Much of India’s truly unique and beautiful products remain undiscovered, underexposed and that too by our very own consumers here in India. While companies like FabIndia and Good Earth have done a great job in exposing high quality, unique and beautiful Indian products, none of them are particularly available to the masses, especially online.
Jaypore is a niche attempt to bring the best of India to the world. The Delhi based startup aims to bring discovery to the designs from artisans and craftsmen from all over India.
Started by Puneet Chawla (ex-Product Manager at Exclusively.in/Sher Singh, Redbus and Naukri), Shilpa Sharma (ex-Head of Product Development and Buying for FabIndia), Aarti Jesrani (ex-Head of Marketing at burrp!) and Deap Ubhi (as an angel investor/director), Jaypore is an online store that showcases to customers India’s most beautiful products.
Jaypore focuses on products with unique, high quality craftsmanship and categories include home decor, accessories, jewelry, apparel, gifts, vintage items. Shipping within India is FREE for all orders above Rs. 2000 (for orders below that, Jaypore charges a flat Rs. 100 shipping fee).
Apart from the website, the startup has launched an iPad app (link) to reach out to the target segment, which mainly comprises of the progressive, aspirational, educated woman, who cares deeply about her self-image and has an elevated sense of aesthetic.
Operationally speaking, Jaypore works with indie designers and artisans, who get an admin panel to add quantities, upload basic descriptions, photographs, and other product/SKU level details. For artisans that do not possess the level of sophistication to use this tool, the product addition/updation part is managed offline.
What about the margin? Commission?
“We actually honor whatever margins the artisans and producers want to earn for themselves as long as they do not have any problems with us pricing or products the way we believe is fair. The business till now has achieved an average contribution margin of 40+%”, mentions Deap.
The company has tied up with close to 100 artisans, independent designers/producers and plans to launch an open *qualified* marketplace in the coming days.
A super simple and aesthetic site, products on the site come with a descriptive story (example) which is a great read and does appeal to the segment the team is targeting.
Having said that, we’d recommend the Jaypore team to revisit the ‘Events’ messaging, which is quite unclear. Events, are a set of items or a collection of a designer and is available only for a certain duration. Jaypore does fresh events everyday to promote a new collection, but are these exclusive designs? While ‘Events’ does create a sense of urgency, a bit more gaming mechanics/UX will add to the cause.
If you appreciate classy products, do give Jaypore a spin and share your suggestion with the team.
What’s your take on the niche nature of the business? Will such ecommerce ideas go mainstream in India? Or is oversea$ a better market?
