We run an exclusive, men-only e-commerce site operating from UP: https://www.menzkart.com/. As of now, we deal in men’s innerwear, shorts, track pants, and socks. We are trying to scale up our business over the next 6 months and achieve some challenging revenue targets, post which we’ll be seeking out investors to fund our growth plans. Would love to learn from you guys some interesting ideas on how we can increase relevant traffic to our site and increase our sales. Do visit our website and provide us your feedback on the site too! We have just revamped our portal.
Some facts about https://www.menzkart.com/:
1) The product range, as of now, includes men’s thermals, vests, briefs, shorts, boxers, socks, handkerchief, and track pants.
2) We don’t offer COD. As we are bootstrapping our startup, we cannot afford to entertain scenarios where orders get returned. Also, we feel COD in the long term does more harm to e-commerce business than good.
3) The Menzkart team includes professionals with offline retail experience and couple of us have online marketing experience as well. Our story –
“The story began with two friends who went shopping for underwear one fine evening and were unable to find their preferred brand. One of them with about six years of hands on experience in retail and internet marketing immediately sensed the huge plethora of possibilities that lay before them. Some preliminary research was conducted and they discovered that there are very few websites that exclusively catered to men. They both sensed it as the opportunity for which they had both been waiting for. There was a huge untapped market for this segment. It gave birth to menzkart.com. Along the way, we were joined by another friend of ours, an experienced digital marketing professional, who showed deep interest in our vision and chose to partner us on the journey of turning menzkart into the preferred shopping destination for men.”
4) We are already profitable! 🙂
We are also exploring inexpensive, offline promotion strategies. Inputs in that aspect are also very much welcome.
Thank you in advance for helping us out!
asha chaudhry
sumit, you have such an interesting “about us” story – that i took the liberty of adding it on your post itself!
Sumit Mahajan
Thanks Asha. Appreciate the help.. 🙂
Sumit Mahajan
Hi Rodinhoods!
Do share some feedback on the site and help with ideas in scaling up business! 🙂
Regards,
Sumit
Nirav Parekh
Hi Sumit,
Some ideas on new products:
It seems you have confined the site to hosiery products. I think you can really expand the products portfolio wide.
Think accessories. Consider items that are high volume (regular purchases) and unbranded (therefore high profit margin). Like hairbrushes, belts, wallets, etc. This way, you will be able to generate a lot more volume.
Think of closet products – products that men use, but don’t want anyone else to know that they use them.
Like hair trimmers, moisturising lotion, men’s cosmetics, for example. This way, your site gains an advantage over offline shops, because no man would enter a shop to buy these items.
Think of ‘manly’ products. There are many products that men are supposed to be experts at, but are never initiated into. Shaving, for example. Check out Gillette uses YouTube to teach men how to shave, and which are the best kind of razors.
Think of ‘intimate’ products. Condoms, for example. Guys face a lot of stress before the action, mainly because they ‘are supposed to know’ about everything but given Indian society, can’t discuss, and are made fun of. What if you provided a helping hand (figurative, of course 🙂
Think of gift items. Most men don’t know what gifts to buy for their friends, or dad, or uncles. Perhaps, you can provide a quick list of gift-worthy items based on age groups.
Think of super-premium luxury items. If Dabangg can sell Ray-Ban, so can you. Think of all the super-cool imported products that every man with money will want to buy, but the product is not available even in the nearby mall. A Tag watch, a Ferrari jacket, a designer shoe.
Think of health products too. May be far-out from your product portfolio right now, but then, your site is a shop for all products for men. Diabetes for example is largely a disease among men. Whey and protein products would gain you aspiring body-builders.
The field is vast. Enjoy your play!
Send me a few gifts if this helps 🙂
Regards,
Nirav
Abhishek
Hi Sumit,
Seems to be a good idea and also I don’t think any of the other websites are catering to the innerwear segment ( as far as I know).
I like your website, it’s simple and very user friendly.
But do you plan to add more categories?
Regards,
Abhishek
Sumit Mahajan
Thanks Nirav for sharing some excellent suggestions on increasing the product portfolio! Will surely discuss with the team. 🙂 You are right about us focusing mainly on hosiery products. Would share the reason for that soon via a blog post here! Would love to know if you have any suggestions on how we can maximize reach (more traffic) for our existing product portfolio!
Sumit Mahajan
Thank you Abhishek! Yes, we do plan to add more categories in future. But right now, the focus is on optimizing the current product portfolio.
Abhishek
That’s great Sumit,all the best in covering the basic needs of all men!!
Sumit Mahajan
Thanks again, Abhishek. 🙂
Nirav Parekh
Hi,
Thinking a little out of the box here. Have you tried advertising this website in unconventional places… like men’s rooms of malls and multiplexes?
Might just work! All the best!
Regards,
Nirav
Preetish Gupta
Hi Sumit,
Your idea is superb and you found the gap at the right time.
But today, in most of the places availability is not the issue so now you need to move on and offer something more to the customers.
Advertise: Create awareness. So first advice is to start online advertising (presence in social media, targeted ads, etc.). If you are already advertising, then revisit the same (I am a potential TG & I haven’t seen any ad of Menzkart online).
Product Bundling: Most of the people buy more coz they get ‘better deals’ (eg. Big Bazaar). Therefore I suggest that you start offering bundled products and tempt your exisitng customers to spend more.
SALE: End of Season Discount Sales are biggest hit in retail. Most of the companies achieve 60-80% of their targets by going on Sale. Start a sale and see how it works out for you. (if its feasible starts ‘begining of the season sale’). And advertise on social media to increase the traffic. You can combine it with product bundling.
Feedback: Also start a consumer feedback blog on the website which will give confidence to the visitors.
Areas of improvement –
1) Website is incomplete and brand links does not work. It creates a bad impression the visitors
2) Remove ‘out of stock’ products from the 1st list
3) Product preview (for colour options) is not available?
4) Attractive layout (colurful) & images
Hope you find this useful.
asha chaudhry
hey sumit,
what’s happening at menzkart?!
yeh andar ki baat hai – but the startup journey can be shared naa?!
do share some updates with us 🙂
Abey John
site seems to be down for maintenance.
Amit Shroff
Boss why is your site Down!! Speak to us if you need a new store http://www.72interactive.in