slows them down before the next outlet starts.
Play Store and App Store publishing, a QR standee at each counter, a printed note in delivery bags, a WhatsApp message to existing customers who agreed to hear from you, and local SEO with your Google Business Profile so the store shows up for grocery delivery searches near you.
Before sign-off we check bills, weight re-pricing, refunds, khata, subscriptions, rider settlement, invoices and data exports with you. Staff are trained as admins, and maintenance and support continues after launch, including changes when GST rates or food rules change.
Send us a week of your orders and the app you are considering. We will tell you honestly whether it fits or a custom build is worth it.
Every store is different, so we quote after understanding yours. A store website and customer app for one outlet, with a clean catalogue, slots, UPI payments and an admin panel, is a small project. Adding weight-based final billing at the packing table, khata, a rider app with proof of delivery, stock sync and expiry control makes it a medium one. A multi-outlet system with a central warehouse, milk and daily subscriptions for several routes, outlet-wise stock, a franchise or society model and head-office reports is a large one.
The cost rises with the number of products and how messy their data is, the number of outlets and routes, links to your billing software, weighing scales or label printers where the hardware supports it, and how much of the khata history has to move in. It falls if you start with the customer app and packing screen, which stop the daily order mistakes, and add subscriptions, the rider app or a second outlet once the first part is working.
Timelines: a single-outlet store app usually takes 6-8 weeks, of which product data cleaning takes the biggest share. Adding subscriptions and the rider app takes another 3-5 weeks including training on the route. A multi-outlet system runs about 3-5 months in phases. Our app cost calculator gives a first feel, and ecommerce development covers online stores in more detail.
Do not launch with a half-finished catalogue. Families who search for their usual brand of atta and find nothing go back to WhatsApp and do not return. Start with the 500 to 800 items your regulars buy every month, complete with proper details, and add the long tail later.
Do not promise ten-minute delivery. Promise what you can keep: a morning and an evening slot, or same day if ordered before noon. A store that is always on time in a two-hour slot keeps families longer than one that is sometimes fast and often late.
Do not hide loose-item pricing. Show the estimated price, say clearly that the bill follows actual weight, and set a small limit beyond which you call or ask. Surprises on the final bill do more damage than a slightly higher price.
And do not build an app if you take fewer than a handful of online orders a day and have no milk route or credit book. A WhatsApp Business catalogue, a payment link and a Google Business Profile will serve you better until demand grows. Our WhatsApp marketing guide is a good place to start.
Ask us on WhatsApp. A real person from our Navi Mumbai team replies.
Ask on WhatsAppSelling food online is treated as its own activity under FSSAI, and depending on your size you need basic registration or a state or central licence that covers it, applied for on the FoSCoS portal. Your food safety consultant can confirm whether your current licence covers online sales or needs to be modified.
FSSAI has asked online food sellers to show the licence prominently on their website or app and, from its July 2025 directions, on every receipt, invoice and cash memo. We print it on the site footer, product pages, order confirmations and invoices.
As reported from an FSSAI meeting in November 2024, food delivered online should have at least 30% of its shelf life or 45 days left at delivery. Check the current advisory with your consultant. The app lets you set a minimum days-to-expiry per category and blocks lots below it from online orders.
Under the Legal Metrology packaged goods rules, online sellers must show the maker, packer or importer, country of origin, common name, net quantity, MRP, best before or use by date where relevant, and dimensions where relevant. Unit sale price per kg or litre is also expected on pre-packed retail goods. The month and year of packing can be left off the page but must be on the pack.
The customer sees an estimated price per kg. At the packing table the packer enters the actual weight from the scale, the line is re-priced, and the extra is charged or the difference refunded to the wallet or khata before dispatch. You set a limit above which the customer is asked first.
Yes. Each family has one ledger with a credit limit you set. Orders, payments and refunds appear line by line in their app, and reminders go out on WhatsApp with a UPI link on the date you choose.
Yes. Customers set quantity and days, then pause, skip, add extra or set a holiday until your cut-off time. The system builds the next morning’s route sheet and dairy order, the milkman marks each drop, and the monthly bill comes from actual deliveries.
Not on ten-minute speed, and you should not try. A neighbourhood store’s own app wins on the monthly list, credit for known families, fresher produce, milk routes and personal service. Many stores also stay listed on a platform for new customers while moving regulars to their own app.
For a single store testing online orders, a ready-made option is often the sensible start. Check that it handles weight-based final bills, Legal Metrology fields and data export. A custom build makes sense for dairies, multi-outlet stores and credit-heavy kiranas that want their own brand, riders and customer data.
Usually yes. We sync products, stock and bills with retail billing software that offers an API or export, and send sales and GST data to Tally for your accountant. We check your exact software and version before we promise a two-way sync.
From 22 September 2025 GST moved mainly to 5% and 18%. Fresh produce and pouch milk remain exempt, UHT milk and paneer were moved to nil, and items like butter and ghee to 5%, as reported. Rates depend on the HSN code of each item, so confirm your list with your CA. The app stores a rate per product and lets you change it from a date.
Yes. The rider app uses large buttons, building and flat order, and Hindi or Marathi labels. We train riders on their actual route during the pilot.
Names, phone numbers, addresses, purchase history and khata balances are personal data under the DPDP Act 2023, and your store is responsible for how they are used. We build consent at sign-up, marketing only to those who opted in, role-based access so riders see only what a delivery needs, and account deletion on request.
A single-outlet store app usually takes 6-8 weeks, most of it spent cleaning the product list. Subscriptions and a rider app add 3-5 weeks. A multi-outlet system with a warehouse takes about 3-5 months in phases.
Talk to our Navi Mumbai team about your outlets, catalogue, credit book and milk routes. We will give you a clear plan, an honest view on ready-made apps, and a price.
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