Are you looking to buy some famous and popular
things from their localized cities. Now you can get it from Shopatplaces. The
team at shopatplaces is dedicated towards bringing things that are popular. For
e.g. Lucknowi Chikankari , Kolhapuri Chappals etc. We had a talk with Zuhaib, Founder of
Shopatplaces to know more about how they are currently doing it and how their
plans for future.
What is the concept behind Shopatplaces?
Zuhaib: Shopatplaces is an e-commerce site which
delivers Authentic Products from Places Famous for them to the clients’ home.
We can be summarized by the tagline, ‘Famous Products. Best Buys.’
We all love authentic products but have difficulty
in getting products of the highest quality at for the correct prices. Who does
not want to own Pashmina shawls of from Kashmir or handcrafted Bandhej suits
from Jaipur? Demand for such authentic products never diminshes. The problem
areas are of authenticity verification, availability and quality assurance and
of course, the right price. The maze of unnecessary levels in the supply chain
is the culprit behind the many-fold increase in prices.
Shopatplaces eliminates all these problems at
once! So, 'Famous Places. Best Buys.' with convenience of shopping from home or
office.
How did you come up with the name 'Shopatplaces'?
Zuhaib: Our idea, right from the start, was to
make available to customers authentic and unique products from places popular
for them. And the brand name had to reflect that clearly.
'Silk Route' was the one which we had initially
toyed with as it symbolised the trade in such products from particular places.
However, there is an Indian band with this name and hence, copyright issues and
all.
Next one which was thrown about was 'Authentic
India', for obvious reasons. However, we wanted to keep products from other
countries as well and with this name it would have been difficult to do so.
Then, 'Shop At Places' was suggested by my friend's
young niece and this was the one which seemed just right. We kept the tagline
as 'Famous Places. Best Buys.' and never had to explain the concept of
Shopatplaces to anyone after that.
How are you different from other online retailers
in India?
Zuhaib: We are not selling brands as the other
players are. We provide an opportunity to customers to possess products which
are famous from a particular place. Be it Filigree jewelry from Odisha, Brass
jewelry from Uttar Pradesh, Tussar silk stoles with Kantha embroidery from West
Bengal, Block printed kurtis from Jaipur and so on.
We make these hard to find products easily
available to our customers with a guarantee of quality and authenticity,
coupled with a promise of best buy. We ensure that we always sell our products
at a price which is much lower than the retail price of those products from the
places they are sourced from.
We are the first ones in India to execute this
idea of ‘Shop At Places’. FabIndia is our close peer but we are not into
handcrafted products only.
What are the biggest challenges that you have
faced in your entrepreneurial journey?
Zuhaib: Setting up a robust vendor base has been
our biggest challenge as we deal with artisans and small manufacturers unlike other
players who are retailing branded goods. We left our jobs and traveled across
small towns and villages, or Bharat, as we call it, for 6 months straight.
During this travel, we learnt a lot and gained conviction that our model will
work. There are many supply side constraints, like availability of raw
materials, for which we work with our vendors and help them.
Another instance of a peculiar supply chain is of
Chikankari apparel from Lucknow. A Chikankari apparel can take up to 6 months
to create. Hence, inventory has to be maintained for this particular
subcategory and no real time ordering can be done for such products by anyone.
We face new challenges everyday and work with all
our might to make the customers smile when they get our products in their hands.
Who all are behind Shopatplaces? Please tell us
about their backgrounds too.
Zuhaib: The young founding team is comprised of
two, Sherfur and myself, Zuhaib. Sherfur has worked in the Procurement and
Supply Chain team of Cadbury-Kraft after getting his MBA from NITIE, Mumbai. I
have worked in various IB & PE firms like JP Morgan, Mape Advisory and Casa
Capital after finishing my MBA from FMS, Delhi. We were classmates during our
engineering days in Jamia, Delhi.
What will Shopatplaces be doing in the future?
Zuhaib: Our immediate plan is to have authentic
products from all states of India within the first 12 months of our launch and
we are already working on it. So you can expect a number of product launches in
the coming months. We also want to increase the number of categories we offer
to our customers.
Our long term plan will be to provide
internationally known products like Italian leather boots or Indonesian batik
print apparel to our users. In a few years’ time, we aim to be the most trusted
retailer in the minds of our customers.
Which all locations are you getting orders?
Zuhaib: We are already delivering orders across
India and have been getting orders from both Metros and small cities. We hope
to start delivering internationally soon - maybe in a month only.
Have you raised any funding yet? If no, would you
want investors to reach out to you?
Zuhaib: No, we have not raised any funds
till now. We are bootstrapping the business from our own funds and will not go
out in the market for fund raising till the time we need a significant
infusion. We want to have two numbers on board before we actively seek funds -
satisfied customer numbers and revenue numbers.
However, we are actively looking out for mentors
and advisors. We believe that advice of experienced mentors is worth much more
important than only money. We would be happy if we are contacted by experienced
industry veterans who like Shopatplaces and would want to help us grow it.