Selling to the residential segment can be challenging in any country, and even more so in countries such as India - we are looking at a massive market, but one that has so many different segments and sub-segments, and one where price sensitivity is super high for many products.
It will not be surprising to see someone in India splurge money on a high fashion garment but the very next day bargain with the local vegetable seller so heavily to leave the vendor with a thin margin.
Whether that is the way it should be is a question I will not attempt to answer, but I can state that is the way it is!
Which brings to mind some startups I met whose products are for residential water sustainability.
I see two interesting aspects in the context of residential water solutions firms: One, the residential segment in India actually uses only about 7% of all the freshwater in the country (industry uses about 15% and agriculture uses a whopping 78%). Two, residential users are not only price sensitive, many of them are supplied by the municipality to whom they currently pay a fixed monthly price.
These two aspects bring forth the questions of impact of residential water tech and equally important. their monetizability. I will be happy to sit someday with a startup or entrepreneur in working in this domain to clarify the above aspects.
