The pandemic has transformed the world into a digital one. There has been observed drastic change with the people in the field of shopping. And with such an advancement, people are entirely relying on the internet for any purchasing.
From household products to festive clothing, everything is available on the Internet and people are purchasing these as well. A wide fraction of people prefer online shopping apps for any purchase.
Among these, Amazon is one of the most established shopping applications across the world. In fact, Amazon is counted among the triumphant companies that hold the position to beat the consumer and retail industry!
With the popularity of Amazon, many small businesses consider it quite dominant in the retail industry. People are acknowledging how Amazon’s immense success is causing great loss to small businesses. Whether these are accurate and true, can’t be asserted right away! But a question arises, Is Amazon killing small retail businesses?
Well, looking back at some previous analytics, this accusation on Amazon isn’t something new. As of 2019, Steven Mnuchin, the United States Treasury Secretary also mentioned that Amazon, being a harm to the retail industry. To discuss this matter briefly, we have presented this case study- Is Amazon killing small businesses? Let’s begin!
Amazon, being the world’s one of the biggest online shopping companies, managed its way to success even in the dreadful pandemic of 2020. It made a huge profit towards the sales. At the beginning of 2020, Amazon made a profit of $5.2 billion beating its previous record of $2.6 billion in 2019.
The most significant thing about Amazon’s success is that the company modifies its policies and practices based on the resources and customers’ requirements. The company adjusted its services during the pandemic, that’s why it made such a remarkable profit.
With the immense success and fame of the company, the accusations on Amazon for killing the small businesses increased more vibrantly. The small businesses entirely blame Amazon for destroying the consumer and retail industry. Many examples and proves came out claiming Amazon for killing the small businesses but, many of these couldn’t be proven accurate.
Amazon Annual Net Revenue (in billion U.S. Dollars)
Consumers’ perspective during the Stay at Home orders
With the dreadful condition of Covid-19, people have become more cautious with their lifestyle, especially in the shopping part. People across the globe changed their offline shopping techniques into digital ones. And on that note, Amazon experienced massive progress and development. Because of this, Amazon made such a great profit even during the global crisis.
Amazon spent over $4 billion on further Covid-19 costs. And with this, the company took over various services adaptation. Amazon functions with great strategies and process improvements.
But even after this, Amazon is considered the destroyer of small businesses. It is highly criticized by the critics in a bewildering manner. But the company believes in helping and driving more audience to the small businesses but not in being a destroyer for them. However, the company remains on the top, regardless of its various accusations.
No matter how many proofs come out, any company itself cannot be blamed responsible for the downfall of small businesses.
Amazon’s perspective on being responsible for the downfall of Small businesses
On asking about the accusations made on Amazon, Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Amazon mentioned in an interview that the company itself holds a very strong and beneficial relationship with its sellers, who are small and medium-sized businesses. Amazon believes in helping the sellers to gain profit and success as it would bring more choices that could actually lower the prices of their products.
In fact, Amazon works with around 1.5 million small to medium sellers, just in the United States. As the more such sellers would join Amazon, the more benefits the customers will get such as free delivery, shipping, and low prices.
Although Amazon is affecting the small businesses, it means no harm or demise for them and brought a performance standpoint in the marketing field. Amazon has brought a great advantage in the retail industry as reaching customers has become very easy and profitable.
With the digitization in every sector, people are becoming more connected with E-commerce platforms. That’s why small and medium-sized businesses are also enrolling in the digital platform as an advanced marketing tool.
There’s huge competition in the market among established brands and small businesses. And those who would adapt to the changes that come to them will be known as being the biggest.
Modifications by Amazon for Success of Businesses
Amazon has taken the retail industry to an advanced level. And with its popularity and services, it has brought absolute convenience for the sellers to reach out to more customers and suppliers. Many concluded this as contraction to the claim made on Amazon.
As the consumers on the global level are increasing rapidly and so as the digital marketing platforms. People are preferring online shopping more promptly. On that note, small and medium-sized businesses must acknowledge this advancement and work accordingly. This would help them to embrace the changes that come on the way, instead of complaining.
Amazon has worked tremendously to gain the customer’s support and its success. In order to do so, it has widely increased the competition in the retail industry which has not been well received by the small and medium-sized businesses.
Various claims have been made on Amazon, accusing it of killing the small business. But as it has raised the competition, it has also brought several opportunities for sellers (including small and medium-sized businesses) to reach the customers more frequently and with good services in hand.
The whole world is digitizing and as people are becoming more reliant on digital sources for any purchase, it’s a great opportunity for small businesses to modify their services and take up the stand with the E-commerce platforms. This would bring immense advantage for the small businesses. Just that, Amazon has accepted the changes that came for it and adapted it as well. That’s why it has grown to be the biggest online shopping company.
FAQ
Is Amazon killing small business?
Amazon is helping small business and retailers. As because of Amazon independent brands and small businesses can compete with large corporations and established brands.
What impact does Amazon have on small businesses?
The more sales businesses do the more money Amazon generates. Amazon has also invested more than $30 billion in logistics, tools, services, and employees to help small businesses.
Do small businesses sell on Amazon?
Yes, many small businesses are selling their products on Amazon.
With the growing digitalization across the world, people are opting for various advanced products and services. Among such advanced services, subscription boxes are widely popular! It works best as it saves your money and also provides you a quality product. That’s the fun of Subscription boxes.
Today, numerous companies have opted for the Subscription-based business model. From the past few years, Subscription services have expanded on a large platform, especially in a pandemic, people have tried several online grocery and meal kit boxes. The result has been tremendous. When you receive a brand new Subscription box in your mail every month, nothing could be more joyful!
Whether it’s about beauty products or entertainment, Subscription-based businesses are earning great revenues. Moreover, Subscription boxes are the best gift for your loved one these days. These boxes are available in all categories and occasions, you just need to choose the right one for you!
The most fascinating thing about Subscription boxes is that they are extremely affordable. And that’s what attracts the audience most! In this article, we have covered some of the best Subscription box services of 2021. Let’s get started!
It’s a monthly subscription box service made for beauty products. GLOSSYBOX sends five selected (according to your preferences) beauty products to your address in a beautiful pink box.
GLOSSYBOX offers a wide range of beauty categories including fragrance, skincare, haircare, and makeup. All products are varied from foreign beauty brands and are tremendous.
Facetory works on offering the best and most affordable beauty products to its customers. With such a wide range of products in the market, Facetory aims for producing the most attainable, affordable, and practical usage products. The company works best for all occasions and categories. You can give Facetory boxes to your friends, family, and anyone.
Winc
Winc
When it comes to wine subscription boxes, what’s better than Winc! Can you imagine, WINE for every month! That’s unbelievable. And that is what Winc proposes.
It offers a palette quiz from which the customers can choose the personalized wine bottle for their every month subscription box.
No more standing in a line at your local shop for buying a bottle of wine, you can have it delivered to your home every month. Winc charges $13/bottle as it delivers four bottles per month.
Fresh Baked Cookie Crate
Fresh Baked Cookie Crate
Imagine, unboxing a box filled with the most delicious cookies, Tasty! Yes, it is. Fresh Baked Cookie Crate delivers a box packed with delicious ingredients, simple and handy guidelines along with the best surprise a foodie could ask for, by every month.
Fresh Baked Cookie Crate prepares its boxes with great compassion and puts each item meticulously chosen that provides the most amazing pleasure of eating cookies.
SnackNation
SnackNation
Thinking of something to gift your colleague who is missing out on the pleasure of snacks in the working hour? Well, SnackNation is the best choice for you! It delivers a box of various snacks which are very healthy. It provides around 15 to 50 treats in each box, based on customer’s preferences and budgets. SnackNation is best to spend your quality time eating the most healthy and delicious snacks of all time.
Trunk Club is an incredibly popular subscription box company under the Nordstrom Umbrella. It offers a huge range of inventory for both men and women. Your browsing is done by professional stylists.
Trunk Club prepares your box and in case you want to swap any item, you can do it before the shipment. It delivers 6-10 items in its box every month. Trunk Club charges $25 for the styling fee along with other items that you purchased.
Trunk Club offers the best customer service and offers tension-free shopping experience.
Nuuly
It often happens when we choose urban clothing from Anthropologie or free people, it gets pretty expensive. And that’s where Nuuly comes in!
Through its subscription service, Nuuly delivers six styles from the stores’ prominent brand, every month at the price of $88. Nuuly also offers free shipping and return access to its customers.
Kiwico
Kiwico
Kiwico starts at $19.95 and offers various boxes filled with tons of hands-on fun activities for all age groups and their interests. The customer gets to choose from the preference of age-based subscriptions for STEM and inventiveness.
Kiwico offers great service and shopping options that builds up a huge customer base for it.
Birchbox
Makeup and skincare often becomes pretty expensive, plus it is really tough to go with experiments in these products. For that purpose, Birchbox was founded. The subscribers get various category options of skin type, hair concerns, and more; from these, Birchbox sends five new mini products, based on their preferences and types, from the top brands every month with the starting price of $13/month.
Ritual
Ritual
Ritual is entirely based on the commitment to simplicity, traceability, and elements that are formulated for body health and fitness. Ritual offers the products in the form of the only vitamin required for a healthy functioning body.
Ritual utilizes beadlet-in-oil embossing which is meant to provide great nutrients in comparison to traditional capsules. Its package includes a 60 capsule containing bottles which are absolutely vegan-certified.
Subscription boxes are the best choice when you are looking for getting your required products in general proportion every month. It makes your life easy and filled with joy. You can buy clothes, beauty products, or groceries; anything you require.
These subscription-based companies offer great deals and deliver the box every month as per the delivery date. In today’s digital world, subscription boxes are the best to save money and buy quality products.
FAQ
What is Subscription box?
Subscription boxes are recurring delivery of niche products.
What are some of the top Subscription boxes?
GlossyBox, Facetory, Winc, Fresh Baked Cookie Crate, SnackNation and Trunk Club are some of the top Subscription boxes.
Why are subscription boxes so successful?
Subscription boxes are successful because it gets straight delivered to the consumers home which is more convenient than walking to the store.
Mobile Industry took its turn during early 1997 when the first GSM sim was introduced in the market. Because of GSM sim cards, it was easier to connect with people in remote areas at a cheap cost. People started buying mobile phones which turned out to be a great success for the mobile industry.
According to research, 1.38 billion mobile phones were sold worldwide every year. The industry took a pace after companies launching new smartphones which were multi-functional in their use. Presently the youth is too attracted towards new technology ensuring that they are as updated as possible.
But the major turning point for this industry was the year 2020 in the whole last decade. Here is why the mobile industry is booming every year and especially in 2020:
5G is the 5th generation mobile network introduced in the world to set a new global wireless standard. The wireless technology is meant to deliver hi-speed GBPS data, increased availability of the network, and a uniform experience to its users.
This speed is achieved by using higher frequency radio waves in addition to low and medium band frequencies used in the 4G Network (the 4th generation network).
The latest smartphones in our mobile industry are launched with 5G band compatibility which helps to increase the speed of network and internet and also makes the work easier. The next target to achieve better growth in technology is by speeding up which is possible by 5G connectivity.
COVID-19
2020 is the year where most effects of the coronavirus pandemic were seen. A worldwide lockdown was going on and physical connectivity was lost, the only way to carry out the routine activities and tasks was through the help of the internet and mobile phones.
Schools and offices were working on their systems virtually. The mobile industry got the benefit as everyone required a smartphone to carry out their routine activities and scheduled things through the medium of applications present in the smartphone.
Also, the government was supporting the virtual method as there was a huge rise in the number of Covid patients and helped many people by providing them with smartphones and gadgets at very reasonable costs.
Mobile manufacturers started focusing on budget smartphones that can be easily purchased by a middle-class person. Mobile companies covered all the losses they had incurred and made huge profits.
Banking Sector
One in every four people uses mobile banking services all over the world. Mobile banking provides the convenience and quickness of completing financial transactions via mobile applications and websites which is very feasible for their customers. Thus, banks are convincing their customers to shift to mobile banking which is directly beneficial to the mobile industry as it increases the usage of smartphones.
Also, many people prefer to keep two separate mobile phones, one for personal use and another one for business, financial, and banking purposes to avoid mobile fraud or any hack.
A survey was done on mobile banking trends which tells that thereâs a growth of 38% in the year 2020 when compared to 2019. The banking sector in collaboration with the mobile industry can achieve much more progress in the future.
Number of Phone users in millions
Digital Advertisement Growth
Looking at the growth in smartphone usage and the drastic shift towards digitalization, many companies are now considering mobile advertisement. These companies advertise through text ads or via SMS or through banner advertisements that appear embedded on a mobile website.
Mobile Ads
Mobile marketing is easy to access and a very cost-effective way of marketing. Mobile media has begun to draw more significant attention from the media advertising industry since the mid-2000s, based on a view that mobile media was to change the way advertisements were made.
Today the techniques have shifted completely and the strategies used are far more advanced. The effect of digital advertisement directly comes to the sales of the mobile industry providing digital content to the audience.
E-Commerce
E-Commerce started in 1979 with limited resources, but gradually increased and is now in 2020 at it is at its peak. The rise of E-commerce websites has increased in the past year as the offline stores were closed and people were forced to shop their essential items, online stores through the medium of mobile apps and websites.
People started looking out for everything on their mobile phones and eventually now it has made people habitual to purchase goods online. This led to immense growth in the E-commerce sector.
Every year the E-commerce sector of India increases by around 28%. And because of the Covid-19 crisis, it has increased by 41% in the year 2020. The new platform for purchasing goods is convenient and helping the mobile industry to grow even at a faster pace.
IoT Devices
The future is based on technology. With this mindset, software companies are focusing on mobile-based IoT devices. IoT devices are computing devices that are connected wirelessly to a network and can transmit data to many devices.
The connected car technologies and smartwatches are a perfect example of the IoT devices which are connected to the mobile device to show information and transmit data to perform a set of operations commanded by a person. These devices will bring in the new future of the mobile industry.
Conclusion
Mobile Industry has seen many changes in the year 2020 and can see many more by the major players like Samsung, Apple, and Oneplus which consistently bring updates to their technology and reforms to meet the increased expectations of the consumers. Mobile phones will be taking over the future for sure with the rapid growth in the industry as well.
FAQ
What is the value of smartphone industry
The smartphones market is valued at USD 714.96 billion in 2020.
Is the smartphone industry competitive?
Yes, the smartphone industry is a very competitive industry as it is one of the fastest growing industries in the world.
Who has the most market share in smartphones?
Samsung has the most market share in smartphones in 2021.
Ever since the collaboration between Walmart and Flipkart, many debates and queries have been woken. Walmart has spent around $16 billion in order to acquire an Indian E-commerce company- Flipkart. However, many Indians have been saying Flipkart shouldn’t have sold to an American company.
Flipkart holds the position of a very strong E-commerce company that has grown massively in the past 12 years. It acquires almost 31% of market shares being the most preferred E-commerce company in India.
The co-founder of Flipkart, Sachin Bansal is off to a subtle exit with 5.5% shares worth $1 billion. On the other hand, Google has been planning to sway its 7% stake in the advanced commodity.
With these vast hearings about the most preferred e-commerce platform- Flipkart, we have brought some very rare facts about the company as well as its founders that are quite interesting. Let’s get started!
When people say that Flipkart came out as a surprise, this is absolutely untrue. The beginning of an online bookstore later known as Flipkart was well-planned with all the business strategies in mind.
The two alumni of IIT Delhi, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal planned this company thoroughly. The co-founder of Flipkart has also worked together at Amazon which turned out to be the biggest competitor of Flipkart in the market. They then left Amazon and fabricated their own E-commerce bookstore company– Flipkart.
Flipkart’s Logo logic
Flipkart Logo
The name Flipkart was chosen very strategically as it means, âFlipping items into cartâ. Flipkart brandishes a distant âfâ letter in blue shading drawn on a yellow-hued shopping bag. Behind the letter âfâ, speed lines are drawn. The logo resembles a positive as well as speedy assistance. While the yellow hues resemble vitality, creativeness and inclusivity.
The un-familiar bond of Bansals
Most people get tricked by the surnames of the co-founders of Flipkart; both being Bansal. They often connect the co-founders as blood relatives. But, to the best of my knowledge, this is entirely untrue! Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal do belong to the same city- Chandigarh but, Bansals are not related anyhow.
They went to the same schools but were not very good friends. Later they went together to IIT-Delhi and worked at Amazon together. Well, they were pretty amazing at IIT and Amazon both and counted among the best performers.
They both left Amazon and started their own Indiaâ online bookstore website and founded Flipkart.
The First Order on Flipkart
Leaving Microsoft to change the world Book
When Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal successfully launched their online bookstore website- Flipkart.com. The first-ever order was of a book ‘Leaving Microsoft to Change the World‘ by John Wood.
Very few know that the packaging of that very first order was done by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal acted out as the delivery boy. In fact, in an interview they told, they used to write fake reviews of the books on their website to gather the interest of new eyes. Interestingly, this worked for them pretty well!
Denial didn’t break the founders of Flipkart
When Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal worked over the idea of Flipkart, many investors rejected their business model. Many resources said Binny Bansal, went with the idea of Flipkart twice to Google but unfortunately, he was rejected both times.
Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal completed their education together, but the idea of Flipkart never crossed their minds. It was when they joined Amazon with a year of difference that Sachin joined in 2006 while Binny in 2007. They worked on their business model and faced many rejections. But they stood by their idea and made Flipkart one of the biggest E-Commerce platforms in India.
One in a Million
Flipkart encountered enormous success. It became the first-ever Indian digital app to reach more than 50 million users in 2016. It is one of the most preferred and visited websites in India. It is quite remarkable that Flipkart receives over 13 million visitors per day.
Regularly, Flipkart sells over 80 million products. Flipkart is termed as India’s Alibaba with an annual turnover of $1.5 billion.
Distinctive Views of Co-founder
As Sachin and Binny Bansal developed this massive company all by themselves, many consider them as one mind. But to great knowledge, the co-founders of Flipkart are everything but alike.
Sachin Bansal is known to be a brilliant as well as a very passionate game player. If one can ever beat Sachin in his game, he/she is treated to a lavish dinner. However, it’s nearly impossible to beat Sachin, especially the one he is best at.
However, Binny Bansal carries an entirely different personality. He is fond of nature and loves to travel. Most of all, his adventurous ride in the water-rafting is quite fascinating.
Divastri
Divastri
Flipkart has grown enormously and with this development, it has launched its brands. Well, this is true! The co-founder of Flipkart has recently made its decision and launched its first-ever private label fashion brand called- Divastri, which is a women’s fashion brand.
Conclusion
Since the cooperation with Walmart, the online shoppers are receiving really some pretty fascinating offerings and deals from Walmart. This is known as its ‘Everyday Sale Business Model’.
Indian commerce has been depicted pretty amazingly in the eyes of foreign markets. Flipkart’s strong upholding in the Indian market is known and captivated by everyone. And this boldness of Flipkart is what attracted a foreign company, Walmart who spent around $16 billion to gain this prominent E-commerce website.
And with the lots of news here, in this article, we had discussed some very interesting and lesser-known facts about Flipkart. Stay tuned for more updates.
FAQ
When was Flipkart founded?
Flipkart was founded by Binny bansal and Sachin bansal on October 2007.
Who is the Flipkart CEO?
Kalyan Krishnamurthy is the current CEO of Flipkart.
What is the revenue of Flipkart?
the revenue of Flipkart is approximately 346 billion Indian rupees.
When it comes to automobiles, millennials today do not believe in ownership and maintenance of their cars and bikes. They believe in renting, using, enjoying, and being merry! Exploiting this insight merely on its merit, Ashwarya Pratap Singh, Hemant Kumar Sah, Abhishek Mahajan, Vasant Verma, and Amit Sahu started Drivezy in the year 2015.
Drivezy (formerly JustRide) is India’s largest marketplace for car and two-wheeler sharing. Through Drivezy, travelers can book scooters, motorcycles and cars from people living around them.
All in all, Drivezy is a car rental platform. Car owners can list their vehicles on Drivezy when they are not using it and the customers can rent it whenever they want to. It offers the following features to the users:
Bookings can be done on the website or from the mobile application.
18+ is the legal age to book bikes and cars on Drivezy.
The users can book the vehicles on an hourly, daily, weekly basis. They also have the option of fuel or no fuel vehicle bookings.
The security deposit on Drivezy is minimal. It can range from INR 0 to INR 999.
Drivezy provides its customers with home pickup service.
Drivezy releases instant payments to the car owners and refunds to the consumers in the given case.
Founders of Drivezy and team
The Drivezy founders are Abhishek Mahajan, Amit Sahu, Ashwarya Pratap Singh, Hemant Kumar Sah, and Vasant Verma.
Drivezy Founders
Ashwarya Pratap Singh, Co-founder and CEO of Drivezy – Ashwarya is a graduate in Electronics and Communication Engineering. Also an alumnus of Y Combinator batch of 2016 and the first batch of Google Launchpad. He served as a mentor at Launchpad during his post-Graduation.
Hemant Kumar, Co-founder of Drivezy – Before launching Drivezy, Kumar was an application developer at Service Now and a senior consultant at Oracle India before that. Kumar has graduated in B.tech from MNNIT.
Abhishek Mahajan, Co-founder of Drivezy – Graduated from IIT Bombay, Abhishek was an Associate Consultant at PwC India. He is also a CFA Level 2 candidate.
Vasant Verma, Co-founder and COO of Drivezy – Before Drivezy, Verma worked as a global market analyst at Nomura. Vasant Verma has a graduation degree in B.tech from MNNIT.
Amit Sahu, Co-founder of Drivezy – After graduating from the MNNIT, Allahabad, Sahu worked as a vehicle testing engineer in Honda R&D India Dept. Performance testing of Various cars would fall under his domain. After this, he went on to work at Drivezy.
It all started when one of the co-founders Ashwarya Singh bought a new car that met with an accident in the early days itself. Singh didnât use the car so much but still considerably spent a chunk of his salary in the maintenance of the car. This got him thinking about creating a platform where one could rent cars.
There was one more thought that drove the inception of Drivezy, then justride.in, that the majority of people in India canât afford to buy cars. He then went on to discuss this idea with his college friends, now the co-founders and launched Drivezy in 2015 in Bangalore.
Drivezy – Startup Launch
Drivezy was previously called Just Ride. In 2017, the team thought of adding bikes to their range of products to expand and increase their user base. Drivezy works on a model where the ideal cars and bikes of the owners are listed with them and the vehicle owners can generate cash even when they are not using the bikes or cars. The individual owners of the commercial vehicles are also registering with Drivezy to make money.
Drivezy – Business Model and Revenue Model
The Drivezy business model works on commission. Drivezy lets the vehicle owners list their vehicles on their mobile applications. The company takes roughly 20-25% of the revenue pooled from renting this vehicle.
The first and foremost hurdle for Drivezy was the trust issues amongst the vehicle owners. They wouldn’t just rent their cars to random strangers. Though Drivezy provides guarantees, aggregator model, a peer-to-peer sharing model, and background checks of the users, this is a major challenge in the Indian markets.
The second hurdle was difficulty in leasing and buying of cars due to the financial problems.
With the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic, most of the businesses that relied on transport and communication, and mobility found themselves on unstable grounds. Drivezy is not an exception and therefore, after bearing with the economic downturn for over a year, the Bengaluru-based car and bike rental startup has finally decided to be acquired by Yamaha. The size of the acquisition will range between $45-50 million, as per reports.
Drivezy – Competitors
Drivezy cars kind of operates in a perfectly competitive market. Thereâs immense competition in the market with major players having massive market standing. Drivezy in totality competes with taxi aggregators and ridesharing startups like Ola, Uber, Bounce, LetsRide, PoolCircle, ZoomCar, Carzonrent, Wunder, and Ryde among others.
Drivezy – Funding and Investors
When it comes to funding, Drivezy has raised a total of $149.3M in funding over 10 rounds from various investors including Das Capital, Axon Partners, IT-Farm, Yamaha Motor Ventures, and Y Combinator, among others.
Here is a list of all the funding rounds of Drivezy:
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
August 2015
Angel Round
$1 million
Anirudh Damani, Alok Mittal, Niraj Singh
November 2015
Seed Round
$2 million
–
March 2016
Series A
$400K
Dheeraj Jain
August 2016
Venture Round
$120K
Y Combinator
November 2016
Venture Round
$3 million
Susa Ventures, Kima Ventures, Axon Ventures, SCM Holdings and ITFarm from Japan
October 2017
Venture Round
$10 million
Das Capital
February 2018
Initial COin Offering
$5 million
Susa Ventures, Kima Ventures, Axon Ventures and other exiting investors along with other HNIs from Japan and Singapore
April 20, 2018
Second Round of Initial COin Offering
$8 million
Susa Ventures, Kima Ventures, Axon Ventures and other exiting investors along with other HNIs from Japan and Singapore
November 2018
Series B
$20 million
IT-Farm, Das Capital, Yamaha
November 2018
Debt Financing
$100 million
AnyPay
The company, since inception, had raised total funding of $49.45 million before closing the huge asset financing deal. In 2018, Drivezy secured $100 Mn in an asset financing deal with which the Drivezy team plans to induct close to 50,000 vehicles. The company had raised an amount close to $149.3 million.
The company’s tagline is “Drive It Like You Own It!”
Drivezy Logo
As pioneers in the Indian self drive car rental industry, the company believes in the mantra- âWhy buy a car, when you can rent one?â.
Drivezy – Growth
Drivezyâs growth is coming at what seems to be a key inflection point for the transportation industry. The company claims to have a customer base of about 1.5 million registered users and with around 93% of them coming from the 18-35 age bracket. Cofounder Ashwarya Singh told that it has processed over 4 lakh bookings, and has 500 employees in 11 cities.
Operating cities- 21 cities of India
Average monthly customers- 2,00,000
Average monthly pending requests- 2300
Average monthly revenue- $150,000
Average monthly GMV- $950,000
The company earns a 15-30% commission for every successful transaction. In FY18, it clocked a GMV (Gross Merchandising Value) of $32 Million, growing by 200% since 2017.
Drivezy – Future Plans
Drivezy clocked gross sales of $32 million in 2018 and is targeting $80 million in 2019. Besides this, the company plans to launch in the US by starting with a fleet of 200 cars in San Francisco. Drivezy also plans to lunch its operations in Southeast Asia soon.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
How does Drivezy work?
Car owners can list their vehicles on Drivezy when they are not using it and the customers can rent it whenever they want toand they will be required to pay a nominal amount for every km travelled. The user will get the vehicle with full fuel tank and He/She has to return it with the same fuel level.
How much can I earn with Drivezy?
Drivezy claims that owners can earn up to INR 30,000/month by leasing out their vehicles.
Who are the Drivezy owners?
The Drivezy founders are Abhishek Mahajan, Amit Sahu, Ashwarya Pratap Singh, Hemant Kumar Sah, and Vasant Verma.
Flipkart is not unknown to Indians. With the birth of Flipkart, eCommerce has been a household term for us.
The Walmart-owned Indian eCommerce giant has been the trustworthy companion for millions of Indians till date since it was founded 14 years back in 2007. Flipkart has experienced incredible growth over the years.
Along with keeping up with quality standards of products and services, the Indian startup stood strong against none other than Amazon, which is not an ordinary feat. Furthermore, along the years that Flipkart served the country, it not only increased its business on a large scale but also continued to provide both direct and indirect opportunities of employment for its users.
On its way to offer employment opportunities for the people of the Indian subcontinent, Flipkart announced its latest app Shopsy.
Shopsy, as announced by Flipkart, is launched as an app that will help tens of thousands of native entrepreneurs, businessmen, and other individuals to grow and further their businesses and enterprises.
According to the Senior Vice President – Growth and Monetization of Flipkart, Prakash Sikaria, the launch of Shopsy as an app will help drive easy employment opportunities for the Indians that will further their âvision and provide additional earning opportunities for millions of enterprising Indians. Now, anyone from anywhere can start their online business with zero investment.â
How will Shopsy Help Small Businesses, Entrepreneurs, and Individuals?
Flipkart offers a wide range of products, equaling almost 15 crore products from varying industries, which the web app displays its users from where they can choose to buy the ones they prefer.
To date, Flipkart has only offered its users products and opportunities to be sellers but with Shopsy the app also aims to create resellers out of their users. Now, the wide range of products that Flipkart boasts of on its website, spanning across categories like fashion, beauty, electronics, mobiles, home essentials, etc., will also be available for the budding entrepreneurs and other individuals to resell them and add to their income.
The people who will choose Shopsy would be able to share Flipkartâs catalogs with their prospects via any social media or messaging apps, place orders for their customers, and earn commissions for themselves. The amount or the percentage of commissions received will not be the same and depend on the products and the categories from which they are ordered.
Shopsy will also be a great help for Flipkart and have unlimited opportunities to widen their user base and boost their business. People who are relatively new to the world of eCommerce or arenât sure of buying things online will be acquainted with Flipkart. This will further grow their trust in the brand and eCommerce in general because the known thread will be their trusted point of contact, who will be a Flipkart user.
This new app will not only benefit the people who already exhibit a strong network but will also be an enviable opportunity for those who only aspire to build a decent network. Yes, the latter can also weave their own network successfully with the daily transactions that they will depend upon once they sign in with this Flipkart app.
Shopsy will be a great boon for all upcoming entrepreneurs and individuals because all of them will have equal access to the wide inventory, effective logistics management, and established delivery networks of the eCommerce giant, which they can use as their ladder to establishing a successful business. Gain credibility and acceleration will not be a problem to them this way and with this app.
Many Users Often Shy Away from Ecommerce Platforms, Why?
Though online transactions have grown by leaps and bounds in the past couple of decades, many users still fail to muster enough courage to transact online on eCommerce websites mainly because of their ignorance and the lack of trust. Distributed commerce, however, has acted as a channel to solve these problems and has witnessed quite a growth in these recent years. Shopsy will further gear up the possibilities for the app and its users to grow.
How to use Shopsy?
Flipkart has grown its eCommerce expertise over the years and is now aiming to help legions of budding Indian entrepreneurs to make the best of the app. All the users who want to use Shopsy will have to first register on the app with their phone numbers in order to kickstart their entrepreneurial venture and can continue adding to the income and expanding their business leveraging the key resources of the platform.
Conclusion
With this new initiative, Flipkart aims to benefit over 25 million online entrepreneurs by 2023 through digital commerce. Shopsy will be a major boost to the company, its citizens, and the country, and will be a major step forward to eradicate the countryâs long-standing problems of unemployment.
Besides, with the post-pandemic woes that have ousted several and weakened the stable financial grounds of many individuals and businessmen, Shopsy has the potential to glow as a silver lining at the end of the dreadful pandemic.
FAQ
What is Shopsy?
Shopsy is an e-commerce platform launched by Flipkart to help entrepreneurs grow their business through platforms like WhatsApp.
Is Shopsy Free?
Yes, Shopsy platform is free for small businesses and individuals but sellers on Shopsy will have to pay the usual marketplace fee.
In this new Startup Insight series we connect with industry professionals to know ‘How did they do it’ – features startup experience and learning from professionals who have done a particular thing in a startup!
Let’s see what Mr. Nityanand Sharma, Founder & CEO of Simpl has got to say on ‘How BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) is Transforming Customer Purchasing Behavior‘
Simpl provides the convenience of an online khata connected to 5000+ merchants. Simpl works on BNPL mechanism – ‘Buy anything on the internet with 1 tap. Pay later.’
BNPL, with its convenient credit purchases and interest-free credit period, is playing a pivotal role in transforming consumer buying patterns. This stands reflected in the surging popularity of BNPL as a payment mode. According to a 2021 Global Payments Report by FIS, BNPL outpaced other payment modes in the high-growth e-commerce and online shopping space in India and is expected to command a 9% market share by 2024, with a 53% CAGR, up from the 3% share in 2020. Indiaâs consumerism-oriented middle class, driven by purchasing power and aspirational purchases are fueling the growth of BNPL, which aims to deliver a digital credit experience to 400 Mn Indians who fall outside the net of the organized credit card financial system.
How BNPL is Revamping Indiaâs traditional Khata system?
BNPL has brought to the fore an age-old tradition often practiced informally by retail shops in India i.e. taking nagad payment from relatively new customers and allowing udhaar purchases for creditworthy customers. All of the transactions were rooted in trust with the shopkeeper sharing strong relationships with a close-knit circle of customers, often residing in nearby locations.
BNPL has resulted in the reimagining of an existing concept that Indians are already familiar with. Further, with merchants less inclined to offer cash on delivery given the thrust on the cashless digital economy, there is a perceptible mindset shift in the buyers. Seeing the growing buyer interest, BNPL is now available across merchant categories- essentials, staples, groceries, medicines, apparel and clothing, electronics, and beyond. The diversification has further encouraged higher usage levels and reinforced BNPL as a viable alternative to other mainstream payment modes.
Nityanand Sharma – Founder & CEO, Simpl
How BNPL is driving a data to value transformation?
As a product, owing to its ease of use and easy to integrate functionality, BNPL is inherently customer-centric and merchant-friendly. By leveraging cutting-edge tools like AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML-based credit decisioning, BNPL is enabling faster transactions with almost instantaneous credit-line approval for purchases at the time of checkout. Through better information about customer credit history and purchase patterns based on predictive models, the BNPL model has accelerated the trust-building process between merchants and buyers. With the pandemic throwing a spanner in the budget of many households, the option to split the purchases bill across time in a convenient manner has eased the financial burden for many. Buyers are able to avail improved liquidity towards purchases without the need to worry about upfront funds outlay.
A key factor that works to the advantage of BNPL is the relatively small ticket size of the credit limit available. Thus, the repayment amount is affordable and does not feel like an âEMIâ with an attached high-value tag. While EMIs are based on the principle of breaking up a large-sized payment into smaller monthly payments with interest, BNPL is a convenience offered to loyal and trusted buyers of merchants with an interest-free credit period. The low amount size relatively reduces the credit risk and default uncertainty compared to a credit card with a higher credit limit. It has been observed that the buyer propensity to spend is enhanced with BNPL owing to the mere 2 clicks transaction completion process. A study reveals that with BNPL, the basket size has grown in most transactions:
What is the need of BNPL?
Indiaâs young demographic profile, comprising millennials, prefer a prompt and seamless purchase experience. Further, most of these buyers are inclined towards buying on online platforms and making payments through digital modes that are completed within a few seconds. Another notable trend is the moving away from traditional credit facilities that involve a long-drawn and cumbersome approval process. A credit card is often positioned as an alternative to BNPL. However, out of 900 Mn banking customers, it is estimated that only about 3% use credit cards attributable to the high charges and exorbitant interest rates associated with plastic money. It is expected that a high percent of the bank customer pool would be open to using BNPL, given its almost instantaneous credit approval and zero-friction payment experience.
The payment happens via a 1-click checkout option – No OTP, no CVV, No net banking. The final Bill can be cleared via any mode of payment, but BNPL purchases don’t require OTPs. This is one of Simpl’s USPs
Concluding thoughts of Mr. Nityanand Sharma
The universal goals of every digital payment mode are to ensure prompt transaction completion for merchants and deliver superior payment experiences for customers. BNPL achieves all of this and much more. Armed with a comprehensive database of customer purchases, buying patterns and payment records, BNPL can aid merchants with actionable customer insights for business strategies, give a fillip to digital-led purchase volumes and reduce overall payments fraud risk in the digital payments ecosystem.
Netflix is a popular OTT platform that has grown widely and has a worldwide presence. The OTT platform has the majority market in the OTT platform and has the best shows which include The Witcher, Lucifer, Crown and many more.
They also have Netflix original movies which have a huge fan base. Netflix has made a recent announcement of launching a new platform called Netflix Shop. In this article letâs look at what exactly is Netflix shop and how Netflix plans to enter the e-commerce space with it.
Netflix has announced the launch of its online e-commerce store called Netflix shop. The online store will be selling the Merchandise of the Netflix original series. The sales are expected to start with the famous Netflix original series that is Stranger Things and the Witcher.
The online store has been launched and Netflix shop is the first retail outlet that is owned and operated by Netflix which sells products directly. The business model of Netflix e-commerce store is it will sell high quality apparel and lifestyle products that are related to the famous shows of Netflix and the products are going to be carefully chosen and limited edition.
Netflix has conveyed that their e-commerce store will soon see an exclusive release of merchandise based on the two popular original series of Netflix that is the Witcher and Stranger things. Both the shows have a huge fan base and Netflix is also planning to introduce a new Netflix logo wear from BEAMS which is a Japanese fashion house.
Beam Clothing
The company has announced that during the third week of June it plans to release the merchandises based on the Anime series Yasuke and Eden which would be streetwear and action figures and they also added that the store will also release limited edition apparel and decorative items from the French thriller series Lupin with a collaboration of Musee du Louvre.
Netflix has also conveyed that they are introducing the collection of collectibles that are inspired by animeâs from three up coming designers i.e., Kristopher Kites who is a noted jewelry maker, Jordan Bentley who is a streetwear designer, and Nathalie Nguyen who is a digital artist.
Is Netflix Entering the E-commerce space?
The most important aspect to be noted is that Netflix already has licensing deals for a lot of products that are sold by other companies. The top companies such as Amazon, Walmart, H&M, Target, Sephora and other retail investors have been selling the products merchandised products of the shows related to Netflix.
So, the next question is what difference does it make with Netflix launching its own E-commerce website. The strategy of Netflix e-commerce store is it would sell only the carefully chosen limited edition merchandise on its e-commerce store. The aim of the company is to sell the limited edition items to the super fans of the shows.
This is considered to be a move from Netflix to enter into the e-commerce segment as well as a move to increase the revenue generation of the company. This can be marked as an official entry by the OTT platform into the e-commerce segment and we will be able to see much more collectibles and limited-edition merchandise being released to the online platform of the company.
Media Platforms that are already in E-commerce Space
Even though Netflix has launched its new e-commerce platform for selling its merchandise products, Disney has been into the field for a very long time. The consumer products of Disney have earned a revenue of around USD 16.5 billion in the year 2020.
Disney has their own consumer products where they sell products such as Baby Yoda dolls and also an outlet such as theme parks.
Netflix shop website
The e-commerce website that is launched by Netflix was developed and launched with Shopify. It is to be noted that the e-commerce store will first be available in the United States and the company will later focus on expanding it to other countries.
Netflix Shop website
Netflix had also conveyed that they do not have any plans to open the outlets of brick and mortar.
Conclusion
The launch of the Netflix e-commerce website can be considered to be one of the important steps taken by Netflix to venture into the consumer goods segment. We may be able to find a lot of demand for the merchandise products listed on the site of Netflix by their super fans.
FAQ
What is Netflix Shop?
Netflix Shop is an ecommerce store launched by Netflix for selling merchandises of the popular series.
Is Netflix Shop available in India?
No, the shopping site will first be available in the United States and the company will later focus on expanding it to other countries.
What are the current merchandises on Netflix Shop?
Netflix has introduced a new logo wear from BEAMS and is planning to launch limited edition merchandises for super fans.
Quite often you would come across motivational and awe-inspiring posts about how Jack Ma dealt with his struggles. Jack Ma Yun, the well-known Chinese business magnate, investor, and philanthropist, is popular not only with entrepreneurs, industrialists, billionaires, and business professionals but with many other individuals as well, students or otherwise.
Jack Ma’s net worth is $26 billion. Ma was once hailed as the richest man in China and currently features in the top 10 list of China’s richest men, with the richest man currently in China being Zhong Shanshan. Besides, Jack Ma was also listed second in the “Word’s 50 Greatest Leaders” by Fortune in 2017. Â Â
Starting his career as an English teacher, he co-founded one of the largest e-commerce websites that are in existence today, Alibaba, and is also counted amongst entrepreneurs with mind-boggling rags-to-riches backstories.
Did you know that Jack Ma, the owner of this multi-billion dollar online retail portal was rejected by Harvard university 10 times?
âI applied for Harvard, for 10 times, rejected,â Jack said. Therefore, he was not unknown to rejections and disappointments that plagued his journey to stardom. Nevertheless, the man wasnât one to cave in so easily. While Jack wasnât a hardcore techie himself, he did an amazing job in taking Alibaba to where it stands today.
Here’s the Jack Ma success story for you, if you are curious to learn about Jack Ma, how he founded Alibaba, and his journey! Â
Jack Ma wasnât born into old money, he is a self-made billionaire. He had a modest childhood and grew up while communist China was transitioning into a superpower. Jackâs parents werenât earning enough to consider themselves middle-class. It was Richard Nixonâs visit to China in 1972 that changed Jackâs childhood. President Richard Milhous Nixonâs trip to Jackâs hometown saw tremendous growth in tourism, converting Hangzhou into a tourist mecca. As a kid, Jack wanted to learn English and he used to provide tour guide services to foreigners for free. He used this as a medium to improve his English. Subsequently, Jack became an English teacher.
After graduating with a bachelorâs degree in English, he worked as a teacher at Hangzhou Dianzi University on a salary of 12 USD per month.
Jack Ma Story
Rejections and Jack Ma went hand in hand. After failing in his primary school exams multiple times, and failing his middle school exams thrice, those around him labelled him a failure. He was rejected every time he applied to Harvard University. He had ten rejections by Harvard University!
Disastrous results continued even after graduation. Multiple job rejections graced his journey; during the recruitment by KFC, he was the only one among 24 applicants not to be selected.
His initial ventures saw similar results, they plummeted. But, the stumbling didnât deter him; he was adman to make a mark in the e-commerce segment.
Startup Ideation
Jack Ma visited the United States for a project on building of highways. His stay in the United States was an exposure to the world of computers. The people in China werenât that exposed to the technology sector and hence, the usage of computers amongst Chinese was almost negligible. Services like e-mail and the internet werenât a common occurrence.
When Jack used the search engine Mosaic, the first word he searched was beer. The search results quickly flashed on the screen. But when he searched for China, there were no search results. This infuriated Jack Ma, and he took the onus of bringing China on the internet radar.
Jack Ma’s Alibaba Conceived
Jack Ma’s Alibaba
After approaching his friends, seventeen agreed to join him for an e-commerce startup, and named it âAlibabaâ. The company was created in his apartment. Alibaba was struggling to survive initially as it did not receive a single penny in investment. The investments of 20 Million USD form SoftBank and 5 million USD from Goldman Sachs in 1999 saved Alibaba from falling apart.
The biggest challenge for Alibaba was to gain the trust of the Chinese which it succeeded at in the end. Jack Ma motivated his team In times of difficulty by telling them they were a young team still learning. A leader was about to change the face of e-commerce.
Once Alibaba was in the picture, it faced stiff competition from eBay in China. To defeat eBay, Yahoo came to assistance. The company invested 1 billion USD in Alibaba. In exchange for the investment, Yahoo gained a 40% stake in the company. This was fruitful for both the companies as Alibaba became a household name in China and Yahoo gained 10 billion USD through Alibabaâs IPO.
Jack Ma stepped down as the CEO of Alibaba in 2013. However, he continued as the executive chairman. The company created history as its 150 billion IPO was the largest offering of a US-listed company in the New York stock exchangeâs history. By virtue of this IPO, Jack became the richest man in China.
Apart from serving people and bringing revolution through Alibaba, Jack supports environmentalism. He is a member of the global board of The Nature Conservancy. Jack has also funded a 27,000-acre nature reserve in China.
The Alibaba group conducts various annual talent shows in order to engage with their customers. Jack is known to be a natural entertainer. During one such event, he performed wearing a punk costume in front the audience.
A Lesson to Learn from Jack Ma
Coming across challenges, stumbling forward and then rising up sums up Jack Maâs journey. To many, he is the ideal entrepreneur. Alibaba has given a face to many small and medium sized businesses across the globe. The world shall remember Jack Ma as a visionary who gave it the behemoth, Alibaba.
Rankings In Various Lists
Jack Ma is ranked 1 in the China Rich List, 2019.
He is ranked 21 in the Billionaires List, 2019.
He is ranked 7 in the Richest In Tech, 2017.
He stands in the 21st position in the Most Powerful People List, 2018.
Jack Ma Yun is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the founder of the E-commerce giant Alibaba and is a stakeholder at Alipay, its sister company, which is an e-payment portal.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved byNearbuy.
Owing to a lack of time and fair prices, everybody nowadays prefers online shopping. The eCommerce industry was last valued at $22 billion in 2018 and is estimated to be worth around $200 billion by 2027. Thus, the growth that the eCommerce industry is seeing is beyond comparison. This outstanding growth that the industry has seen and the exponential growth that is predicted for the industry could only be possible with the range of successful players and the pioneers of the idea. Moreover, the e-commerce players have rapidly grown over the past couple of years to become hyper-local entities to serve their customers better.
Gurgaon-based Nearbuy is one of the firsts of Indian hyperlocal eCommerce companies. The Indian hyper-local eCommerce company, founded in 2010, has been built to extend an array of products across diverse categories for the customers to buy almost anything when it comes to services. So, whether the users want to dine online, relax at the best spas, or discover their city most intimately, it is Nearbuy that they looked up to.
Nearbuy.com, which was formerly known as SoSasta, Crazeal, and Groupon, was formed in 2015 and now stands acquired by Paytm since December 7, 2017, when the digital payments giant acquired Nearbuy and its parent organization, Little, signed a merger deal of the two well-funded companies. The company still stands as a hyper-local, deals-based, e-commerce services company owned by Paytm.
Here’s a look at Nearbuy.com and its Founders and Team, Mission and Vision, Startup Story, Business Model, Revenue Model, Growth, Funding and Investors, Competitors, Challenges Faced, Future Plans, and more.
As of September 2019, Ankur Warikoo, the co-founder and ex-CEO resigned from Nearbuy. Warikoo announced that he would step down as CEO of Nearbuy in November, handing over the reins to co-founders Ravi Shankar and Snehesh Mitra. Shankar, who was previously the COO of Nearbuy, will take over as CEO, with Mitra taking over as COO of the Paytm-owned firm. Warikoo will remain a shareholder and member of the company’s board of directors.
About Nearbuy and How it Works?
Nearbuy.com (Nearbuy India Private Limited) is India’s first hyper-local online services platform, built to let consumers and local merchants connect and interact along with helping them get the best deals possible. The company was first founded as SoSasta and was eventually acquired by Nasdaq-listed Groupon Inc in 2011. The company then changed its name to Groupon India in 2013. Finally, the company was named Nearbuy in 2015 when Sequoia Capital India and Ankur Warikoo bought majority stakes in the firm. Ankur Warikoo has no longer been the CEO since November 2019 when Ravi Shankar was appointed for the position.
Nearbuy.com was built with the aim to make things easily available for users. Whatever the needs of the customers may be, whether it is to enjoy fine dining, unwind at the world-class spas, or simply get their city known a little better, Nearbuy.com aimed to make all of them possible for the users.
Nearbuy provides its merchants with a clear branding and visibility-driven network that makes it easy for consumers to find their businesses in and around their locations. Nearbuy is available in 35+ markets, 18+ categories, and 100,000+ unique places, with over 50,000 merchants.
You can download the Nearbuy app from the Google Play Store or the iTunes Store to discover, purchase, and share exciting experiences around you.
Nearbuy – Mission and Vision
The mission statement of Nearbuy says, “We at nearbuy.com are taking hyperlocal ecommerce where itâs never gone before. So, if you thrive on the thrill of operating in a world of firsts,you belong at nearbuy.com.“
Nearbuy – Founders and Team
Ankur Warikoo, Ankur Sarawagi, Sumeet Kapur, Sachin Kapur, Ravi Shankar,and Snehesh Mitra are the founders of Nearbuy, which was founded in 2010.
Ravi Shankar, current CEO and Co-Founder of Nearbuy
Ravi Shankar L
Ravi Shankar did his Bachelors of Engineering before pursuing an MBA Marketing from Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development. Ravi Shankar started with Wipro as a Presales Technical Consultant and went on to become the National Sales Manager there. Shankar was then the Business Director at Groupon. After leaving Groupon, Ravi Shankar joined Little Internet, where he was appointed as the CEO and Board Member. Nearbuy was the next company where he went on to become the COO, who was later appointed as the CEO for a brief period of more than a year. Shankar is currently serving as a Co-founder and Board Member of Nearbuy along with being the SVP at Paytm. Â
Ankur Warikoo
Mentor, angel investor, and public speaker, Ankur Warikoo is a Hindu College and Michigan State University from where he graduated with a BSc in Physics and an MS in Astronomy and Astrophysics, eventually pursuing an MBA in Finance from the Indian School of Business. Warikoo started as the Head of APAC market at Groupon Inc and was then appointed as the CEO. He was also a co-founder and CEO of Nearbuy and is currently serving as a Board member. Along with this, Warikoo is an Educator and Content Creator at Brand Warikoo and a Board member of the Indian School of Business. Â
Ankur Sarawagi
Another co-founder of Nearbuy, Ankur Sarawagi is an IIT Bombay alumnus from where he completed his BTech and MTech in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Integrated Manufacturing along with a Minor in Operations Research. Starting from Bain & Company, Ankur joined Groupon as the Director of Sales. However, it was only a brief stint that Ankur had with Groupon, eventually moving on to co-found Nearbuy. Ankur is currently serving as the Vice President, International Growth & Managing Director of WeddingWire India at The Knot Worldwide, which came into being as a result of the merger of WeddingWire and The Knot. Sarawagi has also served as the VP & Country Manager at WeddingWire.
Snehesh Mitra
Snehesh graduated from IIT Kharagpur in Electric and Electronics Engineering. Mitra was the co-founder Urban Blocks and Nearbuy along with being the CTO of the former and CTO, COO, and CPO of the latter organization. Mitra is currently serving as a Product Manager of Google. Along with these, Snehesh had also previously worked with Algo Works, Mobicules Systems, NDS Limited, Headstrong, HCL Technologies, and more in numerous key designations.
Sumeet Kapur
Sumeet Kapur is also known as the co-founder of Nearbuy. Kapur was a student of Delhi University from where he completed Bcom. (Hons.) before moving on to The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and completing his CA degree. In his career, Sumeet has been the Co-founder and Director of Finance at Edutopper, CFO and Regional Financial Director of Emerging Markets (APAC), Co-founder and CFO at Nearbuy.com, Co-founder at Inflexion Point and is currently serving as a Founder and CEO at Wellcure.com. Â Â
Sachin Kapur
Sachin Kapur is also a Delhi University alumnus, who next went to obtain a PGDBM, Management from the Centre for Management Development. Starting with a brief stint at Fever 104 FM, Sachin went to become a Sr. Manager Marketing and Strategy at BigRock. Leaving the company after a year and a half, Sachin Kapur then moved on to become the CMO of Groupon. He eventually became the CO-founder and CMO of Nearbuy. Presently, Sachin is serving as Sr. Director Marketing at Coupang.
Nearbuy, owned by Paytm, is currently around 160+ employees strong.
Nearbuy – Startup Story
Nearbuy was formed or rather named in 2015. The company was founded as SoSasta in 2009, but it was acquired in 2011 by the Chicago-based parent of Nearbuy, Groupon Inc., in 2011 with an aim to begin operations in India. It then changed its name to Groupon India in 2013.
Ankur Warikoo and Ravi Shankar worked for Groupon as executives, with the former leading the company after the founders of SoSasta left. After Sequoia enabled the exit of Groupon Inc in 2015, Groupon India was rebranded as Nearbuy. Nearbuy, along with Little, was purchased by the payments company Paytm in a distress deal two years later. Paytm helped promote a share exchange arrangement between Little and Nearbuy shareholders, which resulted in Nearbuy becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Little Internet.
The purchase price for both companies was set at INR 272.31 crore. Following the acquisition, the company gained access to a large pool of capital along with a large Paytm userbase. It, however, struggled to make an impact because sales were unable to keep up with expenses. The company had total revenue of INR 33.28 crore in FY18, with losses of INR 49.11 crore.
Nearbuy – Name, Logo and Tagline
Nearbuy’s old name is Groupon India. After the rebranding of Nearbuy in August 2015, Groupon became a minority stakeholder in nearbuy.com.
Nearbuy’ s Company Logo
“The Lifestyle App” is the tagline of Nearbuy. Nearbuy comes in and says “Let us give you a discount for visiting the place through us.”
Nearbuy – Business and Revenue Model
Nearbuy is an Online-to-Offline services ecommerce platform, which is currently owned and funded by Paytm, established to connect the consumers with India’s largest network of local businesses. nearbuy.com makes it easy for the consumers to discover their worlds along with helping them avail exclusive deals across categories such as restaurants, spas, salons, movie halls, retail stores, amusement parks and more.
The key highlights of Nearbuy business and revenue model are as follows:
Nearbuy makes a contract with local stores and service-based businesses such as spas and salons.
Retailers promise to lower their rates in exchange for being featured on the website.
Nearbuy makes the majority of its profits by charging a fee of 2% to 25% of the sale price.
Retailers receive a substantial amount of revenue in exchange for providing such steep discounts on the website.
They often accept advertisements on the website, increasing the company’s revenue.
Nearbuy – Revenue and Growth
In terms of sales, FY18 was another low year for the firm. Though the company’s overall revenue rose by just 4.9% from INR 31.73 crore in FY17 to INR 33.28 crore in FY18, its basic turnover decreased by 16.4% from INR 28.22 crore to INR 23.58 crore. This simply suggests that the minuscule rise in sales was not due to the company’s main operations. Instead, it leaned on a 2.76X increase in other revenue, which increased from INR 3.52 crore to INR 9.7 crore.
Nearbuy.com claims to be present in more than 33 cities across 18+ categories. Furthermore, the company has more than 68,000 merchants to deal with across 100,000+ unique locations. Here’s some more growth highlights of the company, as reported on March 2019:
It has a monthly active users count of 3 million
It receives around 7.5 million monthly visits
Nearbuy app has been downloaded by 4.9 million users
The biggest obstacle, according to Ankur, the former CEO of Nearbuy, was to build the group, to which Nearbuy belongs. Users would mistakenly think of the business as a deal and discount platform, which is exactly what Groupon was. The mission of Nearbuy is to put the offline world online in a way that allows users to discover, buy, and save.
Simply informing consumers that they can purchase their favorite restaurants, spas, salons, entertainment zones, hotels, brands, and other services online and then walk in to consume them while saving money is a huge challenge in and of itself. Few people get it, but the majority do not. They don’t consider it a normal part of their lives.
“I often say this internally – our job at Nearbuy is not to grow the company, rather to build a completely new way for Indian consumers to explore the offline world which was a big task,” says Ankur.
Nearbuy expects revenue of INR 255.99 crore and a net profit of INR 17.73 crore by 2022-23. The estimated sales, according to Warikoo, are reasonable and vary from the Gross Merchandise Value (GMV, or total value of merchandise), which is much higher.
âWe are capitalized and on a growth expansion mode. As long as we are unit economics positive, we can manage our fixed costs with the investment raised out of this merger. The plan is to grow this number to 250,000 in three years. We have a maximum available universe of roughly around 350,000 merchantsâ says Warikoo.
Warikoo claims that discretionary spending among Indian consumers has increased by more than doubling to 7% of individual income over the last decade.
Nearbuy – FAQs
What does Nearbuy do?
Nearbuy.com (Nearbuy India Private Limited) is India’s first hyper-local online platform, allowing consumers and local merchants to connect and interact. Nearbuy.com makes it possible for you to enjoy fine dining, unwind at world-class spas, or simply get to know your city better.
Who founded Nearbuy?
Nearbuy was founded by Ankur Warikoo,Ravi Shankar and Snehesh Mitra in 2015.
Which company owns Nearbuy?
Paytm owns Nearbuy.
How does Nearbuy make money?
Nearbuy did not charge its merchant anything for setup. Customers are only charged a fee for each purchase they make. Depending on the popularity and category, the commission ranges between 2% and 25%.
Which companies do Nearbuy compete with?
Top competitors of Nearbuy are Gmarket, Magicpin, Paytm, Grofers India Pvt, Shopee, Blibli, Amazon India, Swiggy, CashKaro, and LivingSocial.
Tanusha Verma
