The same has been reproduced on Zepo Blog.( http://stories.zepo.in/post/10591303075/a-chat-with-piyush-jain-of-craftila-com-the-online )
Before we get started, could you please give a brief about yourself? Your background before Craftila.
I completed my schooling from the Scindia School and graduated from the University of Westminster, London in BSc (Hon) Biotechnology. I have worked previously with United Nations Industrial Development Organization and Foundation for MSME Clusters before starting Craftila. Apart from work, I am a football enthusiast and enjoy travelling. I’m also a big geek when it comes to new technology.
What prompted you to start Craftila? What is Craftila? Why did you choose the gifts category?
When a guy from IBM, a techie from IIT and a nerdy biotechnologist face the question of “do we really want to do this?” they usually find answers in something very different from what they thought their lives would be. And hence, we started Craftila to switch from our boring 9 to 5 jobs. Started by three high school friends, Craftila is a utility gift store and offers over 500 products ranging from bags to home décor, corporate gifts to photo frames, greeting cards to mugs. With a number of exclusive options, Craftila’s customers will never have to settle for the same old boring gifts or run out of ideas for a perfect gift anymore. Unique products, beautiful packaging, prompt delivery and excellent customer service is what sets Craftila apart.
What were the initial challenges in your start-up journey? How did you overcome them? How much money did you start with? How was the technology part handled?
One of the biggest challenge, which I faced was finding partners and building a team. As an entrepreneur, you have this raw idea but only hands to refine and implement it. I started with sharing my idea within my circles and was able to find like-minded people to work with. With regards to seed capital, we started with our savings from our previous jobs and money from parents, which came around Rs. 1 Lakhs. Our technology part is in the hands of very able programmer who spends considerable time to optimize the website for the users.
Please share your insights on running an ecommerce venture. What, according to you, are the best practices in ecommerce that one should take care of.
From personal experience, e-commerce companies largely focus on technology and products at the cost of customer service. Consumers regularly complain about delivery times and refund policies. This is an area, which companies need to invest in order to retain customers. Right from beginning, at Craftila, customer is at the center of whatever we do, right from product selection to post-sales services.
The ONE thing that keeps the company going is the working capital. Buy a tally to keep all the accounts and hire someone on part time basis to ensure that not even one entry is missing. The founders should not spend time on making bills and preparing monthly account statements. Another crucial aspect, which we learnt through our peers, is keeping the inventory in order. There needs to be regular (monthly physical verification) of the inventory. There will also have issues or return of material and that needs a little more tricky issues of debit note and credit note etc.. To ensure there is no delay or no duplication of payments or returns, the tally software comes very handy. Also ensure to give a unique code to every item that you buy and sell or even get returned so that you can identify every single piece, how ever cheap that may be.
Please tell us something about marketing. What is the best customer acquisition strategy online? What are the best ways to promote your online stores?
Being in e-commerce domain, marketing lies at the very core of Craftila’s business. Creating a wonderful shopping platform with unique products is useless if people fail to know about it. Being from technical backgrounds, we started with our Search Engine Optimization along with spreading the word in our personal network from day one. One of the methods for customer acquisition is making their shopping experience social. Having extensively embedded social plugins for each product, a new user will immediately know if his or her friend has liked or praised a particular product. Social media is here to stay and cannot be ignored, people consult each other before buying and engaging your customers is very essential in today’s time. PR is a great way to promote but consumes plenty of time and can be followed up by Google Ads.
Lets talk about another aspect of ecommerce - logistics. As we all know, logistics cost eat-up a good % of profits. How do you handle it?
Logistics has been a hurdle since the very beginning; they do eat up a considerable chunk of our margins especially in cash on delivery scenario. One of the ways we have gone about is through references. We were referred by an ecommerce company, which helped in lowering the asking price for the logistic services.
Last question, your golden advice to emerging creative entrepreneurs who want to get started?
Business plan, however vague it may be, it is very important to do at the earliest so that founders are clear of the likely working capital requirement, likely losses initially and how it will be divided amongst the founders. Also the time cost of the initiator has to be accounted for so that there are no unnecessary confusions, unfounded expectations etc., which is another issue that is often found as the killing factor among partners. Better write them down, keep minutes and place them in a folder to revisit them periodically.
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