Need Help in Starting an E-commerce website focusing on the Products from the Street of India

By AbhiNav on March 3, 2014 2 Comments / 1391 views

Dear Rodinhooders,

I am planning to start an E commerce portal focusing the Products from the streets of India. I am delhi based an aspiring entrepreneurs looking for your valuable feedback and advice for my new venture. I have already registered the domain name www.StreetStud.com for the store.

The idea is very simple, We want to bring all the beautiful arts and cultural products which are manufactured by the normal lay man artist and will promote their art by selling their stuffs online.

I am looking for the advice from all the rodinhooders:-

1) What is the best way to Launch the Portal( Under a Tight Budget)

2) What is the best way to advertise the products? (Through online or Offline like events etc)

Thanks in advance.

Visit facebook page- www.facebook.com/streetstuds

Website- www.Streetstud.com (Under Construction)

Comments

AbhiNav

2 Comments

Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal March 16, 2014, 10:42 am

your business proposition sounds strange…

give me 5 examples of what you mean by ‘products from the streets of india’?
Darshan Bhambiru March 16, 2014, 11:52 pm
Hi Abhinav,

We want to bring all the beautiful arts and cultural products which are manufactured by the normal lay man artist and will promote their art by selling their stuffs online

If I Understand it correctly, what You mean here is Handicrafts!! (currently see all the Brands available either in Regular General stores or Malls, Shopping centers or other online stores too on the Site page – Electonics, Electrical, Footwear, Clothing, Accessories, Jewelry etc where is the Art and Cultural product ?)

We have a Fashion Street in Mumbai and all they sell the Wares there on the street, by Laymen !!!

Though this Industry has been Notorious for Exploitation of the Artists at many times, is definitely lucrative and is a 100% Margin if not more Industry as well done Correctly too! You need to have Word Power and Salesmanship with Negotiating Energy to make a Profit too!

Do you have the Process Designed yet ? – Since you say you would be Promoting their ART, and thereby Selling it online too :
1. Would you be the First Buyer (Super Purchaser, Stockist, Volume Purchase, Distributor with them as your Vendors)
2. Would you be maintaining Inventory ? Do you have Contracts / Agreements for Exclusivity they can sell to any others too or Directly as well likewise, this might hamper your rates for sales.
3. Would you Sell these Under your Company Banner ? (Do you have a Company with license to do this too?)
4. Do you have a Company PAN card, and the other relevant Documents to Open a Bank Account ? (Need to get any of these done check Here)
5. Do You have a Current Account to accept payments and Make them too ?
6. Would you be selling Locally or Internationally too ?
7. Do you have provision of Online Payment Gateway for FOREX or other currencies to be accepted ?
8. Do You have Storage available – Warehouse ?
9. Logistics and Tie ups for Transportation To and Fro for the Goods sold ?
10. Do you plan to have a Market Place model or your own Branding ?
11. A Team [Apart from yourself] to contact , confirm details, manage and maintain Stocks and Supplies and Order as per Demand and Supply – Inventory Management, Sales Orders, and Replenish exhausted stocks too.
12. Have you done a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) analysis yet ? Are you the only one doing this yet or do you have any USP (Unique Selling Point) that they don’t ?
Booking the Domain and making the Website would start only when these Things are in Place!!!

If you don’t have the products and the Best rates to offer and the required Storage and Logistics in place, Booting up the Online sites and pages with Social Media promotion would be Helpful ?

You said You are from Delhi, Have you checked Locally how many Stores (Brick and Mortar) are there currently running a similar outfit (Arts and Crafts) and talked to their owners to know the HOT selling items and the Target Audience is it Local or Tourists and are they making any Good Business too, for that purpose, is it Seasonal or remains the same through out the Year as well ?

It would be a Good Idea if you Start out locally with a NotePad and note down your Own experience of the same (Assuming you do not have Prior experience on this, [Not mentioned] as it has landed in the ASK section currently)

Conduct a small Survey with a few, Vendors, Customers, Store Owners, Friends and Family and get their Opinions and what they think about it, hang around the Cafes of a few Colleges or Local Tourist Places and try to get LIVE feeds from the Locals, Tourists (Be careful, they don’t report you to the Police) So make some Preliminary preparation and Print some sheets with data that you collect so they can be informed later too of the findings and help you to promote as required too.

There would definitely be more coming your Way so would leave it here currently until you Find out and gather what is Available and what needs to be prepared to take it to the Next Level. Am sure the Awesome Rockstars around would also be getting back to you on this as required and you should have your Post err Hands Full of what You started to look out with!

Houston WE have D Launch!!! (The Site/Portal is already Launched I guess)

Once you have things SET, Go for the Advertise part SEO, ADwords, Analytics, Blogging, Content creation, Fb Ads and a lot more could be done effectively too.

Want some Come and get Some, 🙂

Maybe take a chance and present this as a CAS at the Delhi OH, if you are participating already or planning to Attend too! Do Connect with Asha for the details or check the Delhi OH post for the purpose.

Happy Holi! Good Luck and Cheers!!