All Posts in e-commerce

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

Hindi movie PK shattered all box-office records and along with the Gyaan about religious (dis)beliefs, it also touched upon an interesting topic – SEX 🙂 We laughed our hearts out during the scene where Aamir Khan asks ladies & gentleman about condoms but they felt embarrassed and showed lot of reluctance. Though the scene was funny, it did convey an important message “Indians are very much reluctant to talk about Sex and Protection”.

This “reluctance” has created an opportunity for startups to create a mark in the evolving “Sexual & Wellness” Market in India.

The Sexual Wellness Market

Sexual wellness is a term used to describe products that are related to the enhancement of sexual health and experience. It is a state of body/mind that enables you to enjoy and explore sex on your own terms & in your own time. Some of the products in this category include condoms, sex toys, costumes etc.

As per the reports from ResearchAndMarkets, the Sexual Wellness market in India to grow at a CAGR of 34.76% over the period 2014-2019. Though Horizontal e-commerce biggies like Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm, Snapdeal all having a dedicated section for “Sexual Wellness” , there has been a lot of Vertical e-commerce companies like imbesharam, angooor.com etc. that are trying to create a “niche” in the evolving Sexual Wellness Market [Google on keyword ‘sexual wellness India’ just gives an indication :)]

Niche in Sexual Wellness – Condoms

It is a very common scene – Person feels highly embarrassed to buy condoms from a medical store. Though condoms are available in plenty & in almost every next outlet that we come across, the stigma associated with buying condoms is still not vanished. For many men buying condoms from a shop is still a very uncomfortable affair, for few it is even a biggest nightmare. As the purpose of buying condoms is obvious, people fear getting branded as ‘bad’ or ‘immoral’.

It is identified that the embarrassment factor & lack of knowledge about condoms are to be immediately tackled to ensure Indian men get habituated to use condoms in future to enjoy safe and hassle free sex.

This is the “pain point” that Niche e-commerce companies into “Sexual Wellness” are trying to solve !! Condombazaar aims to be one stop-shop for buying condoms so that the customer no longer faces embarrassment.

CondomBazaar

Condombazaar : Solving the ‘Embarrassment’ pain-point

As mentioned earlier, there has been a Flurry of Vertical e-commerce companies even in the Sexual Wellness arena but Condombazaar wants to create Niche in that segment i.e. Condoms. Condombazaar is an online condom shop to buy almost all brands of condoms available in India including all the variants of each brand. Buyers can browse through various brands and choose his or her choice quite easily. It also intends to educate & create awareness about the usage of Condoms.

The taboo associated with “Talking about Sex” & embarrassment associated with “Buying condoms” is solved by Condombazaar by ensuring that privacy is not compromised. The anonymity is maintained even from the delivery person. Details are also not featured on the delivery slips so that contents of the box would be known to only one person – ‘The Buyer’.

Even when the buyer buys them online, the word Condom would never appear in the Credit/Debit Card statements. Condoms are delivered in a discreet packaging. No one other than the buyer will know that condoms are packed inside until the packaging is completely removed.

Condombazaar : The USP

Sex is a very-very private matter & so is the process of “Buying Condoms”. Customers can only trust a brand that brings in some USP 🙂 This where Condombazaar has an upper hand over it’s competitors, It aims to be “One stop shop destination for Indian consumers for buying condoms online”.

It provides unique offering of Condoms ranging from Variants [Dotted, Ultra thin, Extra smooth etc.] & caters to both sections of the society [Him & Her]. The only site that displays widest range of condom brands and almost all of their variants. No where one can get such an exhaustive array of condoms.

Unlike scores of fly-by-night online condom platforms which came and gone quickly, condombazaar has been running and serving the needs of young Indian men and women since 2009. The company delivers fresh condoms with long expiry periods. An internal team verifies the pack before buying them from condom companies to ensure absolute customer satisfaction is guaranteed with every order.

Female condoms varieties are also sold at condombazaar. Those women desirous of trying it can use the site to buy female condoms instantly.

Condombazaar : Habituating Indian youth to condom usage

As per the Sexual Wellness Market in India 2015~2019 report, one of the major challenges that the Sexual-Wellness market faces is the lack of social acceptance. Deep-rooted norms have attached social stigma to sexual wellness, inhibiting consumers from buying the related products. Condombazaar is an earnest attempt to habituate Indian youth to condom usage !! The per capita consumption of condoms in India is 0.5, way below the European average, which is 3 to 4. Logically Indian consumption should be higher as India has huge number of young brigades compared to ageing European population. But it is the inhibition and lack of knowledge that prevents Indians from trying condoms [Source – Condombazaar]

Closing Thoughts

With it’s currently offering, Condombazaar is trying to create a dent in the niche “Online condom segment” !! As it’s tag-line goes ‘Condombazaar wants ts sell privacy to you, not condoms”

It’s better Safe than Sorry, use Condoms 🙂

[Image Credit* – Condombazaar]

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated:

The e-commerce landscape is rapidly changing in India & there has been an interesting set of companies built around Design, Portfolio Development, Logistics etc. Today we have a Q&A with Akash Kalra, co-founder of a startup Pungraffiti based out of Pune which has a single mantra – “Spread Happiness via T-Shirts”. We discussed with him about Pungraffiti, Startup & e-commerce landscape in India & many aspects of Entrepreneurship.

PunGraffiti

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and it’s founders ?

Some may call us as a T-Shirt selling startup. However, we do not just sell T-Shirts, we spread happiness with it. The idea is to bring smiles all around using our creative ideas on the T-Shirts 🙂

We are 3 of us, namely, Akash, Gagan and Varun. We are all school friends. I am Akash. I am an economist by education and Gagan & Varun are engineers.

Apart from us, we have another couple of friends, Meetali and Vivek, who have invested and entrusted upon us to do the job.

Every idea is born out of a problem/inspiration, what was the trigger of starting Pungraffiti ?

Well, in our case, there was not any problem as such but there was a realization, a common realization I would say. I had quit my job with KPMG in Pune and had joined a startup in Delhi. Gagan and Varun were here in Delhi. Gagan was working with Mitsubishi that time and Varun with a shipping company.

While discussing about the fun times we have had in school and discussing about how our careers have progressed after that, we realized that the only thing that all of us are actually good at is to make people happy, and that in turn gave us happiness and satisfaction ourselves. We then discussed that making a career out of this would be great. And thus, came the idea.

Pungraffiti looks a very peppy name, how did your team zero in on this name ?

Thank you. That’s how we wanted it to be. 🙂

It took us quite a lot of time to come up with it. It is more to do with the designs on our T-Shirts. We have tried to present a certain thing in a different, creative way. It takes you a couple of seconds to think over it and when you realize it, you smile or laugh about it. That’s where pun came from. Graffiti stands for the designs.

Thus, PunGraffiti

Does your startup have in-house designers, if so do you plan to move to a “crowd-sourced designer model” ?

Yes. Varun designs these for us. Me and Gagan sit down and think of ideas to put on the T-Shirts. The next very important step is determining how to present those ideas on T-Shirts and then, Varun takes over from there. He starts working on the designing software and we assist him in whatever we can.

While, crowd sourced designer model is an interesting model, we do not have any immediate plan to get into it. We trust our creativity to be able to relate to our target audience. 🙂

How does Pungraffiti stack up against the other competitor’s that are also in the same space ?

Our value proposition will have to be the designs. Now, the reason we believe that we stack up against the competitors is the creativity we use on these T-Shirts, the way we present what we intend to.

To be comparing ourselves to the competitors, it is important to understand our target audience and the business model. These T-Shirts creatively derive emotions from people and if those people would want to show these emotions, again creatively, to others, they will wear it.

I can explain this with the following example from our collection:

We have a Rahul Dravid T-Shirt for his fans. Now, we could have just written Rahul Dravid or made his picture on the T-Shirt as our competitors would do, but we instead presented this in a different/creative way. We made a wall with his name on it and wrote “Not just another brick in the wall”. This is where we differ from our competitors.

Somebody who would want to show his/ her love for Rahul Dravid and show it smartly/ creatively will buy this T-Shirt.

What are some of the issues [still] faced by e-commerce startups ?

While e-commerce has given businesses the luxury to cater to the entire world as their market, there are challenges that come alongside. I think the major challenge that this e-commerce boom has got is that it has made getting recognized amongst your target audience a little slower and expensive. Even though I personally believe, if a certain business has the commercial potential, it will be successful eventually.

With almost every merchandise business now being online and already existent businesses investing heavily on online marketing, a deserving e-commerce startup could face a lot of problems to be recognized initially.

I think what is important in this market scenario is patience, a lot of it. If you have the business confidence, you would be able meet your goals, sooner or later.

How according to you, should a startup deal with a disgruntled customer ?

I think the kind of competitive market we are into, a startup cannot afford to have a disgruntled customer. I will try expressing my views on how to deal with one from one of our experiences. Recently, one of customers bought a T-Shirt with us. However, due to some bug on the server, he did not get the order confirmation on the e-mail. He then wrote us a mail complaining about this.

First thing that we did in this case was quickly reply to his mail, addressing his concern. Secondly, I personally called him to explain him the issue and ensured my personal attention in his order.

Thirdly, what we did was apart from the T-Shirt, we sent him a cake at his address in Bangalore with “Sorry :)” written on it. And he gave us a nice feedback to us not just for the T-Shirt but also for the kind of attention we gave him for his order.

We cannot afford to have any unhappy customer, especially when we say we spread happiness with the T-Shirt.

What are the major changes that you experienced when you moved from an Employee to an Entrepreneur ?

I think the biggest change that I have experienced is that as an employee I used to actually work for around 5 hours a day and as an entrepreneur, that is how much I sleep. 🙂

Working as an entrepreneur keeps you on your toes. You are responsible for anything and everything that goes wrong. Your hard work can be seen getting converted into results. And the happiness and excitement that you experience when something works out is just incomparable.

What are your key advice(s) to people who want to start-up ?

I think it is very important to understand the business potential of your idea. While there are many creative ideas that one can come up with, having an audience for that idea is equally important to really sustain.

I also think that the market for startups has become very challenging. The big players are into everything these days. Thus, it is very important to have a USP. A USP that is efficient enough to derive enough audience towards your product/service.

How much does social media channels [Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.] contribute to marketing in startup ?

Immense. We can say that from our own experience. It has not even been a month that we have started and just through social media publicity, and that too unpaid, we have sold over 100 T-Shirts all over India, starting from Jammu-Punjab-Delhi-Gujarat-Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad-Bangalore-Odisha & even Siliguri.

We have over 1700 followers on Facebook and we have got a very encouraging response on Instagram as well. The number of site visits is another encouraging reason we can really say that.

Any parting words from you for budding entrepreneurs ?

According to me, believing in your idea, having the courage to execute it and having enough patience are the 3 key things in this startup market.

It is certainly not a comfortable and an easy ride but it has enough thrill and joy to make your life exciting and happening.  🙂

If you have any questions for Akash or about Pungraffiti, please let them in the comments section !!

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

Shoppers Stop, India’s leading fashion retailer has announced its tie-up with Hybris software, an SAP company & the world’s fastest growing commerce platform provider. This liaison will enable Shoppers Stop to provide a seamless and unified shopping experience to customers across its multiple channels i.e. Physical stores, Web, Social, TV and Marketplaces.

Shoppers Stop plans to invest 60 crores over the next 3 years in its omni-channel technology, supply chain & talent to strengthen its omni-channel play. Over the next 3 years, it will extend its omni-channel strategy to its group companies HomeStop, Hypercity & Crossword. By 2020, the Company targets to achieve 15% revenue through digital-touch points.

Penske-omni-channel-image

Shoppers Stop will leverage the hybris commerce platform and its state-of-the-art data management technology which has a successful track-record in providing omni-channel solutions to the world’s leading retail organizations. BORN will be the system integration partner for the SAP hybris setup.

Hybris will enable Shoppers Stop to deliver a real-time, impactful, and relevant customer experience across every touch point, channel & device. In essence, hybris software will enable Shoppers Stop to have a single view of the customer by linking multiple identifiers [Mobile number, First Citizen number, Facebook, email, etc.] to one single identity. Conversely, hybris technology will allow shoppers to have one-view of the Shoppers Stop brand experience across multiple channels and devices.

Speaking on the occasion, Govind Shrikhande, Customer Care Associate & Managing Director, Shoppers Stop Ltd. said

Amongst the top global retailers, 9 out of 10 are brick & mortar players who have evolved into omni-channel entities. In India, Shoppers Stop was one of the first department stores to launch a multi-channel play through our e-store www.shoppersstop.com. Now, we are embarking on our omni-channel journey by linking our multiple channels to give customers a unified brand experience. We are proud to partner with SAP in our omni-channel journey and look forward to their support in establishing ourselves as India’s leading omni-channel retailer. We plan to invest approximately 60 crores in our omni-channel efforts.

Through the hybris technology, Shoppers Stop will have a one-view of customer, one-view of order and one-view of inventory. This will allow us to provide our customers with a contextual, targeted, personalized and integrated shopping experience. As part of the roadmap ahead, we will introduce new features such as ‘Click & Collect’, ‘Ship from Store’, ‘Endless Aisles, and much more.

Speaking about the association, Deb Deep Sengupta, Managing Director, SAP Indian Subcontinent said

Today’s customers are digitally empowered and in control. Shoppers Stop has built its reputation on the quality of its service and understands the value its customers place on exceptional experiences.Hybris’s ability to equip major brands with robust and flexible commerce technology positions us as one of the world’s leading e-commerce technology providers. We are thrilled to partner with one of the most reputable retail brands in India to help them meet customers’ expectations, deliver the best customer experience, support their business strategy and be part of their business transformation.

Mr. Vinay Bhatia, Customer Care Associate & Executive Vice-President, Marketing, Loyalty & Analytics, Shoppers Stop Ltd. said

We have a hugely successful First Citizen loyalty programme of more than 3.7 million customers. We also have one of the largest Facebook fan bases among retailers in India. We have a huge repository of data which we will leverage to personalize our customers’ shopping journey across channels.

Shoppers Stop aims to redefine its signature shopping experience by introducing features such as Access Anywhere, Buy Anytime, Pay Anyhow, Deliver Everywhere and Return At Your Convenience.

In fact, Kishore Biyani owned Future Group has also tied-up with Hybris for their omni-channel strategy [More here]

About Shoppers Stop Ltd

Shoppers Stop Ltd. is one of the pioneers in setting up large format department stores in India. The flagship department store business, Shoppers Stop, is now one of India’s largest retail chains of large format department stores in the country. It is a one-stop shop for products across multiple categories including apparel, cosmetics, fragrances, artificial and fine jewellery, footwear, personal accessories such as watches, sunglasses, handbags, wallets and belts, kids wear, toys, home decor and much more. Shoppers Stop offers more than 400 of the finest international and national brands across categories.  It is the only Indian member of IGDS [Intercontinental Group of Departmental stores] along with 29 other experienced retailers from all over the world.

[Image Source* – Whsystems]

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated:

A common concern for people shopping for furniture is finding the right way to dispose their old furniture. Either they do not know who to dispose their old furniture to or are hassled by the trouble of transporting it to the right person.

To help customers solve this problem, Urban Ladder, India’s leading online furniture and home decor company has tied up with Milaap to launch the ‘Exchange for Good’ initiative in Bangalore.

UrbanLadderLogo

When a customer chooses the exchange offer on the website, they receive a 10% discount on the new purchase and the Urban Ladder  team picks up the old furniture to ensure it is donated to someone in need.

Through Milaap, Urban Ladder has partnered with 11 NGOs across Bangalore who will receive the old furniture. The initiative provides an opportunity to customers to donate their old furniture while purchasing at Urban Ladder and give others a chance to start their life afresh. These NGO’s contribute towards Women Empowerment and are involved in Education, Health and Community development.

Here is how ‘Exchange for Good’ Programme works :

UrbanLadder-Exchange

Currently, the Exchange for Good initiative is active only in Bangalore.

For further information you can log on to https://www.urbanladder.com/exchange-for-good#ngo

|In: Education|Last Updated:

Akosha, a messaging platform for all consumer-to-business interactions, is now extending its services to students who are seeking admission in Delhi University. Through the Akosha app, they can chat with experts and have all their queries and doubts regarding the DU admission process answered within minutes.

At present, Akosha is receiving 500 queries per day and its Facebook page for the initiative already has over 10,000 likes.

Akosha

The idea behind the initiative is to save students some anxiety and trouble that has become a common feature of getting admissions into the most popular and prestigious university of the country. Now, instead of running around in the heat from pillar to post, trying to get clarity on their basic doubts, they can sit in the comfort of their homes and just ask the Akosha experts through their mobile apps.

The questions that students ask range from basic queries about important dates, admission tests etc. to more vital and oft-confusing questions such as eligibility for various courses and impact of not studying a subject in school on the cut-off.

Speaking on the initiative, Ankur Singla, CEO & Founder, Akosha said

The vision behind the initiative is to leverage the benefits of technology to solve regular pain points of the common man. On the Akosha chat app, we have 7 channels at the moment and this initiative falls into the category of education. This is one domain that is extremely crucial but is often replete with complex procedures and unclear stipulations in our country. Going forward, we will introduce more such campaigns to solve the basic needs of our users.

The experts that Akosha has enlisted are second year students of the University who are well acquainted with all the nitty-gritties involved and are also interacting with heads of departments and attending Open Sessions on campus to be on top of all the happenings. They are therefore in a position to help out students with ready access to all vital information in a few clicks.

Akosha app on Android can be downloaded from here

About Akosha

Akosha is a horizontal platform for all consumers to business interactions. Customers can connect with any businesses using an Akosha mobile app, dedicated customer care helpline and website.

Akosha has received over 40,00,000 consumer queries across sectors, including telecom, consumer appliances, ecommerce, mobile, banking and insurance in 2014. The company has 350+ employees and 3 offices in India.

On the B2B side, Akosha OneDirect is a social CRM platform that helps brands in managing their customer experience across all online channels. In May 2015, Akosha secured $16 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital.

|In: startups|Last Updated:

From this month on-wards, we start a new edition named “Startup Spotlight” where we would feature journey of a startup or have a Q&A with their founders or share details about their journey. This week we have a look at a Coupon & deals website – GrabOn.

A start-up which has achieved so much in an year, so it is best to not put it in words. All you need to know is that it is a unique, fast-growing and interactive coupons and deals website. It was started with an aim to help online shoppers save more on the products and services that can be already discounted or not. And it is still thriving to accomplish the same by multiplying its network. Today, GrabOn offers exclusive deals for a wide range of online stores such as Paytm, Freecharge, Flipkart, Snapdeal and more.

Today we share exciting journey & details about GrabOn in an effective infographic

GrabOn

Do give GrabOn a spin& do not forget to use their coupons and enjoy all the extra discounts to its maximum.

If you want any startup to be featured on this blog, please shoot a mail to himanshu.sheth@gmail.com

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated:

Funtuse announces the launch of its subscription-based marketplace specifically developed to provide children with appropriate online content and as a platform for publishers to effectively monetize their catalogs. The Funtuse all-in-one service offers children 5 to 12 years of age an ad-free, curated content platform featuring games, audio books, e-books, videos, and music.

All Funtuse content is specifically selected by experts and child psychologists to ensure that anything published is age-appropriate and suitable for young viewers. By creating a platform that offers parents piece of mind in regards to the content their kids are watching, Funtuse’s cross-platform service also allows users to access content on desktops, iPads & iPhones.

Funtse

Content producers who are searching for an alternative and secure way to distribute and monetize their digital media can leverage the Funtuse platform to gain a worldwide audience. With full, country-specific distribution and copyright control, content makers can now easily upload their content on Funtuse for free and receive a 50% share of subscription revenue generated by the platform. The more subscribers that view their content, the more revenue content providers receive.

Speaking at the launch, Funtuse Founder & Business Development Manager Sidharth Dhingra said

We look to offer children all over the world a secure and trusted digital environment to read, watch, and play the best quality content that can educate as well as entertain.

What we have developed is a platform that is beneficial for the end-user as well as the content provider who spends hours writing a great children’s e-book, or filming an insightful educational video series.

Funtuse is live, and we are constantly looking for content partners — whether they be publishing houses, independent animators, self publishers or game developers to help us grow and offer a unique media platform to children all over the world.

Content producers can also follow specific user trends via Funtuse’s detailed analytics dashboard, making the feature a powerful tool that can be leveraged to turn insights into effective product and marketing strategies. For parents, the analytics feature enables them to track their child’s interaction with Funtuse’s content and gain a deeper understanding of their interests.

Additionally, content providers can benefit from Funtuse’s expansive PR network giving them invaluable exposure in a global market that — according to IT research and advisory firm Gartner — has increased to $20 billion.

Funtuse is also uniquely positioned to provide access to content providers looking to tap the vast Indian market, where 30% of the country’s 1.27 billion people are under the age of 12 and are increasingly following the footsteps of their western peers.

About Funtuse

Founded in 2014, Funtuse is a subscription-based content marketplace for a wide range of media, including e-books, video, audio books, music and games perfect for kids aged 5-12. The all-in-one solution also offers content providers a powerful platform to distribute and monetize their existing and new content. For more information visit Funtuse

[Image Credit – Funtuse]

|In: Android|Last Updated:

Online on-demand delivery Run to Deliver announced the release of it’s android app, India’s first app that provides the fastest  On demand & pick up drop services.  Users can call Run to Deliver for pick-up and delivery of anything & everything within the city. For instance, if you run out of groceries or want food from your favourite restaurant which doesn’t deliver in your area, Run to Deliver can deliver it at the given address.

Small & medium business owners can customize the service & use it for pick-up and delivery of their items at a very nominal cost.  All this can be done with the help of the app which shows options which is easy to use and responsive. The feature can be used to save time and money for anything you want within the city.

R2D Infographic

In addition to the fastest pick-up and delivery, the application offers feature to track packages till it gets delivered. Less time consuming and affordable way to get work done, this app is free with the smooth interface following android best design practices. User’s need to enter the following

  • To enter your pick up and drop destination
  • Choose what you want to order
  • Select the needed spot
  • Point to point package tracking service

Run2Deliver

Run to deliver has a team of highly qualified technicians and staff. It has active members all across Delhi/NCR region that help us to connect easily, assuring time delivery.

Mr. Mohit Jain, an entrepreneur and the founder of Run to Deliver started the service keeping in mind that a lot of people have to spend extra hours and money only to get items from another part of the city. At this age where time is everything, you really don’t have to spend a lot on travelling or paying the other delivery services which costs a lot and only deliver a handful of items. We at Run to Deliver, are “committed to deliver you anything anywhere and any-time within the city”

Run to deliver for Android can be downloaded from here