Ameen and Surabhi co founders of Etailer Marketplace wanted to create a market place connecting retailers, wholesalers to customers. Their platform facilitates online sales of goods for offline vendors without much hassle. Read about how they met and started their entrepreneurial journey and the plans for their company.
We always think about how we can give a better service to our customers than how to make profitable business. We always try to think what is in people’s mind than what would be in market.
Give a brief info about your startup?
Etailer Market is an Indian Marketplace Company based in Cochin, India. The company focuses on the entire marketplace in retail and wholesale.
We are giving the opportunity to retailers to handle their products online. The main feature what we will be implementing in future is for customers; where customers can be the seller and buyer at the same time without keeping stock of the products. The small scale businesses can easily sell their products in our market place with affordable EM Plans. All they need to do is to register their URL as shop id and keep products with their own area.
What made you start your startup and what problem does it solve?
The company mainly focuses on quality and authenticity of products. Any customer registered as a vendor will have to wait a couple of days to get their products on board. We will test the product and report to the vendor as to whether they can sell the product or not. Nowadays people get a lot of invaluable or fake products online and the customer has to go through a lot of trouble for their refunds. Our platform solves this issue.
We are solving the issues for return and replacement of products : If a customer want to replace their product or they need refund, they can simply go and find the Etailer Market Connect(EMC) retail Shops and replace or get back their money upfront. They can replace their product at their nearest EMC Retail Shops. We are also introducing the Flea market concept products. We take used products like a wedding dress for example for sale on half price. Everyone can do this at EM marketplace.
Tell us about yourself, your previous jobs/ventures? What were you doing before this startup?
I was working as a software developer for reputed companies. Before that I was working in the marketing field. During college days I started my first business but had capital issues and had to shut down the company. After this I started another venture which again had some troubles to function. However both these ventures taught me a lot of lessons.
Surabhi A S: I am fresher in the business world. I completed my Engineering and started my career in Client Management and later moved to Business Management. I met Ameen in 2016 when he explained about his plans and goals about his business and I jumped on the wagon!
Where is your startup based out of? Why do you think that is the best place for you?
Initially we had a plan to start the business in Bangalore, but then we realized that Kerala would be a better choice considering all the opportunities. However we are planning to expand to other states and expecting to grow pan India by 2019.
As a startup founder, what are you paranoid about? What keeps you awake at night?
We always think about how we can give a better service to our customers than how to make profitable business. We always try to think what is in people’s mind than what would be in market. Those thoughts keep us awake and motivated at the same time.
Who are your competitions and how are you better than them?
We are aware that there are innumerable online business making millions of profits.
Our niche is to make a platform for various business to enable them to reach their product in the hands of customers who are miles away. Even though there are similarities between our business and others we need to project product aspect.
How hard is it to have a work-life balance as a startup founder and how do you manage it?
When someone is running a business they have to make scarifies in their daily life. Personally I always like to move alone, just to mentally prepare my next plans and to control my work time. I prioritise and take complete responsibility on the plans I set. As a startup I cannot adhere to a rigid time schedule.
Have you raised funding? If yes, then we would like to know the details. If no then please tell us if you’re looking to raise?
Not Yet. However we are looking to raise in the future. We are looking for long term partnership and investment.
What’s the biggest misconception people have about you? Why do they have that? What’s the reality?
Retailers still have their doubts regarding their online sales. They feel online market cuts into their profit. However they have to realize that by choosing the EM marketplace they will not lose their current business, in fact we help them to make additional profit by passing on their products to wider range of customers. We have already planned and starting our mission to successfully educate them with our video content.
What gets you excited about this company?
Customer and vendor feedback makes us super excited. We are having thousands of products to upload from the vendor side. We hope we can submit it soon and open our market to the customers soon. We are seeking constant progress and already planned for the ancillary ventures which are:
Etailer Medicity: Will be live by new year, where customers can book appointment with any hospital in India using Our Etailer Medicity(EMC). The site also allows customers to buy their medicine online by uploading their prescription to the site.
Etailer Food Court : This is into food court and delivery.
Tell us how a day in your life looks like? Your schedule for a day right from the time you get up till you hit the bed at night.
Always reach office on time and try to be productive and do useful work. Every day I try to spend few hours with my family or friends. However running a startup I hardly get to sleep 4-5 hours in a day.
Tell us about your team and how did you meet each other?
We are two founders, myself Mr. Nasihul Ameen was working as Senior Software Engineer and Miss. Surabhi AS who has expertise in client management & business management.
We have separate teams for marketing, developing, content management, courier management etc. Our friends help us to run our business and manage the teams reducing our issues with talent hunt in those areas.
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Simply said “Awesome “????