Shauli Zacks
In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital commerce, small retailers often struggle to maintain visibility and engagement in their local markets. Sekel Tech is changing the game by offering an innovative hyperlocal, omnichannel commerce platform that empowers brands and retailers to connect directly with their customers. In this SafetyDetectives interview, Rakesh Raghuvanshi, CEO and Founder of Sekel Tech, shares insights into how the platform helps businesses enhance digital discoverability, optimize customer engagement, and unify fragmented data to drive sales.
Can you introduce yourself and talk about your role at Sekel Tech?
My name is Rakesh Raghuvanshi, and I’m the CEO and Founder of Sekel Tech. My role is to be the custodian of the product, holding the vision and dream of the organization. I focus on inspiring young people to join our growth journey and ensuring that whatever we build solves real-life problems for small retailers.
What does Sekel Tech do?
Sekel Tech is a hyperlocal, omnichannel commerce platform. Hyperlocal means highly concentrated within a specific locality. More than 49% of daily Google searches are for local businesses, amounting to billions of searches. This highlights the importance of hyperlocal digital discovery and commerce.
Consumers searching for local stores expect the same detailed product information they find online—reviews, discounts, delivery times, and location proximity. This presents an opportunity for brands selling through multi-brand outlets, company-owned stores, or franchises to directly connect with their end customers. Currently, many brands only interact with dealers or retailers and fail to collect first-party data. Sekel Tech enables them to:
- Connect directly with customers, even when selling through multi-brand outlets.
- Assure customers of product quality at nearby stores.
This is what we strive to achieve.
Many retailers struggle with visibility in local searches. How does Sekel Tech help businesses improve discoverability and attract more foot traffic?
This is a common concern among small retailers. They need foot traffic and quality leads but struggle with traditional advertising methods. Television, print, and even digital ads often don’t work for them because they lack access to top-tier marketing expertise.
We solve this problem by creating digital assets for physical retailers, ensuring they meet Google’s best practices. Every page serves a purpose:
- Top of the funnel: Blogs, articles, and news to attract potential customers.
- Middle of the funnel: Product selectors and pages providing detailed product information.
- Bottom of the funnel: Engagement features like “Buy Now,” “Call Dealer,” “Get Directions,” and notifications, all powered by first-party cookies to track and report customer interactions to the brand funding the campaign.
We integrate deeply with Meta and Google, pulling real-time inventory data from the brand’s system to provide accurate information. User-generated content, such as reviews, also plays a crucial role in helping customers make purchase decisions. Our technology enhances store locators on brand websites, ensuring “near me” searches and similar queries lead to highly ranked, informative pages.
Small retailers often lack the resources to manage digital marketing effectively. How does Sekel Tech simplify hyperlocal advertising and customer engagement?
Retailers face several challenges, including limited budgets for hiring digital agencies and difficulty optimizing their digital presence. To address this, we offer a dashboard that enables brands to support retailers through pre-designed templates.
Retailers simply upload their budgets, and 100% of the allocated funds go directly to their chosen advertising channels—Google, Instagram, Meta, WhatsApp, or email campaigns. AI-driven automation handles everything, from audience targeting to landing page creation, making digital marketing effortless for small retailers.
Consumer behavior is shifting toward online-to-offline shopping. What trends do you see shaping the future of omnichannel commerce, and how should businesses adapt?
Retailers are facing increasing competition from quick commerce and discovery platforms. Consumers, particularly Gen Z, expect rapid delivery, sometimes within 10-15 minutes. While dark stores fulfill this demand, profitability remains a challenge.
By integrating our technology, local retailers can leverage their inventory for fast delivery, working with local logistics providers. For example, instead of ordering from a fast-commerce platform, a customer could use WhatsApp to order directly from Baskin-Robbins. If brands like Baskin-Robbins can do it, so can others. This trend represents a major opportunity for brands to streamline local deliveries and improve customer satisfaction.
Retailers frequently struggle with fragmented customer data across multiple platforms. How does Sekel Tech unify customer insights to improve decision-making and sales conversions?
Customer data is scattered across CRMs, WhatsApp, Excel sheets, and platforms like Meta and Google. Sekel Tech integrates these fragmented data points into a single platform, creating a unified source of truth.
Our system collects personally identifiable information (PII) in a consented manner, ensuring compliance with data privacy laws like GDPR. Retailers gain access to real-time insights into customer interactions, such as product preferences, discount requests, and social engagement. This enables them to offer personalized deals and real-time inventory-based promotions. Imagine seeing an in-store “Offer of the Day”—our platform makes that same information instantly available to online shoppers.
What are the biggest challenges businesses face when implementing hyperlocal marketing, and how does Sekel Tech help overcome them?
The biggest challenge brands face is understanding the depth of hyperlocal digital and content marketing. Many believe claiming Google My Business listings is enough, but it’s just the beginning. Store locators often don’t rank well in search results, and crucial details like store information, map data consistency, and contact information are often mismanaged.
Sekel Tech solves this through a multi-layered approach:
- Store Locator Optimization: Ensuring accurate listings and high-ranking pages.
- Listing Management: Keeping information up to date.
- Micro-Sites for Retailers: Dedicated landing pages per store.
- Product Catalog Integration: Seamless updates with product selectors.
- Content Layer: Blogs, articles, and customer reviews.
- Engagement Tools: WhatsApp integration, direct calls, and real-time offers.
We create a content flywheel that integrates input from brands, dealers, and customers. Brands provide verified product data, dealers contribute localized promotions, and customers generate reviews and engagement. This rich, contextual content improves digital discoverability and drives meaningful customer interactions.
