Hitesh Dhingra, Founder, Letsbuy.com

“Let’s Buy Digital”

Our needs and desires lead us to seek that which matters most to us and in a digital age it makes sense that we crave digital lifestyle products. Our wish lists are crammed with MP3 players, Ipods, Camcorders and digicams. A single destination on the internet called Letsbuy.com is not just one of the fastest growing e-tailer for Digital lifestyle products but also the place to fulfill any digital wish list. Yourstory spoke to Hitesh Dhingra, young entrepreneur and founder of Letsbuy.com to learn more about his venture and e-retailing.

Business Idea- It’s not just a business idea but also a vision of sorts, which is taking e-commerce to the next level. Hitesh says “Letsbuy.com aims to become the largest destination for Reviews, comparison and shopping of Digital lifestyle products. It offers extensive range of products & exclusive deals from leading brands because of its direct association with these brands. Letsbuy.com offers manufacturer warranty & Free home delivery to its customers on all the products.”

“Letsbuy.com is helping leading brands in setting up e-commerce as their alternate sales channel, it works directly with brands like HP, Microsoft, Samsung, MapmyIndia, WD, Imation, HTC, Canon, BIG TV etc. For the end customer, it aims to become the most credible destination for shopping of digital products by offering exclusive deals, original products with manufacturer’s warranty, faster deliveries, multiple payment options & personalized customer care service.”

What sets them apart –Hitesh has cut out the middle man and made the process more transparent for all. He states “Letsbuy.com is Direct to customers’ portal. Unlike other ecommerce websites in the country, we don’t work with multiple intermediaries. We buy the product directly from brand or their tier 1 distributors and ship it to end customers. This helps us in offering better price & faster deliveries to our customers.”

Future Plans- Hitesh is striking while the iron is hot, banking on their past results he has framed a battle plan for tomorrow. He says “Letsbuy.com was launched in September, 2009 and has already acquired 10,000+ customers. We plan to increase the transactions to 3000/month within next 3 months with some innovative marketing efforts. We want to keep up & improve on the work we have been doing & achieve 300% growth in 2010-11.

His entrepreneurial journey- The taste of entrepreneurship appealed to Hitesh and two ventures later he decided to go solo. “I have been involved with couple of start ups prior to Letsbuy.com, so it wasn’t really a tough decision. Moreover I always had confidence in the business model to make it a success & decided to get into it for myself rather than building it up for someone else.”

The journey is not bereft of trials and Hitesh has been using his experience to counter them. He says “Wrong hiring, though followed it up with timely firing.”

“We have been facing challenges in building up the team, managing cash flows etc. Prior experience in start ups has helped me in making few quick decisions to wipe out the inefficiencies and manage things better.”

Their venture has been making steady strides and Hitesh is proud to reveal that “Letsbuy.com will be closing its first financial year as a profitable venture, that’s an encouraging sign for any start up especially in Ecommerce space where customer acquisition cost is very high. We have managed to do reasonably well because of our highly innovative approach in managing ecommerce business.”

Recognition gained- His pride in letsbuy.com is apparent and reasonable after all how many one year old ventures have done as well? Hitesh says “I think being operationally profitable with reasonable scale within 6 months of launch is one of the achievements apart from associating with leading brands like HP, Microsoft, Canon, Airtel, BIG TV, WD, MapmyIndia etc in short span of time.”

“We have been recommended by our clients – Brands as well as end customers, for quality of our services.”

Entrepreneurial lesson – Hitesh is all for the life of an entrepreneur and describes it saying “Entrepreneurship is all about taking calculative risks and as they say ‘higher the risk, more the return.’” To his peers and soon to be entrepreneur he advises “Keep the faith & keep running.”

The digital lifestyle and its needs are met by letsbuy.com in a way that only a one stop shop can. We wish Hitesh Dhingra a happy Entrepreneurial journey and hope to see his venture match his vision.