Dipty Mandal is not your typical founder or CMO. She left a cushy job at Bangladesh’s largest telecom company, Grameenphone, to co-found PriyoShop, a B2B e-commerce platform transforming the MSME retail supply chain and finance landscape in Bangladesh. With a BBA and MBA in Marketing from the University of Dhaka, she brings a sharp understanding of customer psychology and a knack for building systems that scale.
PriyoShop originally started as a B2C platform but pivoted during COVID-19 to tackle a bigger problem: the fragmented supply chain for Bangladesh’s 5 million mom-and-pop shops. Today, with 29 hubs, 276 partnered brands, and a recent $1.5 million raise, the company is on a roll.
In this interview, we dive into Ms. Dipty’s path to entrepreneurship, how she built a lean marketing operation from scratch, and the lessons she’s learned about balancing structure with creativity. We explore how PriyoShop’s marketing speaks to both price-sensitive shopkeepers and global brands like Unilever, using trade marketing and word-of-mouth to onboard 150,000 retailers.
Ms. Dipty shares practical insights on how PriyoShop's marketing operation works, how the company launches new hubs, designs strategies, crafts positioning and communication messaging, explains her approach to building a marketing operation from scratch, and staying agile in a fast-changing market. She also opens up about launching PriyoShop’s own brand, her productivity methods, and lessons from her journey so far.
This is a fascinating read for anyone curious to understand how founder-led marketing works, how to build and run lean marketing operations at a startup, and how to solve real-world problems in a messy market.
Mohammad Ruhul Kader: Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. I think we can start by talking about your background and journey. Please tell us about where you come from, your education, and your path leading up to what you are doing today.
Dipty Mandal: I am Dipty Mandal, currently the Co-founder and CMO of PriyoShop. My education includes both a BBA and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Dhaka. After that, I worked at Grameenphone, which is Bangladesh's largest telecom company, for about two and a half years. There, my work involved customer retention and acquisition. Afterward, I co-founded PriyoShop in 2013.
Ruhul: You started PriyoShop initially as a B2C platform. Would you like to share any stories or interesting anecdotes from that period?
Dipty Mandal: In the beginning, we were a B2C platform. At that time, we sold everything from dresses to jewelry, electronics, and household items. Our service has been nationwide since 2013.
Later, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when most businesses came to a standstill, we realized that the B2B sector in Bangladesh is bigger than the B2C. The sector also suffers from a serious supply chain bottleneck, and the need for e-commerce in that sector is much greater. The problem we saw was that mom-and-pop shops and small retailers are mainly one-man armies. Restocking products for their shops was a big problem for them.
During COVID-19, everything suddenly shut down. These mom-and-pop shopkeepers couldn't directly go to brands or wholesale markets to restock products and sell them to end customers. There was a significant need to make the supply chain work for them and simplify it. Otherwise, their shops were closing. At that time, we were working with many of these shops as distribution points to make our products available to customers, and we closely saw their challenges.
At that time, we realized we could explore the B2B sector to simplify the supply chain for our country's approximately 5 million or more small shopkeepers. That's mainly how we started our journey in B2B ecommerce in 2021.
Ruhul: Your journey is very interesting. You worked at a reputable company like Grameenphone. Then you decided to co-found this company, which should not have been an easy decision. What was your thought process behind leaving Grameenphone to start something on your own? And also, how does that experience of working at GP help you in your current position as a founder and CMO?
Dipty Mandal: When I was at Grameenphone, my job mainly involved customer acquisition and retention. Ensuring customers receive the services and are happy with the services. I had the opportunity to see this entire customer journey process. Working for a large company has many upsides that can also feel like downsides sometimes. For instance, since Grameenphone is a telecom company and a very large organization, most things were predefined. Everyone's job description and the process for every task were predefined. So, it was easy to work. We worked within established processes. While that experience helped me to understand how to build processes and systems and later apply that knowledge to my work at PriyoShop, I could also feel that working for a large organization comes with other limitations. You don’t get as much freedom and opportunity to explore and learn.
When we started PriyoShop, the freedom was much greater. We could come up with new ideas, experiment, and learn. The canvas was much broader and open. At Grameenphone, we also worked with new ideas, but everything was largely predefined and pre-built. A very structured environment.
This was part of the reason I wanted to pursue entrepreneurship. I felt that entrepreneurship would give me greater freedom to explore, experiment, and grow. This was partly the primary motivation for me to do something of my own.
At the same time, the structured learning from Grameenphone also helped me in this journey. That experience taught me that there needs to be a balance between structure and flexibility. You need to have structure, rules, and systems, but it shouldn’t stifle innovation and limit people’s opportunity to explore and experiment. So we have tried to be a process-oriented operation from day one. But we have also tried to give logical freedom to our people.
Ruhul: Tell us more about building marketing operations at PriyoShop from scratch. How did you put together the structure and build out the operations?
Dipty Mandal: We have tried to establish structure in our marketing team from the very beginning. We try to maintain predefined job descriptions for everyone. We plan annually. We have an annual goal that informs our quarterly and monthly goals.
We do a weekly stand-up with my team where we discuss our past week's performance, highlight any achievements, our targets for the next week, any challenges and bottlenecks, and lessons learned. When talking about challenges, we also discuss ideas and strategies to overcome the challenges so that we can do better the following week.
I try to stay personally connected with all my team members. This personal connection allows me to understand their challenges better, provide them guidance when needed, and understand our progress and challenges better.
In the early days, most things involved me being personally involved. Whether it was content creation, graphic design, or communication with investors, suppliers, or our mom and pop shop partners, I had to do many of these myself.
However, as team members have been onboarded one by one, they now take care of most of the things. They truly own the company, which is a huge plus point for us. So, when they are given an instruction or involved in something that I used to do myself, they quickly grasp and understand it. We maintain strong communication that has helped to build good team bonding, which results in better collaboration.
Ruhul: Speaking with you, two things seem interesting and will be useful for our readers. One is that you've built a marketing organization in a fast-growing startup in a difficult e-commerce space. I see many people struggle to build a marketing organization – hiring teams, enabling them, and then preparing a structure, as you mentioned, having targets. Building this is quite a complex process. Your insights could be useful for people regarding how to hire and how to create internal structures. Could you please talk more about how you built the initial organization? When you started leading the marketing department, how did you think about structuring it? And when it came to hiring, how did you make those hiring decisions as your marketing team gradually grew?
Dipty Mandal: In the beginning, when there was a need for a graphic designer, content creator, or digital marketer, as we onboarded team members one by one, I would communicate directly with the HR team. They would then post hiring ads on various job portals. Some candidates would apply, and a shortlist would be made. HR would conduct initial interviews, and then I would interview the shortlisted candidates and hire.
Now, the request comes from my team's team lead, stating that we might need a motion graphic designer or a new content creator. Then, with my approval, HR is communicated with. We still post hiring ads on job portals like BDJobs. From there, candidates are shortlisted. The first interview might be taken by my team lead, with the final interview taken by me. This is how hiring is done.
After onboarding, new hires go through an orientation and a first-week training session. This training covers how they will work, our company's values, our culture, how communication will happen, and what our goals are. They also receive training on their specific job and communication protocols.
We also have a launcher team that is hired when we open a new hub. We regularly open hubs. Currently, we have 29 hubs nationwide. For example, if a new hub opens in Munshiganj, we need a launcher team there for a few months who will set things up. We make contractual hires from that specific area based on the number of launcher team members needed. They mainly do field work, communicate with small retailers, and onboard them.
When hiring new team members, we look for a few things. We prefer people with at least some institutional credentials, such as at least a bachelor's degree. If we need experienced team members, we look at their portfolio to see what similar work they have done before.
For freshers, we look at their willingness to learn new things and adapt. During the interview, we try to understand their psychology. We prioritize practical skills over bookish knowledge. Broadly, we seek to hire people who fit with our culture and have a willingness to learn. When you have these two things in a candidate, you can work out the rest.
Ruhul: What is the size of your marketing team now? If we consider PriyoShop as a large organization, and marketing as a smaller organization within it, how does your team operate, and how do you work with other departments? What is your daily structure like?
Dipty Mandal: Currently, our full-time marketing team consists of 10 people, and we have many more launch teams in different areas. These 10 people include digital marketers, brand marketers, content creators, a social media executive, motion graphic designers, and still graphic designers.
As for my team, since I have team leaders, they take care of many things firsthand. When there's a need to communicate, it's often done through the team leader. As I mentioned before, I maintain personal communication, and we communicate directly about everything when needed. We prefer direct communication, be it an instruction, a campaign, or anything else. While we have formal methods, we all engage in informal discussions and brainstorming.
Tasks are assigned according to responsibilities. My team makes most day-to-day decisions. I get involved in long-term planning and major decisions. If the team struggles with something, they can come to me for approval or a final check and decision.
I also have additional responsibility apart from our marketing operation: to act as a communication bridge with other stakeholders and other departments. I manage communication with our stakeholders and investors. Similarly, I stay connected with everyone and coordinate with other teams, and discuss how we are achieving our final goal or mission.
We usually have a weekly routine. When I come to the office, I usually have an informal interaction with the team and some casual conversation. I then look at the day’s priority and try to break down the day's tasks into small items, specifying who is responsible for what. I follow up on this from time to time: how much progress was made by midday, how much we completed by the end of the day, and what tasks are planned for the next day.
We also have a weekly stand-up call where we follow up on the entire week's work, achievements, and plan for the next week. We prepare a report based on this, which helps us understand everyone's achievements and what we need to do next.
If anyone is stuck on a task or needs feedback, we always try to communicate instantly to avoid bureaucracy, like waiting for an email and its approval. We always try to get work done now, whether by phone call or in-person communication, so it happens quickly.
This informal communication creates a flow in their work, motivates everyone, and fosters a bond among them. It doesn't feel like a rigid, fear-inducing structure they have to follow. This creates a flow in their work.
Ruhul: This is interesting. Often, strict procedural requirements slow things down and waste time and resources. Quick decisions can create a faster execution tempo.
Dipty Mandal: We try to set things up, brainstorm, and discuss through informal communication first to bring a flow, and then go for final approval, so that time is not wasted. I think this is very important, especially today when something new is happening every day.
Ruhul: Could you elaborate on your approach to work and how you work with other people? You've already mentioned that you prefer keeping in touch with people and maintaining this connection. You prefer to maintain a loose approval process to ensure things move faster. Tell us more.
Dipty Mandal: Mainly, as I said, it's about personal communication and maintaining a flow of work, which I always prioritize. I also give regular feedback on the work of my team.
Another thing I follow is to take feedback from my team members. This isn't just within the marketing team. Since I'm a Co-founder, I also need to coordinate with other departments. We assess the level of coordination between the marketing team and other teams. When a task comes up, I need to take care of understanding whose job description it falls under and which team needs to make what decision.
Ruhul: We've talked about building and running a marketing organization for a fair bit. I would like you to talk about the technical aspects of marketing. You had a sizable B2C operation at one point. You studied marketing at the University of Dhaka. How did your experiences and education impact the marketing operations you run now?
Dipty Mandal: I completed both my BBA and MBA in Marketing from the University of Dhaka. Education, from that field, mainly helps to open our minds. We learn various terms, methods, and processes. That's true. But marketing itself is constantly changing. New trends constantly emerge. Everything is new.
Another thing that happened at our university was various seminars and workshops where industry leaders and marketers would join and share their experiences – real case studies of what's happening or happened in other companies, what problems they faced, and how. Not just their success stories, which of course motivate us, but also how they failed while doing something and how they bounced back from that failure, what next steps they took to achieve success, or solve a problem. We learned these things at university.
Since marketing is very dynamic, applying those case studies to real-life situations was beneficial. Yes, some predefined things made it easier, like knowing what to do in certain situations. When new situations arose, our learning became even better.
In B2C, we mainly interacted with diverse types of customers nationwide. Customers in Dhaka are different from those in Sylhet and those in Cox's Bazar. Their mindsets are unique. Operating nationwide was a huge learning experience for us in understanding customer mindsets and psychology.
While working at that time, we would sometimes see that when we sent a product to a remote area, there might not be an exact address for the house. Sometimes, they would say, "Send it to this address, near my house, at the shop." At that time, we would send a product to an end customer to a shop, and they would pick it up from there.
At that time, we observed that a shopkeeper might say, "A product has come from PriyoShop. What kind of company is this? Can they supply products for my shop?" This happened more in villages, where shopkeepers would travel long distances to wholesale markets, closing their shops for restocking, losing a day's sales, and not getting all branded products. They would say, "Can PriyoShop supply products for us?"
That’s how the idea of B2B commerce came: that we could directly supply products from brands to these grocery shopkeepers. In that case, the shopkeepers wouldn't have to go through the trouble of traveling anywhere. They would receive the products at their shop and get the exact brand price, the wholesale price, without the hassle of middlemen. This idea came to us to enter the B2B sector, because the B2B sector is even larger, and we saw how we could contribute there.
One lesson here could be: when you get out of the building and enter the real world, and you remain open to learning, it could prove transformational. We observed the market we operated in, and when we landed on a bigger problem, we decided to take on it.
Ruhul: When you enter B2B e-commerce, B2B marketing is a very different set of customers. On one side, you have small retailers, and on the other side, you have brands, which are also your customers. How did your marketing change, given that your customers changed?
Dipty Mandal: Since our customers changed, our communication also had to adapt. For example, our mom-and-pop shopkeepers are very price-sensitive. So, our communication or marketing message to them emphasizes: "You're getting the best price. There's no middleman hassle. You don't have to pay any extra money. You'll get the direct brand price at a lower cost, and you'll receive it at your shop." This saves them the trouble of traveling to wholesale markets, walking around, and closing their shops. We offer them this service: "You're getting the exact branded product but at a lower price."
For brands, our marketing communication focuses on access and availability. For large brands, whether it's Unilever, ACI, or Reckitt Benckiser, we have partnerships with all of them now – their concern is that their products should be available everywhere. People across Bangladesh should know and recognize their product, and it should be available in any small retail store. The retail landscape in Bangladesh is so big and so fragmented that sometimes brands struggle to track and ensure the availability of their products. And when products are not available in a shop, it means sales are missed and brands are forgotten. So we promise the brands that we will ensure the availability of their products in retail shops across the country.
We assure them that we will make their products available everywhere, whether in Dhaka retail stores, small alley shops, or large stores, through our own logistics team, on time. This also reduces their hassle, and they see that their product is available everywhere, increasing their brand exposure and ensuring sales. Our communication with them is like this.
Ruhul: What are the main channels you use, and what is their allocation? Which channels are most effective, given that many of your customers might not be found on platforms like Facebook or other social media?
Dipty Mandal: We definitely do digital marketing, but we mainly focus on trade marketing. This is because to reach our shopkeepers, who currently number nearly 150,000 registered retail stores, we must follow trade marketing.
Our launcher team and sales representatives maintain regular communication with them, understanding their needs and educating them about new products or how to order through the app. This is crucial for trade marketing.
In digital marketing, many people now use Facebook. So when we showcase our services on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or Instagram, they are connected there.
However, given that a large segment is our retail shopkeepers, trade marketing through direct communication by our launcher team or sales team is much more effective. Because a person comes and communicates directly, showing them firsthand how to order and deliver the product. That in-person touch is very effective for them.
Ruhul: And for brands, I guess, because working with brands is complex, much like B2B sales, does it take a lot of time to build partnerships?
Dipty Mandal: Initially, it did take some time because back then, we had to go to brands ourselves to communicate how we provide service and that we would supply their products to all shops. It was quite a challenge to convince brands and make them understand our service. In the early days, our partnership team mainly worked on this.
Now, after working for so many years, many brands know about us. So, now many brands themselves approach us, saying they want to avail our service from a particular hub and are looking for an exclusive partnership there.
In this case, it has become much easier than before because many things are now structured. We can tell them, "We have X thousand retail stores in this area, and we can deliver your products here within this timeline." When they see that we can fulfill that target, brands come with more requirements, saying, "We want to partner with you in another area." These things happen now because brands proactively communicate with us.
Ruhul: Since you have already created a position for your distribution, what kind of marketing messaging do you use for your brand partners and also for the grocery shopkeepers? Because here, as you just said, there is also a matter of trust – trust that I will receive my product on time. Can you share a couple of examples or any campaign messaging?
Dipty Mandal: For example, we can talk about a journey we started in Mirpur with Savlon. We started our journey with an exclusive partnership there. Our partnership team communicated that we were already working with other brands like Unilever, Grameenphone, Reckitt Benckiser, etc., and they knew that. So, through the communication from the partnership team, they initially allowed us to have one brand in Mirpur, saying, "Let's see what kind of sales we get with an exclusive partnership here."
It was seen that within a month, Savlon's sales and product demand increased. We regularly restocked the products we received from them at our registered retail shopkeepers.
After seeing this, Savlon's head office communicated directly with us, saying they wanted to open another hub. We then opened another hub in Gulshan shortly after, where we also have an exclusive partnership with them, and discussions are ongoing to extend to more hubs.
Ruhul: You have retailers in cities like Dhaka and major cities, but you also have many outside Dhaka. And reaching these two different types of audiences is relatively challenging. In many cases, they might not be digitally savvy, so using your digital tools presents a certain challenge. These structural barriers, like digital literacy or the geographical gap, create challenges. How does marketing play a role here for you?
Dipty Mandal: From the Dhaka retail shopkeepers, we observed that the lifestyles of shopkeepers in Cox's Bazar, Chittagong, and Sylhet, where we have hubs, are different. Their language, their style of speaking – everything is different. So, to start a business in any area, we first conduct market research to understand how many retail shops there are, what their demand is like, and which products are popular or lacking in supply.
For example, in one area, there might be high demand for FMCG products, but in another, there might be a higher demand for staple goods like rice and lentils. So, we conduct market research to understand the local situation.
In such cases, we try to hire local people for our launcher team. Because they know the local grocery shopkeepers' communication style and how to talk to them to get a positive response, and encourage them to onboard with us. We always try to work through the local launcher team.
A positive aspect of our app is that it's made in Bengali. It simply shows the product's picture, name, and price. Our launcher team or sales team directly demonstrates, "You just register with your name and phone number, click on the product, and the order will be placed." It's very easy in Bengali. Even if they are not fully digitally literate, they can read enough Bengali on their mobile phones to understand the product name, see the picture, and see the price. So, after one or two demonstrations, the shopkeepers can easily place orders in Bengali.
This makes it easier for them. Almost everyone has a mobile phone now. We ensure that whether it's a salesperson or someone from the launcher team, they are connected so that shopkeepers can contact the local team for any need. We also try to collect regular feedback from them in person, which our launcher team and sales representatives do.
Ruhul: This is an interesting discussion. Tactically, at the application level, how do you handle things? How does your launcher team launch in a new place? For example, if you launch in Cox's Bazar, how does that execution happen?
Dipty Mandal: In any area, say Cox's Bazar, our HR team recruits locally through local pages, job portals, or student organizations. Mainly, freshers are interested in joining the launcher team. So, we communicate through these channels and hire local launcher teams.
In such cases, the hub coordinator for that area, like in Cox's Bazar, personally takes care of assessing how many retail shops there are and how many launcher team members are needed. A requisition comes to us saying, "We need this many launcher team members."
For example, if we already have one hub and are looking at a second, or if it's a completely new hub, we might need a few more launcher team members, perhaps 7 to 10. If we already have a hub and are opening a new one that's not entirely new, maybe a second hub, then we might have some launcher team members already and just need a few new requisitions.
So, HR and the hub coordinator hire them, and they are trained on how our app works, how to order, and our one-day delivery system (order today, get the product tomorrow). We try to hire local people for this, so they have a positive communication advantage because they know the shopkeepers in the area and how to talk to them. This makes it easier for them.
We also take feedback from time to time on order growth, whether order quantity is increasing, and how customers are communicating and placing repeat orders. This is regularly tracked by the hub coordinator, then our HR team, and then, from our side, the marketing team communicates any offers or campaigns directly to the launcher team so they can communicate them to our shopkeepers.
Ruhul: Do those in the launcher team have targets, like something they need to achieve, or do you have a specific time frame for when the launcher team will work?
Dipty Mandal: Yes, mainly, most launcher teams are contractual hires for a few months. They are given targets, such as how many shops they can onboard. The second target is not just onboarding; it's whether those shops are active, if they are placing orders, how many weekly orders they are placing, and how many of those are successful orders (meaning they are actually delivered).
The main target of the launcher team is how many shops they can onboard and what the order flow, order amount, and quantity from those shops are like.
Ruhul: If you could share some operational insights into your marketing team. How do you operate, meaning you have brand communication, which is like regular brand communication about empowering MSMEs – perhaps you communicate this, and for that, you have campaigns. Besides that, you probably have product-wise campaigns, maybe new product launches. You have different types of activities. If you think about how you operate as a team, do you have a target at the end of the month, like "these are our goals"? And then how do you execute it? How many campaigns? Can you give an operational insight?
Dipty Mandal: Our communication is that we are Bangladesh's largest and fastest-growing B2B marketplace, and our mission is to simplify the supply chain for MSMEs with embedded credit. All our campaigns, regardless of what they are, are aligned with this main message and goal. What we initially did was simplify the supply chain; this is our goal. And then we introduced a new target.
When we were restocking for grocery shopkeepers and small retailers, we noticed they had a problem with funding or credit, especially when buying in bulk. So, we introduced "embedded credit." We now offer something under embedded credit.
For example, we recently partnered with BRAC Bank, and through us, BRAC Bank is providing loans to registered MSMEs of PriyoShop. Even if they don't have a formal bank account, which many grocery shopkeepers don't, it's not a problem. They can't take loans with collateral.
We are now offering and communicating collateral-free loans based on their purchase behavior patterns, which we have. We don't take any extra documents from them. What we are doing is providing them with loans based on their purchase pattern.
We are communicating this as a "10-minute loan." If they apply through our app and BRAC Bank's app, we analyze their purchase behavior directly from our tech system, and the loan is disbursed to their account within 10 minutes.
They receive it via mobile, digitally, without having to submit any documents to a bank. When we introduce these new things, they prove to be more effective for us, and our credibility with the retail shopkeepers also increases.
Ruhul: So, you have different types of campaigns like this. A new product will have a campaign. How do you start? Do you have a monthly plan?
Dipty Mandal: Yes, we definitely have such a plan from the beginning because we have a yearly goal. We have regular communication with our investors, who also have a demand for how much our growth is, what our yearly growth is, how aligned we are with our vision, and how much our GMV or revenue has increased from the previous year. All of this comes in. We then align our quarterly goals with that, and then monthly goals come into play.
We also analyze how many sales we are getting from which brand. If sales are low for a certain brand, we try to increase them. We also try to put more effort into areas where sales are already increasing because we get more with less effort there.
We analyze which sector, brand, or product is bringing us more sales. And then we determine which issue we need to address in our communication for that. This is part of our monthly plan. And based on that monthly goal, our weekly goal is also set. We analyze it from time to time.
When we analyze, we look at specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to see how successful a campaign was. This includes how much our number of registered customers (MSMEs) increased, and how much sales growth we've seen from our already onboarded MSMEs compared to the previous week or month. We also evaluate the customer retention rate. For example, PriyoShop currently has an over 90% retention rate. We always try to maintain this, ensuring we retain customers.
Ruhul: This is very interesting, the point about retention. You have to acquire regularly, but you also have to retain. It's not enough to acquire; if they leave today, that's not good. Now, I have two questions. One is about your acquisition strategy: what has been most effective for acquiring customers? And the same question for retention: what strategies have been most effective for retaining customers?
Dipty Mandal: For acquisition, our direct marketing and direct communication are most fruitful. Our launcher team mainly goes door-to-door to shops, communicating and onboarding them.
Another thing is that word-of-mouth is very effective for us. For example, our launcher team or sales representative might communicate with and onboard one shop. Since grocery shops are very close to each other, when one shop sees our pickup van or EV delivering products, or our launcher team members wearing PriyoShop t-shirts or polos regularly communicating, nearby shops often ask, "Brother, do your products come from here regularly? What is this all about?"
Then, that shopkeeper tells another shopkeeper, "Yes, I order through the app, and they deliver the exact branded product to my shop at a lower price in their van, and they store it here. I don't have the hassle of restocking, and they also offer credit facilities."
Many times, due to this word-of-mouth, when our launcher team or a salesperson visits nearby shops, those shopkeepers themselves say, "Brother, could you please show us how to order from the app, or what your pricing system is, or how much we can benefit?" Because when people hear something from one person to another, they see that it has a positive impact.
For retention, the best service is definitely the main thing. When we communicate that we take an order today and deliver it tomorrow, it primarily shows that it's not just the marketing team but also other teams who have to ensure timely delivery. We maintain that, and that's when we gain credibility.
Another thing is that our sales team regularly takes feedback from customers because we believe that communication should be two-way. It shouldn't just be from us, but also their feedback: did they really get a good product? Do they have more demands? Or do they want something else? Not just about products, but also how the salespeople or riders who delivered to their shops behaved, what their understanding was like, and if everything was better. We regularly take this feedback, which is crucial for retention.
For retention, another thing is that we are constantly evolving. Whenever a new product comes, we instantly upload it to the app, and a simple notification goes out, saying "new item, this price," etc. These go regularly to our registered app users. When our launcher team or salespeople communicate in person, they also mention new products, varieties, or new brands. These things increase retention.
Ruhul: Now, if I can cap this part: for startups building marketing organizations or designing marketing strategies, what are the key components you should keep in mind when designing a marketing strategy?
Dipty Mandal: When we build a marketing strategy, our main focus is that the communication must be crystal clear. For any product or service, our communication must be very clear about its benefits and what pain points of the grocery shopkeepers it solves.
For example, whether it's product restocking or the convenience of credit financing, what product and service they are receiving, and what problem we are solving for them – this is mainly what we focus on when building a strategy.
And communication must be easy and in the language of the audience we are communicating with. With the grocery shopkeepers, we communicate in their language. With investors, our language is different, talking about growth scenarios, GMV, or campaigns. When we communicate with grocery shopkeepers, we do it in their language, making it easy for them to understand, so they don't feel like it's too technical.
Now, in Bangladesh, everyone uses Facebook, and everyone uses mobile phones. So, when communicating, one thing we do is: you are using Facebook for entertainment, but you can easily use it for extra earnings. We try to communicate this. On your mobile, you use Facebook, you watch TikTok – these things you do for entertainment. But with a simple app on that same mobile, you can generate extra earnings for your shop and make your supply chain hassle-free.
Ruhul: What are some common mistakes in marketing communication that you think people make, especially given your best practices of clear communication and speaking the language of the target audience?
Dipty Mandal: One mistake is the lack of consistency in communication. I think that is often a mistake. Sometimes, if a brand posts something on social media that might go viral or align with a current trend, but it doesn't align with their brand image or their previous message, then the communication flow is lost.
Maintaining consistency is necessary.
If something is posted that doesn't align with the brand, it won't deliver the proper message or generate the intended result. We ensure that all our marketing communication aligns with our main goal.
Ruhul: So, sometimes if something very current is happening, doing something related to it might go viral, but it might not be relevant to your brand or connect with your brand.
Dipty Mandal: Yes, that can actually backfire.
Ruhul: Exactly. And in marketing, this happens a lot. I see people doing it all the time, doing unnecessary work related to marketing design.
Dipty Mandal: In the B2B space, our main work is to act as a bridge, connecting direct suppliers and brands with grocery shopkeepers. For that, all our products and services are designed to benefit grocery shopkeepers, making all products available to them, and now offering credit financing.
We currently have 29 hubs and 276 onboarded local and international brands, such as Unilever, ACI, Reckitt Benckiser, Pusti, Square Toiletries, Grameenphone, and Banglalink – all are partnered with us.
We aim to provide better service to our customers and expand. PriyoShop had previously raised $5 million USD to accelerate its mission of transforming Bangladesh’s retail supply chain and empowering MSMEs. Moreover, we recently raised nearly $1.5 million USD. Our lead investor was Century of Ventures from Dubai. We later extended a bridge round, where the GFR Fund from the USA was the lead investor. We are currently raising more funds for Series A to further expand and introduce new fintech services.
I also want to mention another thing: we are now seeing a trend of "home brands." Companies like Pakistan's Bazaar and India's Udaan are introducing their own home brands. Because once a brand's image and trust are built, launching a home brand can quickly capture market share.
For example, we have now introduced PriyoShop's first home brand, "Dipty." We are currently supplying rice and lentils under this brand. We have seen that this new home brand has increased sales. When we sell these packaged goods to grocery shopkeepers, compared to the quality of rice and lentils sold in the open market, they find it very beneficial.
Ruhul: I was meaning to ask about launching your own brand. You've launched rice. Are you going into other verticals? How does this work? How are you handling manufacturing?
Dipty Mandal: We are partnering directly with farmers and mills, who are the direct manufacturers. We package it ourselves, ensuring quality, mainly targeting the middle-income segment to provide better quality products instead of open-market rice. We check the quality of rice to ensure it's not broken and has whole grains (what is called whole kernel).
We found through market research that the demand for rice is very high, and then comes the demand for lentils. This is how we are exploring sectors one by one. Rice and lentils are mainly staple foods that everyone needs in every household. We want to bring in such items.
After this, we are also considering common spices that are used in every household for cooking.
Ruhul: You have launched your own brand. You have been slowly expanding across the country. What are the plans, perhaps in a 5-10 year timeframe, for the company?
Dipty Mandal: Mainly, the connection with retail shops and providing them with logistics services is already ongoing. After that, our main focus is now on home brands, to include more home brand items. For example, in the case of rice, we initially launched with the "28 চাল" (28 rice) category. Recently, we launched "Dipty Minikats," which is a better variation. And for lentils, we launched "Mosur Dal." We have plans to gradually increase these categories.
Another main focus is fintech. For example, what we did with BRAC Bank, we started first in Kaliakoir, and we are gradually expanding this to all our hubs, making it easier for more retail shopkeepers to get loans. Because what they can do is buy products today, take a loan from the bank, and then repay it after selling the products, according to their purchase behavior. We are mainly focusing on fintech, our credit facility, and our home brand.
Ruhul: You worked at Grameenphone and are now building your own company. What are your biggest lessons from your journey so far?
Dipty Mandal: What I've learned from my journey is the power of understanding customer psychology. Whatever communication we do, understanding customer psychology is very important. Understanding their needs, their language, what moves them, and how to communicate with them is crucial.
In many fields, there are formulas, frameworks, and structures that you can take advantage of. In marketing, things are always changing—new trends, new technology, like new AI tools. So, one must stay updated with learning what's happening. In marketing, applying the same theories we learned yesterday may not work today. Because scenarios are changing, the economy is changing, and people are changing.
That's why it is important to stay connected with these new things. Moreover, when you are open to change, new ideas emerge.
In marketing, there's more opportunity for trial and error. If a new idea comes, we implement it. Many times, it's not 100% successful, but there's learning from everything. When we apply it next time, perhaps it will generate better results. This always happens.
I think it is also a useful lesson about work and life and building an organization—staying always on the lookout for new opportunities to experiment and learn. Because the only constant in the world is change.
Ruhul: How do you maintain work-life balance when building an organization?
Dipty Mandal: Work and life definitely have to be balanced, but since it's my own work, it has both flexibility and challenges. Sometimes, I can go beyond a rigid framework of 9-to-5 duty, which helps. But at the same time, you often need to take on more tasks because you are the leader. For example, there might be a special campaign or an urgent meeting with investors, which I might have to do at any time. That said, I try to organize my days in a manner that I have time for myself and my family.
Ruhul: What do you enjoy the most about being a founder, although sometimes it can be a lot of pressure?
Dipty Mandal: Yes, sometimes the work pressure can be a bit high. But when I think that by doing all these things, we are mainly making an impact on the people across the country, both economically and socially, it gives me meaning. I also enjoy working with my team and feel very grateful that we have this excellent team of people working with us.
These grocery shopkeepers, the 5 million grocery shopkeepers, whom we are gradually empowering, ultimately enhance Bangladesh's economy. And they are providing their products to the end customers, the 180 million population of Bangladesh. In most places, PriyoShop is providing services, so ultimately, everyone is impacted by PriyoShop. This feeling of being able to make a positive impact after building this organization is very meaningful.
Another thing I feel is that when we participate in various contests, pitches, or events from PriyoShop, both nationwide and abroad – in Singapore, India, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Vietnam, China – it is like raising the flag of Bangladesh everywhere. This is a very big thing for us. In many places, it has happened that a company from Bangladesh, PriyoShop, was the first. The first is from Bangladesh. So, there is a positive mindset towards Bangladesh, as such a company is solving real problems. At that time, it felt positive to see Bangladesh's flag being raised.
Ruhul: How do you stay productive given that you have to deal with multiple things?
Dipty Mandal: I try to avoid distractions while working. I avoid listening to music or using social media. I try to work in a flow without distractions. Part of it, I think, is about being self-motivated and having some kind of accountability.
For my work and my team's work, I am definitely accountable. If I am doing a task, I take full responsibility for it. I always try to maintain that accountability.
Another thing I do is take notes and maintain a task list. This helps me a lot. Instead of always maintaining big Excel files or PowerPoints, I keep small notes on my laptop about what tasks I have, how much I've done, how much is pending, and what I need to do. I keep notes in my own informal way. I like to note everything down rather than memorizing everything in my head. Because I try not to use my brain for memorization. The brain is actually for thinking. What needs to be done, what not to be done – I try to keep notes and use my brain for thinking, for generating ideas. This helps me.
Ruhul: Note-taking is a very useful habit.
Dipty Mandal: When we think we'll remember something, trying to remember one thing often makes us skip something else. So, instead of trying to memorize everything, I prefer to note everything down. If a small task comes up that can be done in two or three minutes, I try to do it immediately. That way, I don't have to note it down or leave it for later. I always try to finish small tasks immediately. It saves a lot of time.
Ruhul: That’s an excellent idea—finishing a small task immediately if it takes just a few minutes. One final question. What advice would you give to people who are starting their careers in marketing or business?
Dipty Mandal: I would say one should have a positive and open mind. Marketing is a field where new trends regularly emerge. Those who want to enter this field, or even those who are already in it, must have a positive mindset and continuously learn new things.
The idea that "I already know everything" doesn't work, because new things are always coming. If you are open to new ideas and opportunities to learn, it means you can compete in a changing world. Moreover, a positive mindset and continuous learning attitude will help you connect with people and understand customer psychology and market trends better.
Ruhul: I feel that we live in a world where, unless we learn constantly, it's very difficult to survive.
Dipty Mandal: Yes, especially in marketing, because things change so fast; unless you are in constant learning mode, you can’t catch up with the changes.
Ruhul: Everything is changing all the time. While I have a few more questions, I think this is a good place to end our conversation today. This has been an educational conversation for me. Thank you so much for taking the time.
Dipty Mandal: Thank you for giving me such an opportunity to share my story. It was a wonderful discussion. Thank you.
