The Liberating Goa Based Brand, Nirvana, is Now Online

Founded in the January of 2000, Nirvana Tshirts started with an ideology of promoting Indian goods and created attitude wear with their strong punch line “Let’s get Liberated”. What started with a realization that struck Raj Bhandare when the west issued sanctions against India post the Pokhran Test, culminated into Nirvana brand of t-shirts, a form of protest against all the injustice perpetrated against India at that time. With a staunch motive of promoting only Indian goods, this Goa based architect started the Nirvana brand of t-shirts which could not only compete with the best MNCs but would also provide a medium to express his artistic intelligence.

Raj was awarded the National Karamveer Puruskar for his contribution to the field of Art and this reflects in the kind of work the company does. The brand which existed offline till now, has moved online and the arty tee-shirts are now available on their online store for everyone to purchase. A brand of attitude wear, NirvanaTshirts is registered under the company Nirvana Arts Pvt. Ltd and is a part of the larger GM Bhandare group of companies. Ably supported by founding director and wife- Sneha Bhandare, Raj and Sneha are both post graduates in architecture. Akanksha Singh from Tuersdays Corp. has been the force behind the web development activities. Mentored by Nandini Vaidyanathan of CARMa Connect, Nirvana has a very strong back bone to excel in the online world.

Nirvana started with an initial production of just 2500 pieces but was immediately accepted due to its superior quality, innovative designs and value for money; Nirvana with same quality as any MNC brand was available for half the price. Within one year of launching, Nirvana started operating through a distributor network in all major towns. They opened their first showroom in Goa in 2002 and another in the prime Lokhandwala market in 2004 and third one at Kandiwali in Mumbai in 2006. By this time the annual turnover of Nirvana was 85 lakhs. All this happened while Nirvana was being treated just as a hobby and not a serious business proposition by Sneha and Raj.

Raj has analyzed the ecommerce market very well:

• More than eight out of ten Indian online consumers plan to shop online in the next twelve months
• More than a quarter indicate they spend upwards of 11 percent of their monthly shopping expenditure on online purchases
• Half the Indian consumers (50%) use social media sites to help them make online purchase decisions.
• More than four in ten Indians are likely to share (post a review/ Tweet) a negative product or service experience online than they were to share a positive one.

“The customer will purchase not only the product but also get free with each product a number of freebies which are high on the creativity bar. For example each T Shirt will be in a package which can be further used as a pen holder or a reusable pouch. Even the tags can be used as greeting cards and bookmarks. The customer will therefore comeback every time because he knows that while buying a creative product, he will also own other creative sub products and that too free of cost,” says Raj.

Besides sales through the ecommerce portal, Nirvana will also increase its brand value and visibility by Art events and workshops both online and offline, Co Branding with other Designers, Increasing their Merchandise

portfolio, Planning events in various institutions through Art exhibitions & Co Branded musical events.

Some of the sparkling accomplishments:

• Won the Best Business plan award by Goldman Sachs- ISB at AIMS Bangalore for the 10,000 women entrepreneur initiative.
• Sneha Bhandare has been selected by CII-GIZ(Germany) for the 4^th Indo German Management Training Programme, which is an initiative by The German Govt. and Govt of India to promote bilateral trade.
• Nirvana has made it to the second round of ET-Power of Ideas and is gearing up for round 3.

Currently Nirvana has its own showroom in prime MG Road in Panjim, Goa. Nirvana is also strengthening its innovation pipeline and product range. They have eminent consultants on board who are a part of the team and aiding its growth. They went online on 1^st july with about 30 designs. Plans are on for increasing the product portfolio to become a head to toe cult brand.

A clothing brand which is art infused and all set to liberate the world, Nirvanatshirts is made in Goa and proudly Indian and we wish the entire team all the best to make this brand global.