Send orders to your suppliers, and note what arrives
You ordered ten, the truck brought eight, and the only record is what each of you remembers.
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The banana bunches at dawn, the tomato count at the truck's tail and the pipe sizes by the salesman
Ten bunches ordered on the phone before dawn
Kirana stores depend on wholesalers, and India has more than 15 million kiranas, Redseer wrote in 2020. A fruit shop is no different. The owner calls the banana wholesaler before sunrise and says ten bunches. The handcart arrives with eight, the boy says that is what he was told, and neither of you has anything written.
A truck of tomatoes counted by the driver
A tomato dealer buys by the crate, and the truck comes once a week. The driver says the lorry holds two hundred crates. The dealer, with a line of customers waiting at his shop, cannot count every one while it is being unloaded. At the end of the week he is short, and he does not know whether the crates were never there or were sold without a bill.
The pipe salesman who writes the order in his own book
The distributor's salesman comes by once a week and writes down what the hardware dealer needs: half-inch pipes, three-quarter inch, elbows, sockets. He writes it in his own book. When the pipes arrive, the sizes are not what the dealer remembers saying, and he has no copy to point to. The next week, the same sizes arrive and the same argument starts.
What stands beside an order to a supplier for bananas, tomatoes and pipes
Orders to suppliers
Ten bunches for tomorrow's dawn go to the banana wholesaler from the phone tonight; when the handcart comes in, the bunches that actually arrived are noted beside the order.
Low stock warnings
The sizes of pipe that are down to a few are on the list, and they become the next order.
Godown stock
The cartons of half-inch pipe that arrive are written into the godown behind the shop, not onto the shelf in front.
The whole shop in one place
The pipe sizes are items already, with their rate and their supplier, so each order is made from them.
Daily reports
Open a day's sales to see how much went out of the shop, before the next order is sent.
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An order you can point to, and a delivery you can check it against
The banana wholesaler reads the order while he loads the handcart
Ten bunches, with the day, reach the banana wholesaler as a message and not as a voice before sunrise. He reads it while he loads the handcart, and the boy who pushes it can no longer say that is what he was told. The message stays on both phones with its day, so when the wholesaler and the shop do not agree on the count, both read the same ten bunches. The next morning's order starts from yesterday's message, changed only where the shelf says it must be.
The dealer's own count at the tail of the truck
The tomato dealer notes how many crates he counted as they came down, and that count is the one he keeps against the driver's word. At the end of the week, if he is short, he knows whether the crates were never on the lorry or were sold without a bill.
The salesman's visit, answered from your own list
The dealer keeps the sizes as items and sends the order himself, in the sizes he wants. The salesman receives the order and does not write it. When the pipes arrive the dealer opens the order and checks the sizes against what he asked for. The missing size is a second order under the same name, sent that evening.
Questions from shops that buy from wholesalers by the bunch, the hundred and the length
Eight bunches came when I ordered ten. Does the app know two are still to come?
No. It does not track a balance to be delivered. You note the eight that arrived. If the wholesaler is sending the rest, make a second order under the same name for the two.
My wholesaler is in the mandi and does not use any app. Can I still send him the order?
Yes. The order is something you send from your phone, and the supplier does not need to install anything. He sees it as a message.
My wholesaler is late. Do I get a reminder?
No. Nothing reminds you or the supplier. You see the order and what has arrived, and you decide when to call.
The banana wholesaler says I short-paid him last month. Can I show him what I ordered and what came?
Open the days of last month one by one. Each day has the order and the note of what came, so you can point to the day, the ten you asked for and the eight you noted, when you talk to him.
The online mandi, in numbers
By February 2026, 2.72 lakh traders had registered on e-NAM, which has traded ₹4,82,350 crore of produce since inception. The wholesale side of fruit and vegetables is already moving online in some places. A mandi of that kind is far from the shop's counter, and the wholesaler is the one who stands between them.
Since 2016, 1,656 mandis in 23 states and 4 union territories have joined e-NAM, the online market linking wholesale mandis, as of March 2026. The shop's own side of the order, to the wholesaler it deals with every day, is still done by phone, which is where an order you can point to helps.