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Starting a Namkeen E-Commerce venture, plz give your views

By Jitendra Singh Gaur on 35 Comments / 4365 views

Hello everybody, i am planning to sell all type of Namkeen of national and local brands online. This would be a one stop platform for all varieties of Namkeen.

I am targeting Indian customers first and then will target NRIs.

I need some inputs from your side on this idea. I have vendors and everything.

Just wanted to know can this idea will work out?
thanks.

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35 Comments

  1. Hi Jitendra

    i think u first go and check with your friends, relatives and people who u know. What they think about it. A/c to me, its is good idea b/c till now there is no eCommerce site about food and all about this.
    So frm my side, kudos to ur Namkeen ecommerce.

  2. Hi Jitendra Singh

    Good idea.. rather than waiting for other views on this.. start the project and see the results and let us know how you face them.. Wish you good luck

    Thanks

    Sai

  3. Must do it

  4. One of my friends is doing something similar =…..chk it out https://www.exoticabazaar.com/ ….hes doing pretty good at it….so there surely is a great market for it

  5. Watch this video..will answer most of your questions ! 

  6. Hey Jitendra,

    I will not touch on the Business aspect of your Idea because you will surely get a lot of advice and criticism on that front..

    But what I would like to contribute is that for any Online Idea, its necessary to replace / replicate the Offline process of acquiring a Product.. Now in your case, the process of Tasting a namkeen before deciding which one to buy can prove to be a challenge, especially with New variety coming-in every Quarter.. Off-course with an exception for Popular & Fast-moving products, which don’t really require that..

    Apart from that, my Best wishes for your Entrepreneurial endeavors..

  7. thanks a lot Rahul,

  8. yes i am starting, thanks  a lot sai for the warm wish.

  9. very bad UI and UX, i am going to create a revolution in this segment, like cadburrys kuch mitha ho jaye, we want to make it kuch namkeen ho jaye 🙂

    i am sure you will love our interface and we will give a world class experience to the people..

  10. Hi Roshan,

    thanks a lot, yea i know the mithaimate, but i think now a days they are not doing a great job, their founders left to other ventures. yes they were very well known before 3 years back.

    and second thing is their USP was only on sweets, but our USP lies on namkeen.

  11. thanks a lot Vijay, we have that solution. We will send small testers on every orders to the customers to aware them our new varieties of namkeen.

  12. Do remember to get this Hari Namkeen from Allahabad . His shop is located in Loknath locality. More than 100 years old. Hari namkeen and samosa ( that would last for months ) is class that one cannot replicate in addictive taste. NRI – Non resident Illahabadis would vouch and there are people always in queue from outstation. If e-Commerce facility is there, take my word, you would be swamped.  Yes your logistics would be real challenge. Because Hari does not sell. People buy !! 

  13. Great Video @Roshan

    @Jitendra – The idea behind the video is to ask all the questions that Mithaimate had to face. And also validate whether your replies are + or -ve …. Specially see the answer of instant gratification.

    By the way why not just book a account with Shopify, BuildABazaar  or the likes and experiment. It will be the most accurate answer right from the ones who will pay for this 🙂

    Do note you would have to reach the masses as profit margins in namkeen and volume is something you would have to consider…

    Regards

    Himanshu 

  14. Thanks a lot RK for such inputs, yes exactly. you are rite.

    Initially we are planning to cater the namkeen brands in indore, later we will enable to these local namkeen players to sell online.

    We will go for a national level launching, now starting a pilot test from indore. 

  15. Excellent Idea and as a customer I shall definitely look for you for a couple of reasons as follows

    Namkeens have a tendency of making you addict to the taste so there is a possibility of more repeat orders.

    Every local has a speciality or Namkeen which is a special for the particular region. Whenever I visit that part of the country I always pick up handful stuff for my consumption or for gifts. Next time if I need the same stuff again I had to ask for somebody staying there to send me the stuff so if your kind of service is available I would love to place orders with you to get my test of namkeen.  

    I would love to send gifts to my customers, relatives, vendors a special namkeen of their region so this service would definitely come handy.

    All the best !! try it out on a smaller scale and if you believe in the idea jump totally into it. 

  16. Jitendra

    Pls understand how the purchase of namkeen is done. These purchases are mostly casuals when we buy other items of grocery. The popular local namkeen are bought by special visit to a shop or bought and consume in shop. Cadbury is sold because of lot ads and availability at almost every point. So be careful on your assumptions before you take a big leap!

  17. If you can post Testing videos and capture their emotions for every namkeen, that would be just great 🙂

  18. Interesting thought & idea. Just keep one thing in mind dont make the shipping free. Namkeens would weigh a bit and given the low value per pack or low ATV’s the logistics costs may eat big time into your margins!

    Cheers!

  19. Here’s a reality check: The internet can not change the way people chew wrigley’s gums or the way people eat Namkeen. All people want is good quality, fresh & tasty Namkeen at a reasonable price. People like to buy them at retails stores so they can interact with the shopkeeper or other customers. Not many would want to buy Namkeen on a website. That said, you can try tying up with other online sites that sell items like groceries / alcohol.

    Given India’s power cuts and low penetration of internet in rural area, the size of your target client shrinks. And the sustainability of this business seems low due to low entry barrier which makes it easy for anyone to compete with you.

  20. thanks Amit, sure we will provide this type of stuffs to give customers a new experience.

  21. thanks Akshay, the margin in Namkeen is around 15-20%. so we will able to manage the shipping.

  22. @ Geetha, thanks for your inputs.

    We will maintain high quality and test, thats for sure as we are based out of Indore and it is known as Namkeen hub.

    i agree people will more prefer to buy namkeen in offline retail store than online, but we will give a real world experience to the customers so that they will be adopted to purchase online.

    We will send free testers to each customers to try new variety of namkeen, that would give us an advantage.

    The mouth publicity and fastmover will give us an advantage to capture the market soon.

  23. I will ask only questions ( Being devil’s advocate. Not trying to discourage. Answering these questions should give you more clarity) .

    2 Things:

    1) How big is the market? Is it worth going online?

    2) As far as I know, people buy Namkeen ( I am a bit confused on what exactly comes under Namkeen) for timepass and mostly impulse purchase. Hence, they need Instant Gratification (I like that word 😛). Are you sure that your customer will wait till the shipping arrives?

    To overcome the second problem (if there is one), you may have to reduce prices and offer better prices than the local shopkeeper.

    Most of buying in India is in low volumes. So, will you be able to service low volumes?

    Again, why e-Commerce? E-Commerce should come as a solution. You should start at problem and then see if a solution is e-Commerce website. What is the problem you trying to address? If so, what are all possible solutions?

    Previous e-Commerce attempts related to this have failed/discontinued. Why?

    Are you aiming for a lifestyle business or a bigger one?

    Finally, have you thought about Private Labelling or being distributor (as you have good contacts with vendors) or selling to shopkeepers online etc?

  24. Few things – 

    1. Namkeens are super subjective and taste varies from person to person. Yes Haldiram is a national level player, but many people tend to buy more from their local sweet shop as they can try new varieties and variations and secondly they are more fresh but expensive too if I may add.

    2. My reservation with buying loose food online is whether they are fresh or not. This sweet shops their UI itself is so sad, I dare not try their sweets.

    3. I visited my friend in Bhopal 3 years back…I had one sev out there and got addicted. Carried back enough packets to last few months and thankfully that friend visits Mumbai where I used to live, so supply was never an issue. I moved to Bangalore and now he generously couriers the same whenever I need! 🙂

    So I would say go for it Jitendra, but make sure – 

    1. They are fresh.

    2. Offer varieties.

    3. Make it reasonably priced, if you offer it at an insane price, I have ZERO reason to come back when I have so many choices around me. 

    4. Offer small packets to test, which you have already mentioned somewhere. 

    5. Make it yummy! 

    All the best, I am looking forward to ordering from you! I love Namkeens and I am lazy! 🙂 

  25. unit value of namkeen x margin is what i am talking about. Lets say half a KG of namkeen costs about 120 bucks, gross margin is 24 Rs. , negotiated courier rate for the same weight varies between 20 to 30 rs. I am considering standard packaging only. Since some of your food items may need to be protected from getting crushed u would need to spend a lil bit more than usual anyways! 

  26. Hi I think its a good Idea ..kyunki sab kuchh bikta hai…if you can have a condoms website why not namkeen which dominates the ek pyaali chai of almost 70 percent of Indians all around the world.

    But as many have mentioned the challenges are logistics,order size and geographical reach.you need to dig deep into pockets of India to make this successful.Plus overseas already has a supply of Namkeen exported so how to match that.I think you could combine the very famous sweet shops of India on your site and deliver from there both Mithai and namkeen all round the world.

    Say if someone wanna eat rasgulla from KC Das Kolkata we can deliver it in time and fresh at reasonable price.

    yes it can workout but go start from a city first and then move forward.

    regards

  27. My take on it…..

    Everyone needs namkeen these days……as a snack, as tea/coffee buddy, as a supplement while u want to get high, and many many more reasons……So, there is a perpetual demand for this thing…..

    Who is buying it and from where?

    In India

    -> Housewives, from their regular grocery shop [usually a planned purchase for a week or so]

    -> Bachelors, on friday evening from the regular grocery shop near the liquor shops [absolutely unplanned purchase and purchased to be finished by night]

    -> Others, any grocery shop in the vicinity [Impulse purchase, no set deadlines when to finish it]

     Outside India

    Same set of customers, purchase it from Indian Grocery stores in the town at a much higher price. [Planned purchase]

    For a person who wants to start an e-Commerce business around namkeen should revisit the customer’s buying behavior and see what can he change and how can he create value to attract customers to purchase from his virtual shop. This needs a huge market research. Also, you have to question yourself that why would anyone purchase just the namkeen? Wouldn’t he want something else as well? Imagine, me trying to order only Haldiram ka namkeen from your portal…….why will I do it? And even I do it today, when will it be delivered, …..and when will I next purchase from you? When will I have the motivation to visit your portal once again and place an order for the next set of namkeens?

    These questions must be answered before you even think of taking the first step. 

  28. Hi Jitendra,

    Take a look at the website shop.chikkistore.com, sale stuff of Maganlal online. Its online from last 3+ years.

    You can get in touch with them for your quires, I can help you in technical.

     

  29. I have one suggestion to make. Namkeen like for everyone has been very tempting for me as well. However over the years I have become very health and fitness conscious, which is again something most of the junta is turning into these days. I would be very happy to buy interesting yet healthy namkeen if available online even at a slight premium. I have often seen that diet namkeen is often available in one of these niche stores (like nature’s basket etc) or very limited variety in the regular stores. The website could give the nutritional facts of the healthy namkeens etc in a more elaborate manner leveraging on the online medium.

    All the very best and looking forward to healthy snacking!!

  30. Yes this idea would work provided who your vendors are. Please let me know if you have setup your website. Thank you.

  31. Not a good idea because of lower per unit price and perishability of the product.

    If I were you, I would have sold something better.

  32. Arpit, since you have spoken about Online Condom website in your comment above: I would like to bring to your notice a website name http://www.condompoint.com

    Please tell me your views on the same.

  33. if you think it will work..Then it will work…& if you think it will not work..then you are right..!!

    As Simple as that….. 🙂

    Best of Luck

  34. And not to forget the payment gateway cost. It can be anywhere from 2%-4% of the amount of transaction. The pricing of the namkeen would have to be done accordingly.

    Though unlikely for start, but if you have COD, it will again incur cost. That can be anywhere from Rs 30 to 50. Then there is packaging cost as Akshay mentioned.

    Also expect return orders from people. I mean these are some things that have to be looked on while pricing and making the business model.

  35. jeetu… did your e-namkeen venture kick off??!!!

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