Tag: Logistics startup

There are particularly two things that every person loves to do – 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 don’t 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 one’s 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 – 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.

About AirCarry and How it Works
AirCarry – USP and Innovation
AirCarry – Target Market Size
Founders of AirCarry and team
How was AirCarry Started
AirCarry – Startup Launch
AirCarry – Startup Launch
AirCarry – Business Model and Revenue Model
AirCarry – Startup Challenges
AirCarry – Growth
AirCarry – Future Plans

About AirCarry and How it Works

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 – 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.

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AirCarry – USP and Innovation

AirCarry wants to develop the philosophy of ‘One World. One Community’ and build the world’s 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 – 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: “I 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.”

Founder of AirCarry and Team

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 Chevron’s future leaders’ 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 Shopper’s and Traveller’s perspective while designing the product.

How was AirCarry Started

AirCarry is built on Preetham’s 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

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 Traveler’s 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 don’t lose their money, and funds only get transferred to Traveler after the Shopper has received their requested product.

“Transparency, 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 community” Said the founder

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AirCarry – Business Model and Revenue Model

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 users’ 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

AirCarry’s 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 “Please bring me that from there”. No more awkward requests, no more obligations – 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.

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AirCarry – Future Plans

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.