How It Works — Zapota

For buyers

Looking for a service or product

You never pay Zapota anything as a buyer. Browsing, searching, sending a request and calling the seller are all free.

Zapota home screen showing your location, the search bar and the category grid

Open the app and check your location

Everything you see is sorted by distance from the location shown at the top, so make sure it is right before you start looking.

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Your location. Your village or town, with the PIN code.
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Search. If you already know what you want, type it here — "arecanut", "tractor", "borewell".
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See all. Opens the full category list. Or scroll the grid below it.

Browse Categories screen with category filter chips and subcategory cards

Browse the categories

Tap Browse in the bottom bar. The chips near the top switch between main categories; the cards below are the actual things being bought and sold.

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Category chips. Swipe sideways to move between categories.
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Type count. How many kinds of listing sit inside the category you are viewing.
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Subcategory cards. The specific item — Arecanut Plants, Coffee Plants, Tractor.

The chip highlighted in red — All — opens every category in one sheet. Useful when you are not sure which one your item belongs to.

All Categories sheet showing every Zapota category as a coloured tile

See every category at once

Tap the All chip and the full list opens as a sheet. Scroll inside it to see everything, then tap the category you need.

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From plants and rentals to skilled services, fertilizers, livestock, water management, land and training — scroll to the bottom, there are more than fit on one screen.

Search results screen showing no listings found within five kilometres

Set your distance — start wide

Two filter rows appear once you open a subcategory.

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Within. 5 KM, 25 KM, 50 KM or Anywhere — how far away a listing can be.
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Sort. Nearest first, or by price low to high or high to low.

Seeing "No services found"? That usually just means nobody has listed within your default radius yet. Tap 50 KM or Anywhere — highlighted in red — before you assume the category is empty.

Search result card showing photo, title, seller area, price and Request Service button

Read the listing cards

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Title and seller. A New tag means the seller joined recently.
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Area and delivery. Where they are, and whether they deliver or you collect.
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More opens the full listing. Request Service (in red) sends a request straight away.

Listing details screen showing photo, price and delivery options

Check the full details

Read the description properly before requesting. Variety, age of plants, quantity and condition are all described here — it saves a phone call.

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The ⋮ menu is where Report and Block live. More on that below.
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Price and unit. Per plant, per unit, and any discount the seller is offering.
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Delivery Options. Home Delivery means they bring it to you, possibly for a charge they set. Pickup Available means you collect from their farm or shop.

Confirm Request sheet with an optional note field and optional preferred date and time

Send your request

Tap Request Service and a short form opens. Nothing is charged, and your phone number is not shown to the seller yet.

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Add a note (optional) — the single most useful thing you can do. "50 plants needed", "need it before Monday", "want to see the nursery first".
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Preferred date and time (optional) — set it if timing matters.

You can send requests to several sellers at once and go with whoever replies first. There is no penalty for that.

My Requests screen with the Requested filter active, showing pending requests

Wait for the seller to accept

The Requests tab holds everything you have sent.

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Filters. Requested is waiting on the seller, Accepted means you can call, Completed is finished.
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Status. Shown on every card, with how long ago you sent it.

Sellers are notified immediately, but they are working people — give them some time before assuming they have ignored you.

Accepted request showing a green Call button and a callback notice

Call the seller

When the seller accepts, a green Call button appears. This is the moment contact details unlock — for both of you.

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Call. Dials the seller directly from the app.
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Callback requested means the seller has asked you to ring them back. Tap Call again to reconnect.

Agree everything on the call — price, quantity, quality, delivery and payment. Zapota takes no part in that conversation and charges no commission on your deal.

Prompt asking whether the call was successful with No and Yes buttons

Tell us how the call went

After the call, Zapota asks whether it was successful. Answering takes one tap and it is how we find sellers whose numbers do not work — which protects the next farmer.

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Tap Yes if you got through, No if you did not.

Rate This Service screen with a five star rating control

Rate the seller

Rate honestly, including when it went badly. Ratings are how farmers in your area know who to trust, and on a young platform every single one counts.

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Tap the stars, then Submit Rating. It takes five seconds.

For sellers

Offering a service or product

Anyone can sell on Zapota — a nursery, a tractor owner, a borewell technician, a farmer with surplus, a landowner with land to lease. You pay a flat fee to publish. There is no commission, ever.

My Services dashboard with leads, services and requests counters and an Add Service button

Open your dashboard

Tap My Services in the bottom bar, then + Add Service (highlighted).

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Your numbers. Leads, live listings and incoming requests at a glance.
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Two tabs. Services is your listings; Service Requests is buyers waiting on you.

Offer a Service form showing the selected category and the subcategory chips below it

Choose category, then subcategory

Pick a category and it collapses, revealing the subcategory chips beneath.

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Your chosen category, now collapsed to one row.
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Subcategory. Be precise. Someone searching for arecanut seedlings will only ever see listings placed under Arecanut Plants.
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✕ clears your choice so you can pick a different category.

Cannot find the right category? Write to support@zapota.in or send a suggestion from the Profile menu. We add categories based on what sellers ask for. Do not force your listing into a category that nearly fits — buyers will not find it there.

Service title and description filled in, with the pricing section below

Write your title and description

This is where you win the buyer's trust. Answer the questions a farmer would ask you on the phone anyway — variety, breed or model, age of plants or hours run, how much you have, what condition it is in, how far you will deliver.

Titles that work

Arecanut seedlings — Mangala variety, 1 year
Tractor with driver for ploughing — 575
Borewell drilling, 6 inch, Shivamogga
Dry cow dung manure, tractor load

Titles that don't

Plants available
Good quality
Contact me
Best price in market

Never put a phone number, WhatsApp number or link in the title or description — including numbers spelled out in words. Listings containing contact details are rejected automatically. Buyers get your number the instant you accept their request. That is what the fee buys you, and it is what keeps spam calls away.

Pricing preview, unit selector and available quantity field

Set your price

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Pricing preview. Exactly what the buyer will see. Leave the discount empty unless you mean it.
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Unit. Per plant or per unit — use whichever your trade actually uses.
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Available quantity (optional). Buyers see how much you have. Leave it empty if you can always supply.

Price honestly. An unrealistic price brings requests you cannot honour, and a poor rating afterwards.

Delivery options with home delivery enabled showing radius and charge fields

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Say how buyers can receive it

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Home Delivery. You take it to the buyer.
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Radius and charge. How far you will travel, and what you charge. Leave the charge empty if delivery is free.
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Pickup at Location. The buyer collects from your farm or shop.
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Summary line. Check this before publishing — it is what buyers will see.

You can offer both. Turning both off leaves buyers with no idea how to get the goods, so switch on at least one.

Service area options of five, twenty five, fifty kilometres and Anywhere

Set your service area

This controls how far away a buyer can be and still see your listing at all.

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5 / 25 / 50 KM. Local through to extended coverage.
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Anywhere. No distance restriction at all.

If you are unsure, choose wider. A narrow area on a young platform means very few people ever see you. You can change this later at any time.

Location confirmed and cover photo added, with Publish Service now active

Set your location and add photos

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Use Current Location. Do this while you are actually at the farm or shop — distance to buyers is measured from this point. Your exact GPS is never shown to anyone, only your area name.
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Cover photo. The first photo is what buyers see in search results, so make it your best. Up to three in total.
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Publish Service activates once your required fields and cover photo are in.

Photos that work

Natural daylight, taken outdoors
Close up on the actual item
Your own plants, machine or produce

Photos that get removed

Blurry or very dark
Phone numbers written on the image
Pictures taken from the internet

Publish screen showing the fee with Pay Now and Pay Later options, Pay Later selected

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Choose how to pay

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Publish fee. A flat fee for a 28-day cycle, shown before you commit to anything.
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Pay Now. Pay and go live immediately for the full 28 days.
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Pay Later. Start a free 7-day trial right now. Your listing goes live at once, and you can pay any time before the trial ends to keep it running.

The trial is a genuinely free look at whether Zapota brings you buyers. If nobody contacts you in those seven days, you have lost nothing.

Actions sheet with Edit, Pause, Renew and Delete options

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Manage your listing

Your listing now sits on your dashboard with its leads and request counts. Tap Actions for:

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Edit — price, description, delivery, service area.
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Pause — hide it from buyers temporarily. The 28 days keep running while paused.
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Renew — start a fresh 28-day cycle.
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Delete — permanent, and the fee is not refunded.

Edit Service screen with a notice that category, location and photos cannot be changed

What you can and cannot change

Title, description, price, discount, unit, service area, quantity and delivery options can all be edited at any time.

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Category, location and photos are locked once published.

Changing a locked field means deleting the listing and creating a new one — which means paying the publishing fee again. So take a moment over your category and cover photo before you publish.

Service Requests tab showing a new request with Decline and Accept buttons

Accept requests and call the buyer

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Service Requests tab. Every incoming request lands here, and you are notified.
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Read the note the buyer left before deciding. It tells you the quantity and timing.

Accept (highlighted) unlocks contact details for both of you. Decline if you cannot supply it — declining quickly is far better than leaving a farmer waiting.

Once accepted, tap Call Customer and ring them soon. Farmers who do not hear back simply move to the next seller.

Stage	What it means
Free trial	Seven days, live and visible to buyers. Pay any time before it ends to continue without interruption.
Active	Paid and visible to buyers for 28 days.
Paused	Hidden from buyers by you. The 28 days keep running — pausing does not freeze the clock.
Expired	The 28 days ended. Hidden from buyers until you renew it.
Renewed	A fresh 28-day cycle begins from the moment you pay.

How Zapota Works

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