Shopnineteen is one of the nation’s modish online shopping portals, identified with panache and style. The brand’s newly launched apparel and accessories lines are an array of chic ensembles and accessories that every lady would want to fill her closet with. It is one of the exclusive Indian brands that has an excellent online presence with its 24-hour dispatches, free returns, new launches fortnightly and the likes. Added to these is the stylish range of the collections and video explanations of each ensemble.
Young visionary Gobind Singh Pahwa, Founder & Vice-Chairman is a graduate from London School of Economics and the man behind this initiative. He is also the Managing Director of Kansin Exports that has wide European clientele and annual sales of over 30 crores (300 million). Pahwa’s aim is to make “www.Shopnineteen.com ”, the biggest online fashion brand in India by year 2015.
In a tête-à-tête with Devendra Singh, the great visionary entrepreneur Pahwa divulges about the relationship the brand shares with its customers, his golden key to success, challenges faced in the initial six months and the long term vision…
What were the challenges faced in initial six months and were you able to overcome them?
A big learning was not to get any critical function for e-commerce outsourced, the likes of technology and marketing. The hiring of in-house is more expensive but in the long run, it gives much stability and control over what you want to do with those departments. Correct information flow and hence accurate analysis is also a challenge in the first six months.
What was the golden key to success?
The love that we have for customers, making our customers happy just came automatically. 19’s Facebook wall is a live mirror to how we always strive to bring smile on our customers’ face. Every activity we undertake has customer happiness as the sole purpose, the likes of pricing, quality, packaging, express delivery, quick resolutions, etc. Rest is natural.
How do you see 19 grow in the upcoming years?
We see ourselves as the biggest fashion brand available online for ladies in two years. We have not taken the contemporary route of discounting the brand to generate sales. The gaze is at a bigger horizon to build this as a brand that survives on innovations so that happy clients to recall us in the same way and not for discounted merchandise. That is one of the biggest and although exciting challenge for our marketing team. For that, we do a lot of story-telling related to the target audience so that we build a strong relationship and confidence in us.
Some modish insights –
Shopnineteen is a brand created 5 months ago, now enjoys more than 55,000 Facebook Fans and over 15,000 visitors daily. More importantly, around 500 pieces are sold every day indicates a strong brand in the making that was completely out of the blue.
