chotu.com Review: The Free WhatsApp-Based Online Store Platform for Indian Shop Owners
Author : ravi y | Published On : 26 Feb 2026
If you own a local shop in India and have been wondering how to start selling online without paying hefty commissions to big platforms, chotu.com may be exactly what you have been looking for.
Launched with a clear mission to digitise India's massive network of small and neighbourhood shops, chotu.com is a local commerce platform that gives every shop owner a free digital storefront and routes customer orders directly to their WhatsApp - with zero commission, zero technical knowledge required, and zero interference in how they handle payment.
This article takes a detailed look at what chotu.com offers, how it works in practice, who it is best suited for, and why it is gaining serious traction among India's local business community.
Background: Why a Platform Like chotu.com Is Needed
To understand the value of chotu, it helps to understand the problem it was built to solve.
India is home to over 60 million small retail businesses. These include kirana stores, general provision shops, bakeries, fruit and vegetable vendors, meat shops, tiffin services, medical stores, and countless other micro-businesses that serve daily needs at the neighbourhood level. Together, these shops account for a significant share of India's total retail spending - estimated to be worth over $800 billion annually.
Yet despite their economic importance, the overwhelming majority of these shops have no digital presence. They do not appear in online searches. They are not listed on any app. They cannot receive orders from customers who prefer to shop from their phones. In an increasingly digital consumer environment, this invisibility is costing them customers every single day.
The arrival of quick commerce platforms like Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart has accelerated this problem. These platforms have captured the attention - and wallets - of urban consumers by offering 10-minute delivery from centralised dark store warehouses. For many consumers, the local kirana is simply no longer their first point of contact when they need something quickly.
chotu.com was built in direct response to this reality. Its founders - a team with backgrounds at Microsoft, Oracle, and Airtel, and degrees from IITs and IIMs - set out to give India's local shop owners a digital tool that actually works for them, rather than extracting value from them.
What Is chotu.com?
chotu.com is a free-to-use local shopping platform that connects local shop owners with customers in their immediate neighbourhood through a digital catalog and WhatsApp-based ordering system.
The name is borrowed from the familiar Indian concept of "chotu" - the young helper employed by shopkeepers to take orders, deliver goods, and run errands around the neighbourhood. chotu.com is the digital equivalent: a tireless, always-on assistant that takes orders for the shopkeeper and delivers them straight to his phone.
The platform serves two audiences simultaneously:
Shop Owners - who use chotu.com to create a free digital catalog of their products and receive orders on WhatsApp without paying any commission.
Customers - who use chotu.com to discover local shops near them, browse product catalogs, and place orders that go directly to the shopkeeper's WhatsApp.
How chotu.com Works for Shop Owners
Getting started on chotu.com as a shop owner is designed to be as frictionless as possible. The process involves just a few steps.
Step 1 - Register Your Shop: Shop owners visit owner.chotu.com or download the Owner app and register their business with just a phone number later can add basic details including shop name, category and location.
Step 2 - Edit Your Catalog: Owners can edit a product catalog by adding items with names, photos, descriptions, and prices. The platform supports bulk uploads for shops with large inventories, as well as manual entry for smaller shops.
Step 3 - Share Your Store Link: Every shop gets a unique, shareable digital storefront link. Owners can share this link on WhatsApp groups, social media, with regular customers, or display it as a QR code at their physical shop.
Step 4 - Receive Orders on WhatsApp: When a customer places an order through the catalog, the complete order details are sent directly to the shopkeeper's WhatsApp number as a structured message. The shopkeeper can then confirm, process, and deliver the order exactly as they would any regular WhatsApp order - except the customer has already done the work of browsing and selecting.
Step 5 - Collect Payment Directly: Payment happens directly between the customer and the shopkeeper through any method they prefer - cash on delivery, UPI, bank transfer, or existing credit arrangements. chotu.com is not involved in the payment at any stage.
There are no monthly fees to get started. There are no commissions on orders. The free tier gives shop owners everything they need to begin selling online immediately.
How chotu.com Works for Customers
For customers, chotu.com functions as a neighbourhood discovery and ordering tool.
Customers visit the chotu.com website, allow location access, and are immediately shown a list of local shops near them sorted by proximity and category. They can filter by shop type - groceries, bakery, fruits and vegetables, meat, tiffin, medical, home services, and more - and browse the catalog of any shop that catches their interest.
Adding items to a cart and placing an order takes just a few taps. The order is sent to the shopkeeper's WhatsApp automatically, formatted as a clear order summary. The customer can then coordinate delivery or pickup directly with the shopkeeper over WhatsApp as usual.
Importantly, customers do not need to create an account on chotu.com to browse or even to place an order. The platform collects minimal personal data and does not require phone number verification to use basic features. This makes it one of the more privacy-friendly shopping tools available in the Indian market.
Key Features at a Glance
Free Digital Storefront Every shop gets a professional-looking catalog page and a shareable store link at absolutely no cost. The storefront is mobile-optimised and loads quickly even on slower data connections.
WhatsApp Order Delivery Orders arrive on the shopkeeper's WhatsApp - the communication tool they already know and use. No new app to learn. No new device required. No steep learning curve.
Zero Commission on All Orders This is the defining feature of chotu.com. Unlike every major e-commerce and quick commerce platform operating in India, chotu.com does not take a percentage of any sale. Ever. The shopkeeper keeps 100 percent of every transaction.
Direct Payment Between Buyer and Seller chotu.com never handles money. All payment happens directly between customer and shopkeeper through UPI, cash, or any existing arrangement. This eliminates payment delays, settlement disputes, and the risk of funds being held by a third party.
Hyperlocal Discovery Engine The platform is built around location. Customers see the shops nearest to them first, making chotu.com genuinely useful for neighbourhood-level commerce rather than just another generic shopping app.
No Account Required to Shop Customers can browse and place orders without signing up, entering a phone number, or creating a profile. This removes a significant barrier to first-time use.
Multi-Category Support chotu.com supports a wide range of shop categories including grocery and provisions, fruits and vegetables, bakery and confectionery, meat and seafood, tiffin and home food, pharmacy and medical supplies, home repair and services, and many more.
QR Code for Physical Shops Shop owners can generate a QR code linked to their digital storefront and display it at their physical shop, allowing walk-in customers to easily save the store link for future online orders.
Who Is chotu.com Best Suited For?
chotu.com is ideally suited for the following types of businesses:
Kirana and Grocery Stores - High-frequency, repeat-order businesses that benefit enormously from having a digital catalog customers can order from without calling or visiting.
Home Food and Tiffin Services - Small home kitchens and tiffin providers who take orders daily through WhatsApp can use chotu.com to manage a structured catalog and attract new customers organically.
Bakeries and Snack Shops - Shops that offer changing daily menus or seasonal items can update their catalog easily and let customers browse before placing orders.
Fruit, Vegetable, and Fresh Produce Vendors - Vendors who deal in daily fresh stock can list available items each morning and receive pre-orders before their supply runs out.
Medical and Pharmacy Stores - Neighbourhood medical shops can list commonly purchased over-the-counter items, allowing customers to send a structured order rather than a disorganised list.
Home Services and Repair - Electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and other service providers can list their services with pricing, making it easier for customers to understand what they offer and request bookings.
Pricing: What Does chotu.com Cost?
The core platform is completely free. Shop owners can register, build a full catalog, receive unlimited orders, and use the WhatsApp ordering system without paying anything.
chotu.com's revenue model is built around optional premium features for shop owners who want enhanced visibility, promotional tools, and advanced catalog management capabilities. These are add-ons, not requirements. A shop can operate entirely on the free tier indefinitely.
This pricing approach is fundamentally different from commission-based platforms and ensures that chotu.com's incentives are aligned with shop owner success rather than transaction volume extraction.
chotu.com vs. Other Platforms: A Honest Comparison
chotu.com vs. WhatsApp Business Catalog WhatsApp Business already allows shop owners to build a product catalog. However, it offers no discovery mechanism - customers must already know the shop's number to find it. chotu.com adds the critical missing layer: a searchable, location-based directory that brings new customers to the shop's WhatsApp catalog automatically.
chotu.com vs. Dunzo / Swiggy Instamart / Blinkit These platforms offer fast delivery infrastructure but charge significant commissions and control the customer relationship. chotu.com charges no commission and keeps the customer relationship entirely with the shopkeeper. The trade-off is that chotu.com does not provide delivery logistics - fulfilment is handled by the shop owner.
chotu.com vs. Google My Business Google My Business helps shops appear in local search results but does not offer a shoppable catalog or order placement system. chotu.com provides a complete end-to-end ordering experience that Google My Business does not.
chotu.com vs. Building a Custom Website or App A custom website or app requires investment in development, hosting, maintenance, and digital marketing. chotu.com provides a ready-made solution at no cost, with built-in discovery through its existing customer base.
Strengths and Limitations
Strengths: chotu.com's zero commission model is its single greatest strength and the feature that most clearly differentiates it from every competing platform. Combined with WhatsApp integration, the low barrier to entry, and the local discovery engine, it addresses the three core challenges facing India's local shops - invisibility, unaffordable technology, and commission drain - in a single unified solution.
The platform's privacy-first approach is also noteworthy. In a market where consumer data has become a commodity, chotu.com's decision to not require account creation or phone verification for customers is both unusual and genuinely user-friendly.
Limitations: chotu.com does not provide delivery logistics. Shop owners are responsible for their own delivery or pickup arrangements. For shops that lack delivery capacity, this is a meaningful limitation compared to full-stack quick commerce platforms.
Catalog maintenance requires ongoing effort from the shop owner. Keeping product listings, prices, and availability updated is essential for a good customer experience, and some owners - particularly those with very high SKU counts or daily changing inventory - may find this challenging without dedicated staff.
The platform's effectiveness is also partly dependent on local density. In areas where few shops are listed, the discovery value for customers is limited. As the platform grows and listing density increases, this limitation diminishes.
The Bigger Picture: What chotu.com Represents
Beyond its features and functionality, chotu.com represents a particular philosophy about what technology should do for small businesses.
For most of the past decade, the dominant model in Indian e-commerce and quick commerce has been one of platform extraction - large, well-funded companies building marketplaces that local businesses become dependent on, at the cost of their margins, their customer relationships, and ultimately their independence.
chotu.com is a deliberate rejection of that model. It is built on the premise that technology should be a tool in the hands of the small business owner, not a toll booth between them and their customers.
Whether that philosophy can scale into a sustainable business - and whether it can genuinely shift consumer behaviour at the national level - remains to be seen. But with over 21 lakh shops already listed and growing rapidly, chotu.com has proven that the demand for this kind of platform is real.
Final Verdict
chotu is a well-designed, genuinely useful platform that solves a real problem for a massive and underserved market. For any local shop owner in India who wants to establish a digital presence, attract online orders, and compete in a mobile-first consumer environment - without paying commission or learning complex new technology - it is one of the best options currently available.
For consumers, it is a meaningful way to support local businesses, discover neighbourhood shops they may not have known existed, and often save money compared to big platform alternatives.
At zero cost to get started and zero commission on every order, there is very little reason for a local shop owner not to try it.
Rating: 4.5 / 5
