Intuce.com, shows how social commerce can deliver the goods
Social commerce is the next buzz doing rounds in the ecommerce space. The medium involves buying and selling of products and services via social interactions, news feed, community chats etc. Social media is becoming a key enterprise marketing tool for brands who wish to map customer minds. It has changed the way shopping is done online today. While the shift from eCommerce to sCommerce is gradual, many startups are already vying for this space.
One such startup is Intuce.com founded by Rajesh Goyal, Vikrant Yagnick and Pushpanjali Kumar – an online design concept store launched in October 2012. They believe design is social and is universally applicable to everything, but at the same time it should look good, durable and be ergonomic in nature. The website is positioned in the space of designer products and aims to capture work of upcoming designers across various categories of fashion, jewellery, interiors, technology etc. The website serves as a platform for upcoming designers to put up a virtual shop, narrate stories, market their designs, build a community of followers and generate additional sales.
But that is not all, the website also acts as personal stylists for consumers where they can discover cool designs, express their opinion, make catalogue of it, share it, upload their own images, follow their favourite designer’s work and purchase any of the designs on sale online. Of the products that the website displays only one-fourth is for sale while the remaining three-fourths is only for visual appeal and appreciation. The site encourages social interactions among its consumers and designers in an attempt to build a social connect between them.
“Our primary target is women in the upper middle class and youngsters who have an aspiration for beautiful designs and like to appreciate and curate art. We make high design accessible and social for them” says Vikrant. The site currently has 25 designers on board under different categories like fashion, arts, interiors, accessories, photography etc, and Pushpanjali claims they are growing at a rapid pace, at a weekly growth rate of almost 50%.
The website also showcases known design labels like Svelte, Odel and Srijanya. Each designer is handpicked from different places to be a part of the website and can be part of the site free of cost. They get free visibility and appreciation for their work and typically 15 products of each designer are highlighted for about a month on the website. The products featured on Intuce are available in stock with the designer and once sold, they are shipped through third-party logistics to the end consumer. For all products sold on Intuce, they charge a margin from the sale value which varies from product to category.“This is a self-funded venture, with limited and targeted budget. We are not going all out in marketing instead using our existing channels intelligently to promote” says Pushpanjali. They promote and market the designs through an internal team of three founders, two developers and two curators from NIFT. They also tap into network and others to propagate the concept of universal design. For new and exciting designs, Intuce runs promotional campaigns via online and print media, radio and offline campaigns are done in malls etc. “But word of mouth is the best marketing tool and has worked for us perfectly. Campaigns with special focus on women are also in the pipeline,” says Rajesh.
The startup is looking for funding to support their venture and Rajesh says they are in talks with prospective investors.
