Toteteca Bagworks, the startup that lets you design your own bags
Women love their bags, and why not -- it is after all an important accessory for us. So if we can get it made as per our needs – colour, shape, design – it is just icing on cake. It is this personalization aspect about handbags that startup Toteteca has chosen as its USP. Toteteca Bagworks allows its users to choose from its huge library of designs and colours; where shoppers can select and customize their handbags to suit their individual needs. All customization can be visualized on their website and the startup’s team of designers can help customers refine their creation, before making the final product.
Founded by Kushal Chudiwala in January 2013, the name Toteteca means bag library. And true to its name, Toteteca offers quite a range of styles and designs for the customer to choose from. A computer engineer by education, Kushal is also the director of Veda Lifestyle. Launched in 1999, Veda Lifestyle is an exporter of variety ladies products – handbags, fashion jewellery, t-shirts and belts. The firm has been exporting to a number of foreign countries including US, Spain, France, Italy, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and others. Toteteca is now leveraging the power of e-commerce and the expertise of Veda Lifestyle to help reach out to more customers. “Online was the best medium for us because it allows customers to visualize our products. The fact that the market is booming only helps us more,” says Kushal.
Customers can go online, and design their bags just as they want it – the shape, colour, lining as well as the monograms. Priced between Rs 900 & Rs 3,400, Toteteca bags are available in about 50 styles, and there are new styles added each week, says Kunal. Once the customer has designed a product, in house designers of Toteteca look at the final product to ensure there are no errors or problems, before it can be sent for manufacturing. All products are manufactured in Mumbai, but are shipped globally.
Toteteca customers are mostly women between the age of 18 and 35. “Generally independent and self-sufficient women are generally drawn to our brand identity,” says Kushal. There is also the need to be savvy with the online space, as that is the platform for customers to create their products. Kushal says the brand has seen good growth since launch in January this year, and says he has plans to now enter into the travel handbags or men’s products range.
Toteteca relies social media, online and print media for advertising. The startup has a small design and manufacturing team, that forms the backbone of the business.