Back in 2010, nobody even had the slightest of thought that like you can share videos over the internet, one would also be able to carry monetary transactions over the phone, at just one click. Amongst the early ones to exploit this idea and pioneer the evolution of digital payments were Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon by launching Freecharge in 2010.
Freecharge is a digital payment portal that enables users to do activities as mobile recharges, pay bills, etc. The interesting part starts here- Freecharge is backed by solid Cashback offers from various Indian Retailers both Online and Offline. Freecharge is one of the most promising startups in Indian history.
At the application, payments are done under 10 seconds which drives the vision of the company successfully of enabling customers with world-class and less time-consuming services, that too coupled with cashback and offers which leads to amazing customer experience.
Kunal Shah, Co-founder- Kunal is an entrepreneur in the truest form. He is an MBA dropout by choice from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy from the Wilson College and got into the buying selling dynamic way early. He decided not to join his family business and joined as a Programmer in a BPO firm. There on, he funded himself for 14 years selling Pirated CDs, Cards, etc. Kunal is also an investor. He has invested in 40-50 startups like TableHero, Razorpay, LifCare, and Zilingo.
Sandeep Tandon, Co-founder- Sandeep Tandon is a technology entrepreneur and also an angel investor. He has done his bachelors and masters from the University of South California. To this day, he is amongst the board of members of CRED, a partner at Whiteboard Capital to only name a few of his ventures.
Freecharge – How did it start?
All of this happened around 2009 when Kunal decided to sign the papers and start his own venture called Paisaback. Paisaback was created by him on the grounds of Cash Back in those days. The idea was to tie up with localized centers of companies like McDonaldâs, Barista Coffee, Dominos, Croma to offer great cashback deals to the customers which were referred by his venture, Paisaback.
Though the idea was brilliant, it didnât last long. It primarily got defeated by online players like Mysmartprice, CouponDunia, and others. And eventually, he realized that for this idea to work, the conventional business models have to come to an end and he will have to come up with something new to disrupt the system. This fueled his entrepreneurial spirit and he went on to design a profitable model for Freecharge leaving Paisaback behind.
Freecharge – Startup Launch
After Paisaback, Kunal drew an insight that recharges were the new black. He researched a bit and found that 95% of invoices of a mobile store belonged to recharges. Both the co-founders then got into the development of the product.
Sandeep being an engineer, both of them had a great experience while developing the product. And finally, Freecharge was launched on Aug 15, 2011. One of their initial partners were McDonaldâs and which helped them grow rapidly.
Freecharge – Competitors
Right after they launched, in 2012, the competition sky-rocketed through other applications such as Rechargeitnow and PayTM. And then in 2015, the competition ramped up as mobile phones took over as the preferred medium. And that time, 80% of the Freecharge transactions were taking place on mobiles. They had to find a new way forward to prevent the company from fizzling out.
Freecharge – Funding and Investors
The startup economy knew that Freecharge will hit it high when Sequoia Capital, Indiaâs one of the biggest investors, decided to invest in the company for its seed funding round in 2010. The amount still remains undisclosed.
Between 2011 to 2017, Freecharge took up 6 additional rounds of funding, roping in $177.6 million in total, which clearly marked them as the startup darling. Over this course, Freecharge had six prominent investors namely Sequoia Capital India, RTP global, Snapdeal, Valiant Capital Partners, and Sofina.
Started with recharges and paying utility bills. Expanded and made couponing a possibility in 2012.
From having McDonald’s, Dominoes, and CCD on board for redeeming coupons to e-commerce platforms such as BookMyShow, Jabong, and Myntra, Freecharge grew with the trends
Average daily transactions- More than 40,000
Average daily transaction value- More than 60,000,00
Total wallet holders on Freecharge- 52 million
Freecharge – Mergers and Acquisitions
In 2015, Freecharge was acquired by Snapdeal for $400 Million which comes to âš2600 Crore. This was the second-largest acquisition after Goibiboâs acquisition of MakeMyTrip.
In early 2019, Axis Bank acquired Freecharge. This acquisition got Freecharge out of the shackles of a struggling owner like Snapdeal. And Axis bank got access to the vast wallet holders of Freecharge.
The coronavirus outbreak has reached almost every corner of the world, with cases only continuing to soar day by day. In the months since the virus has emerged in Wuhan, China, there have already been signs of a shift in consumer behaviour all over the world. With the outbreak still in its early stages in India, sales of groceries, household goods and healthcare items have seen a boost as consumers look for ways to protect themselves. But analysis shows that it has had a reverse impact on other sectors. The government is taking various precautionary steps to contain the spread of coronavirus such as Janta curfew and 21 days lockdown during which only shops or businesses selling essentials are allowed to remain open. While, the other businesses are strictly closed.
At the same time, the impact of the coronavirus on ecommerce and online store is great. Itâs a fact that a lot of things have been and will still be affected by coronairus. Unfortunately, one of them (what will be affected) is dropshipping! But what is Dropshipping? It is a retail fulfillment method where a store doesnât keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a store sells a product using the dropshipping model, it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. As a result, the seller doesnât have to handle the product directly. In other words, it is more of online store. One of the biggest concerns these store owners may have is that consumers will stop making online purchases over fears that they might get the virus from overseas shipments.
With many manufacturing and logistics facilities restricted or shut temporarily, experts have recommended them prepare for delays and take that into account before continuing to run paid ads and take orders. It is a good idea to check with your supplier, but assume that your items will not be shipped promptly. Or, if they are shipping things on time, disruptions to domestic shipping in the destination country could still cause delays. As a result of the continuous widespread of this virus, transportations all around the country are shut down partially or completely. This has caused the inability of all workers and employees to go back to factories and companies to work, which has affected operations in most companies.
The impact of COVID-19 has been massive on dropshipping. First, it means significant delays. Since the priority of the government is public safety, the authorities set prevention and control measures such as lockdown in place that disrupt the free movement of goods and people. These policies have left logistics companies in difficult situation, incapable to navigate the new restrictions, and without the governmentâs guidance, many are forced to freeze operations as they canât provide a concrete answer. Moreover, Western sellers are confused about their action plan because most of them donât know how to lower the possible financial risks. The forecast is not too encouraging if we consider the roadblocks and temporary closing of airports, highways, railways stations, and ports.
In the same way, this uncertainty will disrupt the business of startups & smaller vendors who very often depend on the products they sell; smaller retail traffic could push them into bankruptcy. Their ability to survive depends not only on the quality of goods but also on a speedy delivery process since customers want to have access to products as fast as possible. So, these circumstances obviously unfavourable for them to survive. Stocks have been said to fall on fears that the Coronavirus could take a more significant economic toll than initially expected.
In addition to this, the directive, orders from government during this lockdown have asked people to avoid travel and going out by working from home. These directives, orders from government which excluded emergency service workers and people who work for essential public services, urged the private sector to enforce similar arrangements. This means almost all the workers involved in the dropshipping process wonât have the chance to go work.
The fact is, most suppliers of dropshipping business depend on factories. As a result of COVID-19 and the compulsory -stay indoor- thing, factories will not be able to produce products at the expected date. Because of Coronavirus, the majority of workers will not be able to come back to suppliersâ factories to start producing. However, according to the current situation, the return date of workers may be delayed, which means dropshipping will suffer.
Drop-shipping is likely to be affected more due to Lockdown
If in case, supplier or suppliers have product stocks available, what about logistics? Logistics companies are also affected due to coronavirus outbreak as most of their workers are at home because government has allowed transportation of essential goods only. With the Government announcement of borders closing and all citiesâ transportation systems closed, thereâs no way logistics companies could work. If logistics companies donât work, then thereâs no way parcels and other dropshipping fulfillment products will be shipped out to their various destination. Most of the suppliersâ facility has been temporarily shut down by the government. So, it has left businesses with dropshipping with no option but to wait for the situation to get better.
As mentioned above the reduction in logistics and suspension of flights is disrupting the supply chain that is causing delays in shipping, reduced transport capacity, and inflation in shipping costs. As a dropshipper, it is your duty to inform your customers about the delay. The delays should not be affecting for a long time. However, you still need to put confidence in your customers and ask them to wait a little longer. One also needs to be prepared to refund them and wait for the situation to become normal.
The capacity for carrying couriers has been compromised after the lockdown. However, services will be resuming at a slow pace and should return to its normal operations in the upcoming weeks. It is in the best interest of dropshippers to avoid standard shipping.
One must try removing fear from the customerâs mind by letting them know that coronavirus does not survive for long on a surface. The postal services are already using disinfectants and taking extra precautionary measures to ensure the safety of their staff and packaging.
Remove fear from the customerâs mind by letting them know that coronavirus does not survive for long on a surface. The postal services are using disinfectants and taking extra precautionary measures to ensure the safety of their staff and packaging.
Avoid selecting standard shipping and choose a faster shipping method until the outbreak is controlled. It is recommended that you use only the express shipping method during this time.
With the technology advancing so fast, we have a ready-made and excellent solutions for all the contemporary business operations. To make the next generation retail digital and seamless to achieve the highest operational excellence, Vishnu Gullipalli launched Retail Insights in 2014.
Retail Insights works by enabling technologies through omnichannel integrations, platform modernization, APIs Builds, exclusive support services, and store digitalization. It also provides digital solutions viz. POS, commerce platforms, order orchestrations, returns management, drop-ship, last-mile deliveries, store automation, marketplace integrations, warehouse automation solutions, and interactive walls.
Retail Insights also provides the following retail solutions:
Specializes in white space/bespoke/custom applications across the Retail value chain using NextGen, AI, and other emerging technologies.
Solution accelerators Ecommerce, Supply Chain Visibility, Trade Promotion, Smarter Checkouts, POS Testing and In-store digital engagement – Video Walls, Order Management, Headless Commerce, Trade Promotion, Promotion and Price Optimization, Employee Engagement and Omni Fuse.
System integrators for a leading platform like Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Adobe, Magento, Diebold POS, Kantar Retail, GK Soft, and CRM Loyaltics.
Established a high-performing team of dynamic retail domain SMEs and Delivery team 100+ project implementation experience.
Retail Insights is a one-stop solution for Retail combined with high-end technology. The major USPâs include-
Omni (All) Channel Commerce – This platform provides connected customer experience from different channels way uniquely than others.
Digital Consumer Experience – Proactive and reactive communication on the platform allows personalized, contextual customer engagement.
Order Management â Retail Insights tackles the problem of lack of visibility in inventory and orders coming from different channels.
Founders of RetailsInsights and team
Vishnu Gullipalli is Founder & CEO at Retails Insights. Vishnu has an MBA from Ohio University USA and has spent the last 15 plus years working with various retailers across the globe on Omni Channel and Digital Transformation Program likes of TESCO, IRI, Harman, Happiest Minds, Hyvee, and Clarks UK.
Faizal Insights
Faizal is the Delivery Head. Faizal also has an MBA from Ohio University USA and 15 plus years of experience in working with companies like Zensar, IBM, Oracle, Accenture as Retail Solution Architect. In the past, he has had hands-on experience in ERPs like Retek, JDA and Infor. He was also at the position of engagement manager for Landmark, Tj Maxx, Shoprite, Vodafone, Marks, and Spencer, etc.
How was RetailsInsights Started?
The Retail Insights team had observed that SME & Enterprises work with a lot of technology companies ranging from large, medium and small. And the common issue that each of this company faced was that âtech people donât understand businessâ
Retail Insights solved this problem by bringing in the latest technology stack with a niche partner ecosystem along with flexible engagement models helping retail and brands âBuy Anywhere, Sell Anywhere and Return Anywhere along with operational excellence.â Retail Insights has worked with hundreds of retail and wholesale businesses to help them implement powerful technology stack to ace the O2O experiences to compete with the digital powerhouses.
The tagline of Retail Insights is âYour Chief Omnichannel Officerâ which came out of the vision that wanted to come across as retail is the company’s passion.
RetailsInsights – Startup Launch
The Retail Insights teamâs expertise in domain + technology has helped them to provide customers with the best solution, adding value and quality along the way. They have collaborated with partners who are helping and advising them to achieve their organizational goals and accelerate towards technologies and services in the retail sector by leveraging the industry-led strengths in omnichannel retailing and digitization. Also, Retail Insights is the go-to for Retail Digital Innovation dialogue with clients across the globe. Both Strategic leaders in Omnichannel and Digital Transformation programs capability to translate initiatives with short to long-term deliverables.
âOur D.A.R.E (Different, Anywhere, Relationship, Experience) solution framework has helped retailers and brands gain an edge over competitors.â Says Vishnu
RetailsInsights – Startup Challenges
Along with the plethora of challenges that a tech startup faces in the country, Retail Insights majorly faces Human Resources hurdles like employee retention and building a core team with the right set of talented employees.
RetailsInsights – Competitors
Large IT companies that are revolutionizing and moving towards retail digitization are the main competitors of Retail Insights. âWe have a powerful tech stack of tailored retail solutions where we not only provide insights to our customers but also to help them understand their business challenges and ground reality which allows us to stay ahead of the competition.â Says Vishnu.
Retail Insightâs expertise lies is a domain, technology, and accelerators that the team has built over the years, where the customers are able to see the tangible solution before it even freezes the solution scope which is far better than long SDLC process where the competition usually takes a longer route.
Also read –
RetailsInsights – Funding and Investors
Retail Insights is completely bootstrapped and has been positive in terms of business numbers since the first day of inception.
The Retail Insights team has grown enormously year over year and in 2019, the team has grown to a strength where they significantly contributed to increasing the consumer base.
Retail Insights team
Retail Insights also entered new markets entered like Dubai, UK, and the USA
RetailsInsights – Awards
â˘Well recognized as the Chief OmniChannel Officer for Retailers and Brands. â10 Best Retail Solution Company in APACâ.
There are particularly two things that every person loves to do â Shopping and Traveling; apart from exploring and enjoying the various lip-smacking cuisines/food. Today we live in an interconnected world and as the world is getting smaller, people are getting exposed to wonderful products from across the globe. But most shoppers donât get to enjoy their desired overseas products due to their unavailability in their home country/local region.
Also, there are times when international products and new releases can be hard to avail of in oneâs city or region. For example, limited edition handbags from Chanel or a beauty product from MAC/Clarins. One might want to have access to the new release that only exists in Paris or the US. This leaves you with 2 options â either pay the exorbitant international shipping fee or plead to a friend or family member to bring them their favorite overseas product on their trip.
To address this issue AirCarry.io was launched in 2019 by Preetham Siddalingaswamy. AirCarry is a web platform that helps Shoppers to get products from anywhere in the world through a verified traveler on the AirCarry community who would purchase and deliver the product for a fee.
AirCarry is a simple to use web platform that is mobile friendly and allows Shoppers across the globe to get any product from anywhere in the world. A Shopper just needs to paste the product link from the international website and in 3 simple steps will be able to get her/his favorite overseas product through an international traveler. On the other hand, Travellers can capitalize on their unused baggage space and offset some of their travel expenses â Travellers can pick and choose which product they want to deliver by going to the orders page on the website. AirCarry has partnered with robust world-class Payment systems like PayPal, which ensures safe and secure transactions on its platform. Shoppers’ funds are transferred to the traveler only after the Shopper has received the product. Shoppers and Travellers can communicate & clarify all things on AirCarry.io through the AirCarry chat messenger system.
AirCarry wants to develop the philosophy of âOne World. One Communityâ and build the worldâs most trusted peer-peer community that brings together Shoppers and Travelers alike. While the discerning shoppers get to buy and experience products they care for, AirCarry wants the travelers to earn a little in exchange that will offset some of their travel expenses and further enable them to travel and see more of this beautiful world, we all call home.
AirCarry – Target Market Size
AirCarry is set to disrupt the traditional expensive courier industry by creating its peer to peer gig economy in the Travel space between Shoppers and Travellers. Assocham recently published in EconomicTimes that the Luxury goods market alone in India is over $30 Billion and as per Boston Consulting Group this same market in China is over $120 Billion with over one-third of this spend happening overseas. When you add other product category segments like Electronics, Cosmetics, Beauty products, FMCG, Clothing, automobile accessories, etc and expand it across geographies like South East Asia, Latin American countries, Europe and Russia the opportunity get much bigger, as far as billions of dollars.
On the other hand, the number of international travelers is increasing exponentially year after year â if you look up at the sky, around 1.2 million people are flying on 9,700 planes at any given point of time. Over 50% of these passengers are frequent fliers or passengers with excess/unused baggage space like young professionals, backpackers, students, etc. AirCarry now provides these globetrotters a way to capitalize on their unused baggage space and offset some of their travel expenses.
Preetham says: âI realized this is a massive opportunity since nowadays everyone is aware of the various amazing products available across the globe and many times shopping from an international market is a much better option. Most of us in the team have spent our lives living and working away from our home countries before we got together to build this peer-to-peer community. We put in significant time & effort to ensure we design the most user-friendly & a simple system that supports people from different cultures and geographies. AirCarry.io today operates in over 80 countries.â
Founder of AirCarry and Team
Preetham Siddalingaswamy, Founder & CEO
Preetham has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science engineering. After having worked in the IT industry for a couple of years, he went on to pursue his MBA at North Carolina State University in Supply Chain Management and Finance. He has over 14 years of experience in Supply Chain and Logistics in the Oil & Gas Industry by working for the most prestigious Oil & Gas firm, Chevron. As part of Chevronâs future leadersâ program, he got to live and work in several international cities across the globe and is known for building and managing high performing teams across countries and continents. Preetham is passionate about helping people, traveling and is a foodie at heart.
Preetham is supported by an equally talented, dedicated and fantastic team that shares his passion for travel, technology, and shopping. Most of them have spent their lives living & working abroad before returning to their home country, which has helped them in truly understanding the opportunity at hand and think from the Shopperâs and Travellerâs perspective while designing the product.
How was AirCarry Started
AirCarry is built on Preethamâs experiences from the years he spent living overseas as well as in India. Experience of craving for something from India when he was away and on the contrary, longing for a few of the things not available when he came back home. It could have been a breakfast cereal or a sweet that he craved for, or a particular brand of apparel and the list is endless. This left him with the only choice – to wait for a traveling friend, family member or colleague to get those little things that give one joy for such little things are what makes this life joyful, right?
It is this experience that got him thinking that there are many of us in a similar state of affairs, and this made him float the AirCarry platform. The basic idea was mainly to build a trusted community of Shoppers and international Travelers.
Name, Tagline, and Logo
AirCarry logo
The logo of AirCarry has a hot air balloon carrying a gift box which indicates the scenic route a product, that is most cherished and desired by a Shopper, takes on its journey with a Traveller on the AirCarry community. The Team truly believes that they are delivering happiness to everyone in the AirCarry Community.
AirCarry – Startup Launch
Since the launch, AirCarry has helped people to send gifts to their loved ones living across countries; it has helped parents who have extended their stay abroad to get their life-saving drugs from back home; it has helped a lot of fashionistas to enjoy and flaunt the best apparel, handbags, and cosmetics from abroad. There have even been bikers who have started requesting cool biking accessories from abroad to make their ride look more elegant!
AirCarry works on the governing principles of Trust & Safety. This is the only peer to peer startup in India which connects Shoppers & Travelers providing a Money back guarantee, ensuring the authenticity of products and safety to all its community members. Travelers purchase the requested product for the Shoppers after the shopper has accepted a Travelerâs offer and deposited the funds in AirCarry payment systems. This ensures that the Traveler knows exactly what they are carrying and are assured of payment once they deliver the product to the shopper. This also helps Shopper that they donât lose their money, and funds only get transferred to Traveler after the Shopper has received their requested product.
âTransparency, Trust, Safety, and Communities are at the core of everything we do. Our systems are designed to provide the utmost transparency and reliability right from the time you start interacting with us and our community members. Hence, we provide a chat messenger system on our platform for our community members, Shoppers & Travelers, to chat with one another and clarify all questions they might have about a requested product and indicate the taxes being paid. We take pride in helping every member of the AirCarry communityâ Said the founder
AirCarry charges a service fee on each successful delivery when it helps a Shopper connect with a Traveller, who purchases and delivers the requested product to the Shopper.
AirCarry has also been approached by a few brands who want to launch in different geographies where such brands do not have a physical presence. These brands want to deliver their products to international markets through AirCarry community members. The AirCarry team believes there are a lot more avenues in capitalizing on this opportunity.
AirCarry – Startup Challenges
AirCarry team realizes that this is a new concept in the Indian eCommerce space and many of its users come to the platform, assuming that they would be able to browse through a product catalog and purchase an overseas product. AirCarry.io is facing the challenge of educating its users that an individual who is already aware of what overseas product they want can use this platform to publish their request which becomes visible to international travelers traveling to their city. Nonetheless, responding to the usersâ feedback, the AirCarry team quickly built a blog to showcase some curated deals and international shopping sites from where Users can browse for more relevant products and post their requests accordingly.
AirCarry, being a bootstrapped startup, is also facing the challenge of scaling quickly since the outreach through social media is restricted without paid advertisements. The team is working hard to create more awareness and visibility of the AirCarry brand.
AirCarry – Growth
AirCarryâs growth has been organic through word of mouth and its social media profiles on Facebook and Instagram. Whoever has heard about AirCarry have loved the concept and the platform; people have requested all kinds of items like electronics, watches, luxury handbags, perfumes, clothing, protein supplements, cosmetics, chocolates and now the team is even seeing requests for biking accessories, limited edition comic/action figurines.
AirCarry has provided a much-needed web platform where people no longer need to wait for a family member to return from overseas or request a traveling friend âPlease bring me that from thereâ. No more awkward requests, no more obligations â now everyone can enjoy all the wonderful products available across the globe without having to pay the exorbitant international shipping fee or having to make awkward requests. All the consumers have to do is post the product link on AirCarry.io and a Traveller would purchase and bring the product to your city. Shoppers are also ensured of authenticity since Travellers must upload the purchase receipt/proof of purchase on the platform. Thus, guaranteeing to the shopper of receiving genuine products.
AirCarry.io was only recently launched and made available to the public after ensuring all aspects of its platform was functioning as required. The team wants to work towards making their brand more visible to all Indian shoppers and travelers to such an extent that every Shopper must consider purchasing their desired overseas product through AirCarry. In a couple of years, the AirCarry team also wants to start supporting the B2B space by forming strategic partnerships.
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Consumers who use eyewear know how expensive and high-maintenance these products can get. To provide a viable alternative to this and make the experience hassle-free and simple, Amman Kumar, Bhavik Kumar, Rohan Kumar, and Shrijay Sheth launched VisionWagon in 2019 to enable consumers to buy eyewear like eyeglasses and sunglasses online.
VisionWagon is an online eyewear and sunglasses company, providing affordable fashion eyewear, with high standards of dispensing. The vision here is to build Indiaâs most valued multi-modal Eyewear solutions company offering availability, accessibility and curative experience to its customers.
Driven by the core belief to provide affordable yet fashionable eyewear for the evolving needs of the customerâs lifestyle, concerning their work and other requirements. VisionWagon is all set to become the number 1 online eyewear company.
VisionWagonâs products provide the kind of protection that your eyes need, in an âalways-onâ world. No individual is not using a screen today â laptops, tablets, computers, phones etc. All these constitute a significant amount of screen time.
For VisionWagon, each of these individuals is a customer whose eyes will require protection from excessive use of the screen. This goes beyond the scope of consumers having a prescription and continuous education of the customer for this requirement would open the market for a much wider audience.
By using the code “STARTUPTY25” to buy anything on VisionWagon, you can get 25% off.
VisionWagon – Target Market Size
According to Business News Media Sources, the Indian eyewear market is quite complex. With independent opticians commanding 94.02% of the market, organized retail chains form 5% of the pie and Ecommerce accounting for the remaining 0.98%.
In the next 5 years, a big surge of smart eyewear in the affordable range is anticipated. More in line with smart devices like mobile phones, watches & headphones.
VisionWagon was founded by Amman Kumar, Bhavik Kumar, Rohan Kumar and Shrijay Sheth. Amman, Bhavik and Rohan were working in the same business. Shrijay’s success with his earlier Ecommerce ventures made him the natural choice as a partner for the venture â creating a hassle-free eyewear shopping experience online.
How was VisionWagon Started
Three of the co-founders were working in the same business. And Shrijayâs experience in building scalable Ecommerce ventures made him the natural choice as a partner for creating a hassle-free eyewear shopping experience online.
The founders wanted to take their legacy of 60+ years online to reach out to a wider audience beyond the geographical scope of physical stores. The Ecommerce market in India is booming and the online eyewear market is very negligible, hence there is a lot of scope for players who focus on customer-centric eyewear solutions.
Ideation and consultations with the supply-chain partners, end consumers, and business consultants gave them added insights. Ease of shopping online was amongst the core insights the founders derived from the research.
VisionWagon – Name, Tagline, and Logo
VisionWagon Logo
The founders wanted VisionWagon to come across as a wholesome Vision solutions company that carries all relevant eyewear solutions currently available in the market. And also they were geared to embrace any new developments in this ever-changing scenario. Hence they wanted a logo that appealed to the youth.
VisionWagon – Startup Launch
The first few customers of VisionWagon came from friends & family, where the founders actively promoted the brand. Later, they incentivized them to bring their connections to visit the website.
Apart from the organic push, they found social media, both organic and paid – to be an apt traffic source for their brand. Since eyewear is a product that has visual appeal, Instagram, in particular, is observed to be an apt platform for promotions.
Their outreach through various marketing campaigns is backed by re-marketing channels like emails (for registrants) and re-marketing through social media and google are important to get initial traction.
VisionWagon provides 15% discounts to 1st-time sign-up clients. Adding new collections, cash-back on each transaction through PayPal and attractive discounts during festive times. This has helped this venture reach out to more customers through the initial phase.
The revenue model looks simpler for VisionWagon. There are 3 simple price-points (inclusive of lens-prices). Any additional coatings or features that the client wishes to add over the existing lenses can be add-ons for a very nominal cost. VisionWagon is enabled with an online transactional model with secure payment gateways.
VisionWagon – Competitors
Though the online market for eyewear products is minor as compared to the offline market, there are still competitors playing in the minor online market. The major competitors include lenskart.com, eyedo.in, coolwinks.com, Lensbazaar, Titan Eyeplus, Vision Express to name a few.
VisionWagon – Growth
The company is growing steadily in revenue every month, orders per day are growing, repeat customers are assuring that VisionWagon is giving the right quality. With more social mediainfluencers approaching the company to collaborate, the fashion quotient of the eyewear is increasing with every passing day.
âWe wish to constantly improve and upgrade the customer experience by embracing new trends & technologies.â Said the founders.
FAQ
Who are the Founders of VisionWagon?
VisionWagon was founded by Amman Kumar, Bhavik Kumar, Rohan Kumar and Shrijay Sheth.
Who are the competitors of VisionWagon?
The major competitors of VisionWagon include lenskart.com, eyedo.in, coolwinks.com, Lensbazaar, Titan Eyeplus, and Vision Express.
What is the Revenue model of VisionWagon?
There are 3 simple price-points (inclusive of lens-prices). Any additional coatings or features that the client wishes to add over the existing lenses can be add-ons for a very nominal cost.
Digital marketing is gaining immense popularity among entrepreneurs, marketers and consumers. While entrepreneurs and marketers use digital marketing to reach out to a large target audience, consumers life has also become easier as they can explore and buy products and services easily. As a result, there is high scope for success in digital marketing business ideas you can start online like SEO agency and web/app development.
So here, we have compiled a list of best digital marketing business ideas, which are popular and profitable too. You can start them all online.
Best digital Marketing Business Ideas to start Online:
Blogs are the arteries carrying the weight of digital marketing. Existing from the time the internet was introduced in the 90s, blogs are an effective way of marketing products and services on the internet, mobile phones and other mediums. The quality and influencing capability of these write-ups are defined by the minds that produce them. Hence, thereâs a dire need of professional content writers comfortable in delivering content over an array of topics.
So if you have flair for quality content creation, then a blogging agency is a suitable startup plan for you. You can later diversify your income plan when you have a good amount of audience.
SEO Agency
A lot of companies proclaim being experts in SEO and thus thereâs a lot of competition in this domain. But if youâve worked on real-time SEO projects and have enjoyed success, then optimization can be one of the best business ideas to make money. In in the SEO industry, success depends only on two factors – prior experience and conversion rate i.e. increase in incoming traffic.
Social Media Agency
Virtual presence on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is imperative in bolstering brand identity and awareness among people. Every business irrespective of the size and area of operation must be present across different social media platforms to attract target customers. Managing social media accounts in different platforms, and keeping these accounts updated is an exhaustive task. In this scenario starting a social media agency is a profitable business idea. Along with that, if you learn a few things about Social Media marketing and the paid ads on social media, then you can build a good clientele. Many small businesses which are coming online don’t know how to use the social media and its ads effectively. So, you can approach them easily generate a lead.
Additionally, If you are a social media enthusiast, you can also earn money by selling products to your friends and followers on social media platforms. You do not even need to keep a stock of products to sell online. There are many Dropshipping apps available like Meesho, Shop 101 etc. You just have to download the app and share the products shown in your social media accounts, and you earn commission on every product sold.
You can also promote affiliate links and make money whenever someone buys from your affiliate link. Almost all the ecommerce companies provide affiliate links. Today, social media is one of the best business and there are various possibilities of making money through it.
Mobile and Web Application
Development:
Organizations want to expand their market reach beyond the realms of laptops and computers. This implies transporting an entire website to a mobile screen, with no delay and failure in rendering.
As such,mobile/web app development can be a successfuldigital marketing business plan. The USP is to distinguish oneself from the numerous companies already involved in app development. An example is creating applications that donât breach the privacy of the smartphone user. This is slowly becoming a necessary feature in the light of various data breach incidents that have occurred in recent times.
Also, there are many businesses which need to get online to expand their business. According to a study (2018) 6 out of 10 small businesses do not have a website. In fact, 35% of those business owners think their business is too small to be online. You can easily target those business and tell them how easy and profitable it is to be online.
Video Marketing
Static images as advertisements are gradually being replaced by short video clips. And it makes sense as well since people are prone to be enticed by a 10-second ad when compared to an image trying to convey the same message, promotion or idea. According to a study, organic traffic improves by up to 157% with added video content. So, if you can form a team that has innovative digital marketing ideas and specializes in creating amazing videos for promoting clients, then video marketing consultancy is your niche to launch a startup.
PPC Strategist
What a PPC strategist do is to come up with the best keywords for the PPC campaign. Pay-per-Click campaigns are expensive and can quickly burn through the budget if not implemented carefully. So, companies need highly experienced strategist who can do deep research and come up with the best keyword for the PPC campaign. If you can convert a $2 fee paid to a search engine for PPC into a $100 lead, then you should lend your expertise to others by conjuring a PPC strategy company. Companies pay the PPC strategist their quoted prices.
Cloud Consultancy
Cloud services offered by providers such as Amazon, Microsoft etc. have made life easier. Whether large storage or high-performance virtual machine is needed, cloud computing satisfies all kinds of requirements. And as more and more companies shift their entire operations online on a cloud platform (especially startups), cloud consultancy is the need of the hour. With a large number of vendors to choose from, companies may not be able to make the right choice and need professional guidance for cloud computing. In such a case, starting a cloud consultancy can be a profitable startup idea.
However to rise up in ranks as a consultant, one needs to have the latest certifications and skills, and above all, the desire to learn and improve daily since cloud computing is making tremendous progress and innovations with each passing day.
Web Analytics Company
Analysis of data obtained through incoming traffic on a website can reveal surprising and useful patterns. Using the power of AI, ML and business analytics experts in these domains can help websites boost productivity, income and effectiveness. If youâre an analytics expert or can assemble a team which specializes in same, you can create a startup providing web analytics services and solutions.
Legal Consultation Firm
Websites, blogs, and similar platforms often fall prey to copyright and infringement suits due to plagiarizing content for digital marketing. For example, bloggers tend to copy answers from forums like Quora, without giving the actual writer due credits and recognition. Situations like these open up an entire money making domain to legal experts dealing with copyright and trademarks and thus makes a good digital startup.
As such if you are one such âcyber lawyerâ, then use your skills to start a business in saving website owners from unnecessary copyright violations!
This was our list of top digital marketing business ideas. Comment below if you have any of the listed startup. If not, which kind of Digital Marketing Startup are you most interested in and why?
