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|In: e-commerce|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

There is a saying by the well-known investor Warren Buffet – ‘Never become dependent on a single source of income’. This saying is also applicable to someone who has a stable job but has to invest his money in order to get better returns. Everyone has some hobby e.g. photography, music, writing, etc. but few of them might be aware that there is a manner in which they can convert their ‘hidden talent and passion’ into a tangible business. Many times it is about identifying a lingering problem and finding an effective solution to solve that problem.

There are close to 3 million Indians living in the United States but there was not a single reliable portal where they could buy stuff like Puja Items, Sarees, Mandirs, etc. online. There are India based websites that ship abroad but shipping, tracking, and returns is always a huge hassle. This is the problem that entrepreneur couple Deepak Agarwal & Sadhana Bothra, who are settled in the US since last 19 years wanted to solve and also make that a secondary source of income. With this intention, they founded DesiClik.com [earlier called theindiabazaar.com] in 2014, a vertical e-commerce marketplace that addresses the above mentioned problem and also provides Indian homepreneurs in the US an opportunity to sell online through their platform.

Today, we have a chat with Deepak Agarwal, Co-founder of US-based DesiClik.com. The discussion revolves around their e-commerce foray, overall market, competition, etc. So, let’s get started with the Q&A….

Can you please give a small background about the company and its founders ?

DesiClik.com was started by us, an Indian couple named Deepak Agarwal and Sadhana Bothra in 2014.

I [Deepak Agarwal] am from Udaipur and grew up in Kolkata. Apart from a degree in commerce, I hold a diploma in computer science from NCC Education, UK. I completed my Masters Certification in Business Management from Tulane University as well because I wanted to have some formal knowledge of growing a business. I have been in the US for 19 years.

Sadhana also grew up in Kolkata. A commerce graduate from Calcutta University, she too holds an honours Diploma in Computer Science from NCC Education, UK. She is a Java Certified Programmer from Sun Microsystems who quit her top-notch position in the IT industry as an Assistant Vice-President with Whitehall Bank on Wall Street when our first child was born.

After Sadhana gave up her career to be with our first born, we realised it was not easy to survive in the US on a single paycheque. So we were looking at creating some extra income while letting Sadhana also enjoy motherhood. After a lot of research, we found out that there was a huge demand for Indian apparel for kids. That’s how we started Desi Vastra. We didn’t have any competition at that point and the business did well till 2008.

While the recession brought bad tidings to Desi Vastra after four years, we decided to use the competition in the market to our advantage by bringing together our competitors through a marketplace. In 2010 we started theindiabazaar.com, which we re-branded as DesiClik.com in 2014. Today DesiClik.com is the largest US-based vertical e-commerce marketplace specialising in Indian products that span apparel, jewellery, handicraft, gifts, furniture, grocery, restaurant equipment, religious and puja items, festive goods and household items.

What is the problem you are trying to solve and how has the overall response been from the Indian diaspora ?

The response from the Indian diaspora has been quite positive and encouraging. There are many towns in the US where people have to drive for not less than an hour to find an Indian grocery store. With more than 3 million Indians living in America, and the expanding space and possibilities of online shopping, there was no single shopping portal where people could find everything Indian and talk to someone in their language while shopping for them. Added to this was the fact that when they bought from sites in India, delivery took longer, there was no easy way to return goods and service was not reliable. It is this yawning market gap that we have tapped into.

DesiClik is a very interesting name, what are some of the other potential names that you explored before you zeroed in on this name ?

Our team went through a significant list before zeroing in on DesiClik.com. We wanted a name that wouldn’t exceed eight characters, is easy to remember and connects people instantly with what the site is about.

We evaluated Mangoes, Mirchi, Jhalak, Spicykart to name a few. Prior to DesiClik, our site was call theindiabazaar.com which was lost among others, was too long, hard to spell and was very generic.

What are some of the items being sold on DesiClik and if you can highlight details about the top-5 bestselling items on the website ?

We have broadly classified the products into nine main categories – Clothing, Accessories, Jewellery, Home & Garden, Indian Grocery, Music & Movies, Books & Magazines, Puja & Festivals, Toys & Games. As for categories, Puja & Festival, Home & Garden are our top sellers. Apart from seasonal items, mandirs, gifts, kids’ clothes, utensils and puja items are the top 5 bestselling items on the site.

How does your venture promote homepreneurs and what is some of the hand-holding that your team does in order to get the sellers started [and accelerated] on the platform ?

We have managed to bring together more than 50 Indian women home entrepreneurs in the US to sell their products online on our site. These are women who want to build their business without sacrificing their family goals.

For immigrant women, it is quite a challenge to set up a business from scratch, beginning with networking and figuring out everything about running a business. As Sadhana was faced with several hurdles when we started off, she felt there were many women like her who could do with help to build their businesses. As Desiclik is a vertical marketplace, we used the platform to help these women to sell their products online. We offer guidance in terms of product optimization, competitive pricing, service and internals of doing business online.

Logistics is a very important aspect of the e-commerce experience, how do your sellers manage logistics to provide an enhanced shopping experience ?

At this time, sellers use their own preferred method of shipping. DesiClik does help them in finding better options for shipping the products faster and reliably.

Deepak and Sadhana, Founders of DesiClik

e-commerce sector is clogged with Fake Products Problem [especially if it follows a marketplace model], how does your team ensure the authenticity of the items being sold on the platform ?

We work very closely with vendors so that the DesiClik brand and customer satisfaction are maintained. We have implemented a good feedback mechanism. Since orders are fulfilled directly by the vendor, our main source of feedback is from the customer. Once an order is received by the customer, we reach out to the customer to get feedback about the quality and the service to help us rate the vendor.

Can you please comment on the Return Policy and what is the Rate Of Return for the items being sold on DesiClik since Reverse Logistics plays a very important role in optimizing of the e-commerce supply-chain ?

We have guidelines on return policy for each seller and they all set their own return policy. In case of material defect, products can be returned for no cost to the customer and in most other cases – customer pays for the shipping. Our rate of return is less than 2 per cent.

Is DesiClik serving only the B2C segment or you have also cater to the B2B segment ?

At present we are only catering to the B2C segment. We have plans to expand with a B2B offering sometime this year which will help connect manufacturers in India with vendors in the USA.

What is the metric your team uses to calculate the overall growth [GMV, etc.] and can you comment on the Daily Active Users [DAU] & total number of active sellers on the platform ?

We have more than 10,000 products listed on the site from 100 plus vendors. Daily page views at DesiClik is 12,000 plus and over 25 per cent returning visitors.

Since DesiClik follows a marketplace model, can you let us know if your sellers also sell on other marketplaces like Amazon, etc. ?

Many of the sellers exclusively sell at Desiclik. Some of them do sell at other marketplaces such as Amazon, Rokutan and others.

Repeat Customer Rate and Customer Retention are two important parameters for growth in any venture, what are some of the measures taken by your team to ensure that there is customer delight ?

As mentioned before, we do have a feedback mechanism and are actively looking to improve based on customer feedback. Our testimonials and reviews do speak for themselves.

Can you walk us through the funding of DesiClik & are you looking out for institutional funding ?

DesiClik has been completely bootstrapped, with no external funding till date. We had started with an investment of $15,000 initially and have so far invested around $150,000 over the past few years. We are looking for investments to take the business to the next level – both in terms of the B2B platform as well as for our worldwide expansion

Right now there is no mobile app for DesiClik, is there any definitive plan for releasing the same ?

By mid 2018, we will evaluate the potential of having an app and based on the analysis, we will release it at the end of 2018.

How exactly is the Startup Eco-system in US different as compared to that in a country like India ?

The recent boost in the startup eco-system is not too different from the US. Many of the venture capitalists who invest in India have their headquarters in the US. Good validated ideas with good execution team make the difference.

AI, ML, AR/VR, etc. are some of the emerging trends, what according to you would be technological highlights of 2018 ?

I feel that AR/VR related technology will become more prominent in areas that have not been seen earlier.

DesiClik is a bootstrapped company, when according to you should an entrepreneur approach for external funding and if you can highlight some pros/cons of being a bootstrapper ?

I feel that the idea must be validated by the entrepreneur with their own initial investment. Once the company becomes a real business with a path to the future, it should approach the VC. Many of the start-ups have failed due to a lack of vision and as they wanted to grow too big, too fast without an idea on how to get there. This is true both in India and in the US. Lack of funds in a bootstrapped company may slow the growth and is built on solid foundation.

Any closing thoughts for aspiring entrepreneurs and what keeps you motivated in your entrepreneurial journey ?

To all the young entrepreneurs – If you have a good idea, sit on it like sitting on a needle. It should make you jump and do something about it. Validate your idea, assemble a good team and go for it. Do not be scared of failure.

We thank Deepak for sharing her insights with our readers and walking us through his journey. If you have any questions for him, please share them via a comment to this article.

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Paytm QR now lets merchants accept Paytm, UPI and Card Payments directly into their Bank Account at 0%. Also, there is no monthly limit on accepting payments from customers. This will in turn make it easier for small and large merchants to accept mobile payments from a wider set of customers, and boost their businesses. It will also give more choice and convenience to consumers as they can now scan Paytm QR at merchant stores and pay using their preferred payment methods.

Here’s how to generate Paytm QR instantly

Give a missed call on +919004790047 or follow these steps:

  • Log on to Paytm for Business and click on Sign up for free
  • Enter Name & PAN or Aadhar Number

Fill in Business & Bank details, and Paytm QR is instantly generated

Merchants can print the QR and put it up in their shops, and start accepting Paytm

Paytm QR has eliminated the need for additional spends on POS machines for merchants and has been supporting them in their day-to-day business. Currently, Paytm offers customers the widest range of offline and in-store payment use-cases including parking, tolls, kirana stores, utility, temples, local transport, railway & metros, school & college fee and challan among others.

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

PAYBACK, India’s largest multi-brand loyalty program announced its partnership with Goomo, India’s leading omni-channel travel tech company to expand its offerings into online travel category. Both companies have a customer first approach and this strategic tie-up strengthens it even further.

Under this partnership, PAYBACK’s 100 million members will be able to use their PAYBACK Points when making flight, hotel and holiday bookings on Goomo. In addition, they will also be able to earn PAYBACK Points for their travel bookings on Goomo.

Speaking on the partnership, Varun Gupta, CEO – Goomo said

Online travel continues to see a very strong growth among PAYBACK’s customer base with a majority of consumers earning and redeeming their Points on travel. With this partnership, Goomo will ensure that PAYBACK members on our platform continue to not only get great deals on travel bookings but also get rewarded for their purchases in other categories as well.

Commenting on this association, Gautam Kaushik, CEO – PAYBACK India said

We are excited to announce this new partnership and look forward to a long-term association with Goomo. Travel is an important category for our customers and Goomo is the young new challenger brand that is well poised to provide great deals and products in this category. This association will help PAYBACK strengthen its travel portfolio and allow its members to enjoy a seamless travel experience.

With the holiday season approaching and several long weekends lined up for 2018, customers can now enjoy a good number of discounts and rewards due to this alliance.

About Goomo

Goomo is an omni-channel, travel-tech company that distributes products & services through online channels, 15 company-owned branches & a B2B partner network. Goomo is headquartered in Mumbai and operates across three business segments of travel – Consumer, Corporate, and B2B. The consumer business, Goomo was launched in March 2017, with an intent to focus on the fast-growing B2C travel segment. For more information, please visit Goomo

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The 11.11 Global Shopping Festival held last week yet again surpassed expectations and continued its tradition of breaking records both in terms of the Gross Merchandise Volume [GMV] across Alibaba Group marketplaces as well as the number of consumers and merchants participating.

This was made possible by the technology leadership of Alibaba Group and provided a showcase for innovations in the areas of Artificial Intelligence [AI], Machine Learning & Cloud Computing that powered the elements of New Retail, which was central to this year’s Global Shopping Festival. One of the many highlights was the system’s ability to manage the spike of up to a staggering 325,000 orders per second at peak, coming through this 24-hour stress test.

Jeff Zhang, Alibaba Group’s Chief Technology Officer said

The annual Global Shopping Festival is the biggest test for our technology. This year we fully adopted cloud management and leveraged artificial intelligence on a much larger scale in our infrastructure and systems, resulting in greater operation efficiency while largely reducing IT costs. In addition, we offered innovative technology solutions to enable our partners in areas including product assortment, inventory management, payments and logistics to meet the huge spike in demand during the Global Shopping Festival. We will make these solutions  available through our cloud platform to benefit more enterprises and the larger society beyond this event.

Alibaba Group continues to leverage AI to empower merchants and engage consumers. For example, 95% of customer service inquiries during the Global Shopping Festival were handled by an Alibaba’s self-developed virtual customer service chatbot; in addition, more than 400 million customized online banner ads were generated for merchants by Alibaba’s AI-based marketing design platform; and over 60 billion personalized pages on the Taobao and Tmall Apps were developed for consumers and populated with AI-based product recommendations.

The Global Shopping Festival is a gigantic-scale project in terms of IT infrastructure. To support the unprecedented volume of computing tasks for browsing, ordering, payments and logistics arrangements securely and smoothly, Alibaba Group has leveraged data technologies in a number of ways to develop its robust infrastructure in a cost-effective manner

  • Colocation technology to enhance CPU utilization – Backed by the architecture of one of the world’s largest hybrid clouds with optimized computation and millions of containers, Alibaba Group has developed its own colocation technology. By colocating online services and analytics workloads, the daily average usage of CPU utilization has been increased to above 40% with peak utilization over 60%. The unitization rate went even higher during the Global Shopping Festival, reducing the cost of collocated clusters compared to last year by more than 30%.
  • Intelligent engine to optimize system usage – An intelligent engine was developed this year to automatically allocate computation resources in a timely manner in order to achieve optimal system usage and stability. The engine was used for the first time in this year’s Global Shopping Festival and it is estimated to cut down the number of servers required by approximately 30%.
  • Autonomous end-to-end load testing – Testing was performed multiple times to prepare for the predicted load increases at the peak traffic spikes on November 11. This intelligent, autonomous technology saved around 1,000 man-days worth of engineering work this year in comparison to previous years.
  • Patrol robot for datacenter monitoring – A patrol robot was developed for the first time to undertake round-the-clock monitoring of conditions within Alibaba Cloud’s North China data center during the Global Shopping Festival. It is estimated that the robot removed up to 30% of the repetitive operations tasks related to data center monitoring.
  • Alibaba Cloud’s CDN Node Deployment – Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, deployed over 1,200 Content Delivery Network [CDN] nodes on its expanding global cloud infrastructure to support the explosive amount of content on the Tmall and Taobao platforms. Using data centers in 15 locations worldwide, images, video and live streaming were distributed to multiple locations around the world quickly and smoothly without system bottlenecks.

|In: AI|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Freshworks, the leading provider of cloud-based business software launched Freshchat, a next-gen messaging product that helps businesses better communicate with their customers. Freshchat provides a suite of website and in-product engagement capabilities which help businesses capture more leads and drive sales.

Image Source – FreshChat

As per the 2016-17 Gartner CMO Spending Survey, nearly two-thirds of marketing leaders plan to increase digital ad-spend in 2017. Marketers are spending more on digital marketing to attract customers to their websites and apps, but end up converting only 2 to 3 percent of these visitors into customers.

To solve for this, Freshchat enables businesses to target visitors with highly contextual messages to increase engagement and thereby conversions. Once the end user responds, an intelligent bot screens and qualifies leads effortlessly before bringing in a sales rep. This information is auto-synced into the CRM, providing context for sales reps and enabling intelligent conversations.

Freshchat breaks from legacy live chat tools to deliver a modern messaging experience that customers expect, similar to personal messaging apps like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Leveraging technology from recent acquisitions, Freshchat enables smarter conversations without the burden of traditional live chat on either party – no missed chats or sessions timing out for the customer, and no staffing up during peaks for the business.

Freshchat can integrate into websites, web-apps, native mobile apps, and other messaging products like Facebook Messenger. Freshchat offers in-product campaigns for on-boarding and engagement, a unique integrated FAQ experience to encourage self-service, and advanced features to route and manage conversations for customer support.

Girish Mathrubootham, CEO and Founder of Freshworks, said

Businesses today want to provide their consumers with contextual, intelligent and personalized chat experiences. We believe there is a huge gap that live chat products don’t address compared to consumer messaging apps, which are creating high benchmarks for user experience.

Sales and support agents need to be empowered with a single platform that provides the flexibility to engage with prospects and customers who are always multi-tasking. We are excited to offer a game-changing chat offering with unique sales and support capabilities that push the boundaries of an already well-established business communication channel.

Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder and CEO-India, MakeMyTrip, said

At MakeMyTrip, we are always looking to use innovative technology to make travel seamless and hassle-free for our customers. We are using Freshchat to solve for our customers’ needs with precision, in real time. Not only has it ensured that our customers receive prompt personalized experiences, it has also brought in operational efficiencies that make assisted buying extremely scalable.

In addition to the standalone chat offering, Freshchat will integrate into Freshsales and Freshdesk, making it easy for sales and support teams to adopt the product into their workflow. Freshchat is available to businesses of all sizes, with a free plan for companies with less than ten team members in sales and support. For more information, please visit FreshChat

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

India is a very diversified country with different cultures and traditions. Every city in India has something unique experience to offer, including the food that each city is known for! However, today’s modern lifestyles and hectic work-life schedules; makes traditional necessities difficult to find. For example, being in Bengaluru it is very difficult to find Misal Pav, the popular Maharashtrian dish. Modern life and its fast pace has taken a toll on our social life that has estranged various communities, scattering them to various distant lands in the search of a better livelihood. But it has left the hearts with a sense of nostalgia, around their socio cultural habits and preferences, longing to belong again to their roots and culture.

This is where Promita Sengupta, an ex-banker & social entrepreneur siezed an opportunity and that is how Cre8comm was born. Cre8comm is India’s first community driven hyperlocal e-commerce marketplace which home-delivers traditional essentials and products to all the diverse communities of India.

It is a marketplace where one can find the most authentic and indigenous products from the varied and diverse communities of India. It provides every community with almost every product – apparel, food from their hometown irrespective of where you live.

Today we have a chat with Promita Sengupta, Founder & Director, Cre8comm. We discuss about Cre8comm, the hyper-local market, opportunities in e-commerce, team building & much more. So let’s get started with the Q&A….

Tell us about Cre8comm, how was the start-up conceptualized and what was the idea behind Cre8comm ?

Cre8comm is India’s first community driven e-commerce marketplace which home-delivers traditional essentials & products to all the diverse communities. The company aims to deliver authentic & special foods, especially those that you are craving for, and we go an extra step by bringing sumptuous traditional dishes and our chefs are locals of the same community.

Considering the popularity of Bengali products, I have noticed people used to travel all across the city and be stuck in traffic for hours to reach CR Park in Delhi, to get authentic Bengali food. This prompted me to start revolutionary service which will address to all communities of India with the plethora of indigenous products.

How does platform work ? How is that you reach your partners and they serve from their own kitchens ?

The entire platform is technology based and all orders are placed online. Cre8comm home delivers traditional essentials and products to all the diverse communities of India. We partner with the best local talent bridging avenues to build relationships in their culturally enriching journeys in delivering to India’s first community services based platform.

This is a service which allows all our partners to serve from their own kitchens. We strongly believe in bringing people together through our socially responsible segment to a socio-cultural platform.

Each of the partners is carefully chosen after having carefully looked at the hygiene and capability to server Cre8comm.  We have a product replacement model in the case of customer complaints which keeps the vendors on their toes. We cater to customer needs, by delivering food items in fresh, raw or cooked categories, traditional apparel, items for a puja samagri for any occasion – be it a marriage or a simply Griha Pravesh, and sweets [Misti]. Our aim is to deliver fresh foods,  preserve its freshness, making life convenient and hassle free.

How do you ensure/maintain the quality of the products being sold on  Cre8comm [since it is eatables and in this category extra care needs to be taken] ?

Each of the partners is carefully chosen after having carefully looked at the hygiene and capability to serve Cre8comm.  We have a product replacement model in the case of customer complaints which keeps the vendors on their toes.

Our hygiene team visits the kitchen [in the case of Cooked food] and shops for raw fresh food. Since we do not have too many vendors, we have been able to fix responsibilities on each to ensure an extra regulatory check.

The challenge is definitely there but we have ensured the quality by keeping lesser number of Vendors. Though it is not be competitive, but it helps keep the quality in check as the vendors do not want to lose lucrative sustainable business.

How did you zero-in on the name Cre8Comm and what were some of the other options that were being explored while naming your startup ?

Considering our vision we were very clear while naming our start-up, as the name itself says Cre8-comm i.e. creating communities.

How does Cre8comm delivering traditional essentials and products to  all the diverse communities of India ?

Cre8comm , based on the community they are catering to, works at the background to do a detailed research on the community, including food habits, culture, music, etc. and then identifies the right kind of vendor for the same.

Contrary to the normal belief of a market place wherein you connect with large number of vendors, we keep our number restricted in order to ensure that we have good response from a quality perspective. Once we are ready with our back ground work including finalising vendors, we go live through social media.

Promita Sengupta -Director, Cre8comm

Can you share details about the competitors of Cre8comm ?

Currently, we don’t have any direct competition. There is no online e-commerce company which does the kind of products we manage. Some online portals are there, but they only handle Raw and Fresh food.

We continue to benchmark ourselves against our own potential and targets. We need to invest in our capabilities to ensure we keep pace with the changing demographic, technology and evolving needs of our customer base.

What are your expansion plans? Please share more about the new initiatives of Cre8comm ?

We are currently focusing on expanding other communities like Oriya, Malayali, and Bihari coming soon. Cre8comm is a diversified community portal, like no other marketplaces in the world. It’s fresh and easily accessible. In the long run, Cre8comm is planning to launch Culture Kitchen which would revolutionize the way meal services are being handled today in the country.

What are your marketing channels & how do you select the next logical place for expansion ?

The Key Marketing channels are:

  • Social Media [Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn]
  • Tele Marketing
  • Reaching out to Condos and Large Offices
  • Connecting with  Restaurants
  • Connecting with Community based Association

What have been the learnings so far and what were some of the biggest challenges in scaling up Cre8comm ?

The key learnings are:

  • Do not compromise on quality, if needed keep cost higher for better quality.
  • Stay very close to the customers. Understand the small needs.
  • Believe your customers. They actually know what they want.

The key challenges are:

  • Logistics. No one does the distance that we cover. So a separate logisitics team was required
  • The right kind of packaging
  • Maintaining the quality of the food
  • Training the Delivery team
  • Keeping system dynamic as per the demands of the situation
  • Being sensitive to people requests

Please share the funding status of Cre8comm & are you looking out for institutional funding ?

We are currently boot strapped and yes looking for Institutional Funding who share our vision.

E-commerce & food-tech as a sector is seeing consolidation [especially vertical e-commerce] and things in horizontal e-commerce are no different, how according to you are things in e-commerce different as compared to what was couple of years back [when e-commerce companies were getting funded based on GMV] ?

e-commerce cannot survive without technology . However the concept of GMV is now gone. It is more on Unit Margins and EBITDA. The investor is keen to see your margins and bottomline.  This will continue for years to come when Investors will likely be more interested where companies can improve shareholder value.

What are some of the parameters your team looks into while selecting vendors for a particular community [Oriya, Bengali, etc.] before onboarding them ?

The Key parameters for checking the vendors are:

  • The offerings
  • Time in Business and customer review
  • If cooked food, we check the Kitchen and see how hygienic they are
  • Professionalism
  • Able to manage credits in the short term
  • Able to cope with the growth of Cre8comm
  • Sustain good quality

Before Cre8comm, you had a social venture [building portable toilets], can you share some of the learnings from that venture since it might be helpful for aspiring social entrepreneurs ?

  • People may talk a lot, but finally not too many wants to put the money in these ventures.
  • Being non-glamourous, the effort is lot more to reach to people.
  • There is a lot of personal satisfaction when small successes show up.
  • Never take people on face value, even if they are very highly placed.Work closely with them and show how your ventures solves a key problem of the society
  • Be ready to face failures as they really are the pillars of success.

You were earlier a banker, social entrepreneur and now e-commerce/food-tech entrepreneur, how do you manage to don so many hats and where do you draw courage from ?

I always wanted my epitaph to read as someone who has tried and not given up on anything.  Besides, the zeal to make a difference in the lives of people in whatever capacity has always been a driving force. I always believe that There’s miles to go before I sleep

A quick piece of advice for all the women entrepreneurs

Starting an entrepreneurial venture is exciting but is not a bed of roses. It is full of challenges. And, being a female entrepreneur it is imperative to develop/nurture the following attributes – Communication, Networking, Ability to delegate, Sales skills and Openness to learn.

Follow your heart. It will always take you in the right direction and never be afraid to take risks in life.

Closing comments for community start-ups ? Please share more about how community driven start-ups are gaining popularity across the country ?

Not many organised community based start-ups are there in the country today. Definitely a void that Cre8comm is trying to fill in. We have just scratched the surface for now. The potential and need is extremely high given the fact that people are moving more & more away from their culture/food, etc. and so is the expertise and knowledge around it.

Our experience shows that if community based products and services are made available in abundance, then the impact can be significant.  A study  has reported that even Amazon has not been able to break the close relationship that people have with the existing unorganised community based services. This could be true for most countries in the world and hence it is an enormous opportunity.

We thank Promita Sengupta for her time and sharing valuable insights with our readers! If you have any questions for her about Cre8Comm, Food Tech, Hyer-local, scaling up, etc., please email them to himanshu.sheth@gmail.com or leave your question in the comments section.

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Vamaship has won one of the most coveted & prestigious Logistics Startup of the Year award at the seventh Annual Entrepreneur Awards 2017.  The Founder & CEO of Vamaship, Bhavik Chinai received the award from the hands of renowned author Gurcharan Das and Ritu Marya, Editor in chief for Franchise India Holdings Pvt. Ltd

These awards aim to recognize and acknowledge the initiative and hard work of various entrepreneurs and their contribution to the society. The awards felicitated the best entrepreneurs from diverse industries in several categories, chosen from 5000+ award nominations and among 2000+ attendees. The event also had an overall presence of 350+ speakers.

Indian author Gurcharan Das, Editor In Chief for Franchise India, Ms. Ritu Marya presenting the Logistics Startup of the Year award to Bhavik Chinai, Founder & CEO of Vamaship

The award recognizes impact made on supply chains, logistics, fulfillment & delivery and companies which have built a business model to make a difference to these areas.

On this occasion, Bhavik Chinai – Founder & CEO, Vamaship stated

I feel honored and humbled for having received this prestigious award. Each Vamashipper strives to enhance the shipping experience for customers every day and a big thank you to the jury for recognizing this commitment.

About Vamaship

Launched in October 2015, Vamaship is a revolution in logistics that connects shippers with industry’s best logistics companies. Vamaship as a market place facilitates shipments to over 10,000 pin codes in India and to 200 countries from India. With a nationwide network of partners, Vamaship brings the best of technology and logistics to create a seamless shipping experience. For more information, please visit Vamaship

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

Target India announced the fifth batch and the largest cohort yet for the Target Accelerator Program. Eight startups were selected to develop innovative technology solutions with the potential to enhance guest experiences at Target and in the wider retail industry. These startups will work in the areas of artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, analytics and digital experiences.

Rakesh Mishra, Vice President of Marketing for Target and the accelerator program’s executive sponsor said

The Target accelerator’s largest batch yet holds diverse capabilities that can add value to our business and the entire retail sector through cutting-edge technologies such as AI and machine learning. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to tap into the immense innovation potential that exists in India through the Target Accelerator Program.

The startups selected for the accelerator will go through a rigorous four-month program, wherein they will get to refine their technology offerings and pilot solutions at Target stores or headquarter locations. In addition, during their stint with the accelerator, they will have access to Target business leaders as mentors. The startups will also be provided with legal, financial and talent consulting services based on the need of the startup. At the end of the program, startups will have the opportunity to pitch their products and capabilities to investors and others in Bengaluru’s startup ecosystem, and possibly continue their engagement with Target.

The eight selected for the fifth batch of the accelerator program are:

  • Cogknit has a solution that extracts context from videos and is able to generate a textual play-by-play of the video content.
  • Hyperworks has developed software that integrates with hardware to scan fresh produce using a simple camera.
  • Moonraft is a design consultant with an artificial intelligence-powered shopping assistant in the trial room.
  • Cognitifai is able to perform video analytics on video footage (both live and offline).
  • Light Information Systems has capabilities in natural language processing that can be applied to customer support functions.
  • vPhrase can generate insights in natural language from structured data.
  • Streamoid enables personalized product recommendations and natural language search.
  • Jumper.ai enables shopping on social media through hashtags.
Fifth batch of the Target Accelerator Program

Along with external startups, Target also encourages participation from internal teams in the accelerator program. Pal’s Prompt, an affiliate marketing solution for Facebook, was developed by one of our Target India team members and has been selected to be a part of this cohort.

The Target Accelerator Program [TAP] was launched in December 2013. Till date, 22 startups have graduated from the program. The startups work with various internal Target teams including marketing, finance, stores, legal, search engine, merchandising, mobile and digital. For more information about the program, please visit Target Accelerator Program [TAP] page