How Seniority has addressed the gap in organised retail market for seniors

An RPG Group Company, Seniority has today emerged as India’s largest shopping destination for senior citizens. The company was founded in 2016 by Ayush Agrawal and Tapan Mishra. Ayush is an IIM alumnus, and responsible for marketing and strategy, while Tapan, an alumnus of LSE and XIMB, oversees operations and supply chain at Seniority.

Seniority has touched the lives of more than 5 lac seniors, becoming a part of their everyday lives through its innovative product portfolio across medical, wellness, lifestyle and leisure categories. Be it mobility aids, bathroom essentials, kitchen equipment, nutritious snacks, health supplements, music players or even smart home accessories, Seniority has successfully curated a wide range of over 10,000 products to make seniors’ lives comfortable and independent.

Earlier this year, Seniority and DocsApp, a leading digital healthcare platform in the country, joined hands in an attempt to bust myths, reduce panic and help educate the elderly on Coronavirus. The collaboration has been helping Seniority provide exclusive medical assistance from DocsApp to older adults and their family members. A 24x7 helpline support (080 4719 3443) has been launched to enable people to have access to skilled medical professionals during such critical times.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Seniority has been providing the public with a platform to help senior citizens who are facing difficulties in the time of lockdown. The Volunteer Connect program helps in connecting with seniors with requirements, and identifies volunteers in their vicinity to help them.

In conversation with Adgully, Ayush Agrawal and Tapan Mishra, Co-founders of Seniority, speak about the growth of the platform, relevance and engagement of Seniority in the COVID-19 era, and the various measures that the company has taken to provide senior citizens access to medical consultation as they remain confined to their homes.

What was the purpose of this initiative (launching Seniority) and how did the idea germinate? What has been the response so far to this initiative and is it available in all cities across the country? How many people have availed of this service and what kind of numbers are you looking to target?

Seniority was started with the idea of catering to the needs of senior citizens and their caregivers. The population of the 60+ years age group is fast growing in India, with recent reports suggesting that this number could reach 173 million by 2026, from around 120 million today. While it is true that India is a young country, what people tend to overlook is that India is also a rapidly ageing country.

This consumer segment is highly underserved, despite having a potential of about Rs 43,000 crore (medical and lifestyle market for the economically independent senior urban population) as per a report by CII. We identified that the organised retail market for seniors is negligible and wanted to address this gap by making Seniority India’s largest shopping destination for senior citizens.

Being an omnichannel e-commerce platform, Seniority has served over 5 lakh customers across India till date. We have four retail stores (Pune, Coimbatore, Chennai and Bhiwadi) and the website (www.seniority.in) where customers can find over 10,000 products ranging from medical and wellness to lifestyle and leisure. The aim is to become the first port-of-call for all needs of elderly and their caregivers.

What is the kind of collaboration or arrangement between Seniority and DocsApp for this program? Is it mandatory to download the app to avail the facility?

Coronavirus has affected millions of people across the world. The elderly population is more susceptible to the virus, especially those with pre-existing medical conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, respiratory problems, diabetes, and other similar chronic illnesses. As a brand that is empathetic to the needs of seniors, Seniority joined hands with DocsApp to help educate the elderly on Coronavirus and provide them with exclusive medical assistance.

A 24x7 helpline support (080 4719 3443) was launched to enable people to have access to skilled medical professionals during such critical times. Individuals on the platform may avail free online consultations across all departments from doctors from the convenience of their homes, without possibly exposing themselves to the virus on the platform.

How are you managing the helpline amid the lockdown and social distancing?

Social distancing and lockdown rules have helped in boosting the acceptance of telemedicine among consumers. Since majority of health workers, doctors, medical staff and hospitals are engaged in helping patients affected with coronavirus, online consultations have proven to be a boon to consumers in such challenging times.

You have volunteers who are helping the citizens in each locality or in their vicinity. Who are these volunteers and how are they recruited? Are they paramedical trained staff with experience to handle such cases?

Seniority Volunteer Connect is a special volunteering programme launched to help meet the daily grocery and medical needs of senior citizens by connecting them to volunteers across key cities. The volunteers are young people who are recruited after a strong screening process to determine their intent towards the initiative, willingness to participate, as well as their physical and mental fitness. We have city-wise WhatsApp groups where we connect with the seniors, accept their request for grocery, medicines, etc., and pass it on to the volunteer to fulfil it. We received tremendous response from our customers who were delighted to use this service. However, we don’t cater to paramedic requests of customers yet.

Could you tell us about your Safe Seniors tool? How different is it from the Arogya Setu app launched by the Government of India?

Seniority and RPG Life Sciences joined hands to launch “SafeSeniors”, a unique predictive analysis tool designed to especially help early identification of COVID-19 risk amongst the elderly. SafeSeniors is not an app, it’s a website that has been developed in consultation with the leading experts in the areas of Infectious Diseases, Community Medicine, Clinical Pharmacology and COVID-19 management.
Users are encouraged to enter their vital parameters, pre-existing medical conditions, travel & social exposure history and key symptoms such as fever, dry cough, etc., on a daily basis. Unlike similar other risk monitoring tools, SafeSeniors monitors health on a progressive basis using a robust algorithm and real-time information. We’ve witnessed considerable uptake of the tool, especially among the target audience that we are catering to. We have received 3,000 to 5,000 users on the website daily so far, with highest number of registrations from the western region, especially Maharashtra.

Unlike the Aarogya Setu app, SafeSeniors website doesn’t need any download and is accessible on any device – mobile, laptop, tablet, etc. Moreover, due to the predictive analysis principle it is based on, SafeSeniors requires you to enter your health status twice daily. Symptoms of coronavirus may take anywhere between 2-14 days to appear, hence a one-time health check is not sufficient to determine the risk of infection.

How are you creating awareness and promoting this great initiative? What is your marketing strategy?

Apart from the above initiatives, we have tied up with multiple partners such as Emoha Eldercare, Second Medic, Reliva,Samvedna, Cardiotrack, etc., to offer emergency medical assistance, helpline for COVID-19, telemedicine consultations with renowned experts as well as online physiotherapy sessions to our customers. We are also creating ample awareness by sharing a complete repository of information around COVID-19 through blogs, social media, and emailers.