EComm Fuels Entrepreneurs To Turn Dreams Into Reality

INNLIVE Media Team

As she walked out of her college alumni meet brimming with nostalgic thoughts about her amazing years at B-School, she wondered how great it would be to have a simple keepsake to help her connect with this feeling forever. A t-shirt or a hoodie came to her mind. So she went to someone who created such apparel, but the poor quality on offer appalled her. The vendor didn't care about quality since promotional material is usually about meeting a low cost target.

But this lady was made of stronger stuff. She decided that if high quality products for such purposes weren't available, she would become an entrepreneur, build a team and create such apparel. Extensive research and much hard work later, Campus Sutra was born.
“When we started we received 100 orders a day. We never imagined that we would soon be at 4,000,” says Khushboo Agarwal, the founder of Campus Sutra, which has now evolved into a fashion brand that helps GenX express itself through its youth-oriented merchandise. “Now we are looking at growing into a Rs 100-crore company in the next two years.”

Whether it is finding a business opportunity through a gap that can be filled or moving out of the 9-to-5 grind and being your own boss, entrepreneurship is zooming in India as many young and not-so-young Indians seek to live life on their own terms. The government is also helping with a ministry dedicated to entrepreneurship as everyone realises that entrepreneurship will fuel India's economic boom.

However, while the ecosystem for entrepreneurs is booming, with venture capital, mentoring, etc, the fact that India has a vast domestic market isn't enough. India is also a huge country with a host of regional languages, likes and dislikes. Owing to this, budding entrepreneurs often realise that finding the right customers for their products or services isn't an easy task. But, that's where the Indian e-commerce industry comes into the picture.

“We never thought we could cater to so many customers across India, sitting in Bangalore," says Khushboo. The biggest 'wow factor' for the team is that through Flipkart, customers from Jamnagar in the West to Shillong in the East, and from Kashmir in the North to Kanyakumari in the South now know about Campus Sutra and its innovative products. Co-founder Dhiraj Agarwal adds, “Offline, one can have a maximum of three or four collections. It’s because of the online channel that we have been able to churn out collections every month.”

Campus Sutra now has a platform to market products at a low cost and to acquire more happy customers by understanding customer behaviour through insights provided for them from their online platform of choice, Flipkart. The entrepreneurs from Campus Sutra work on their merchandise and ensure top-notch creativity and quality, while logistics, delivery, customer-reach and payment options are taken care of by Flipkart.


Another great example of a small family business going online is that of Sukkhi Fashion Jewellery. Today, this business gets anywhere from 1,500 to 1,800 orders a day and over 50 percent of revenues now come from online sales. While growth is obviously welcome, what the owners of Sukkhi Fashion Jewellery also appreciate, having been in business for a while, is timely payments from Flipkart. That’s because timely payments is something of a rarity in the offline trade where small businesses are at the mercy of large wholesalers. “The pricing and inventory panel on the web retail market is very simple, systematic and transparent. Within seven days of product delivery, we get the total amount in our bank account as per orders shipped in the period cycle,” says one of the owners of Sukkhi.

And that's a figure only destined to go up, as e-commerce in India booms. Google estimates that the number of online shoppers in India will cross the 10 crore mark by 2016-end, creating one of the largest online customer bases in the world. And where clothes and jewellery are, can perfume be far behind?

Meet Rini Bansal of BuyAnyPerfume. “My products get enhanced visibility and now I am able to sell my goods at great prices,” says Rini, when asked about her online brand presence through Flipkart. As an online seller, Rini says that a digital marketplace is approachable for small businesses, unlike offline retailers where a team focused on distribution is needed to reach them. And her business has boomed like never before. Sales have tripled since 2013, when she joined Flipkart. Her business has grown too, and she has hired more people to work for her.

Even as entrepreneurship in India booms, what's certain is that e-commerce is the wind beneath its wings. And why not? With 4.5 crore registered customers, 1 crore daily page visits and more than 80 lakh shipments every month, digital markets like Flipkart can open unexplored avenues for budding entrepreneurs. It's a ready-made, loyal and aspirational customer base that's just waiting to be tapped with more great ideas.

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