We have covered a lot of start-ups in our previous articles and have discussed in deep as to how this one is different from the others and sometimes pondered why these start-ups even exist? Well, the basic answer is-need! Yes, all of these start-ups, especially the e-commerce ones, are competing against each other to make customers’ life easier and burning cash to be the loss leaders. Well we have also seen some start-ups which compete on differentiation – business model, target audience, product or service, etc. This story covers one such e-commerce platform pupkart.com which been able to hold its ground and became profitable in 2015.
PupKart, a Gurgaon based pet product startup is trying to establish itself as an online multi brand retailer of pets food and accessories across all categories of pets including dogs, cats, birds, small animals and fish. So what is different about this start-up when we have pet products available on other online platforms as well? We were curious to know the answer which led us to hunt for the mastermind behind this start-up. PupKart was started in August in 2013 by two brilliant young minds Rahul Agarwal and Lokesh Kataria. The duo graduated in Bachelor in Technology from Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gujarat. Rahul, who heads the operations of PupKart, holds 3 years of experience working with American Express & Bharti Airtel whereas Lokesh, who heads the technology front, holds 2.5 years of experience working with Fiserv.
Getting back to the reason why this start-up was conceptualized – PupKart aspires to be a one-stop solution for pet owners in India. Pet grooming is highly evolved worldwide and in India just as owning a car, pet ownership is considered as an economic indicator. People afford foreign breed pets as their income rises and go further to toys, trips to groomers, special pet food, etc. India has one of the world’s lowest rates of dog ownership: 4 dogs per 1,000 people but interestingly that’s quickly changing. With the total number of pups swelling by 58% between 2007 and 2012, according to market research firm Euromonitor International–the fastest growth rate of the 53 countries surveyed.
With rising income levels, pet lovers are regularly buying organic pet toys, crèches and even nail paintings for pets. Researches show that the pet food market in India is projected to cross USD270 million by 2019* – Rahul quickly realized the opportunity and hence PupKart was born.
“What boosts this hypothesis is the fact that more people consider pet a part of their family and are ready to spend on satisfying their basic needs or even pampering them. With decreasing cost of starting a technology business, the hyper-local services industry is booming and pet product market is one area of the market which is seeing solid growth”, says Rahul.
The venture was bootstrapped by the duo with approximately Rs.25-30 Lakh funds. With their unique method of having home under the office roof they were able to save lot of money. With good customer care, most efficient logistic service and cheap warehouse they are able to achieve lowest possible operation cost ever. The return order percentage is less than 2% which is a remarkable figure in ecommerce industry. As a result, Pupkart was able to achieve break even in a very short period of time and is currently running on good profit since Jan 2015.
“Pupkart is India’s fastest growing online pet store which aspires to provide quality service at the most affordable price possible. We encourage more people to love and adopt pet,” says Rahul. “Our vision is to become one stop shop not only for Pet owners but also for pet lovers,” he adds.
The 2 year old venture is becoming popular pan India among all pet owners and possesses the potential of becoming a huge hit in the near future. Pupkart.com has also won many entrepreneurial competitions in esteemed institutes like Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, FMS, MDI and Nitie Mumbai.
The Gurgaon based startup soon plans to launch a social platform for its pet owner and pet lover community where they can interact with each other, discuss the challenges related to pet grooming and get their queries resolved among themselves.
So, if you think your pets deserve the best, login now to www.pupkart.com and surprise them with the products from PupKart. We wish the founding duo best wishes and success in their future endeavors.
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