Husband-wife duo startup Yaasna, a silver jewellery e-store
eCommerce companies are trying every trick in the book to set themselves apart from the crowd. It maybe name for some, for some it's faster delivery, some have a better user-interface, while others offer niche products. And we have tracked it all. At a time, when eCommerce start-ups selling books, clothes, accessories, footwear, are struggling to get a large number of buyers, we are witnessing a sudden surge in the number of entrepreneurs selling jewellery online. It's not easy to eliminate the trust factor associated with buying jewellery. But despite the concerns associated with the security of goods in transit, we are seeing entrepreneurs explore e-jewellery avenues.
Yaasna is one such e-jewellery store that sells in-house designed jewellery. Started by Aparna Sharma Bhargava along with her husband Navin Bhargava, Yaasna wants to overcome the “limitations in options offered by other such stores”. Aparna has spent many years living across India, and has wishes to purge all that she has seen during her travel to be captured in the designs that Yaasna produces. She started by designing silver jewellery, as she feels it offers variety in terms of designs and collections. Her husband’s domestic and international retail experience at companies like Williams Sonoma, Target Corporation, Monsoon Accessorize and Aditya Birla Retail, helped her transform the idea into business.
Aparna designs the artefacts and sends them to craftsmen in Jaipur where she has a semi-captive unit for production. Most workers are hired on a temporary basis, so that costs can be kept low. Aparna is specially found of use of stones like peridots and Lapis Lazuli, in Egyptian art.
Talking of the traction that the site has received till date, Aparna says post the soft-launch in December 2012, they have sold about 150 pieces on an average per month and their demography includes a majority of individuals from metros and Tier II cities as well. Women in the age group of 19 to 45 are the key audience.
Aparna says the silver jewellery market in India is very fragmented and apart from few brick and mortar and lifestyle stores, most retailers import the goods (No, there’s Evolve925 as well!). The jewellery that Yaasna sells is an amalgamation of hallmark sterling silver and real handpicked gemstones. Aparna dreams of making Yaasna a household name in the designer silver jewellery market.
As a woman entrepreneur she has never felt any different from her male counterparts, and says being a woman in this business is actually an advantage as the majority of her target audience comprises women.
