Online is not the only means, entrepreneurs need to exploit all channels for business: Sanjay Sethi, Co-founder and CEO, Shopclues

Shopclues has many feathers to wear in its hat. It targeted markets in Tier II and III cities and successfully cracked it, which other e-commerce platforms dithered to even enter. Today, it is one of the Unicorns in the country.

“Our platform allows lakhs of merchants come on the site and lets lakhs of buyers buy products on the site,” says Sanjay Sethi, Co-founder and CEO of Shopclues.

At MobileSparks 2016, YourStory caught up with Sanjay, who spoke about the complexities of the e-commerce and addressed various queries on the startup ecosystem as a whole.

It started off with a question-answer session where the audience asked about the continuous copy-cat model in India, where US business models are being replicated, and how to remain unique amidst it.

“When we think we know something very closely, we try to make assumptions where we go wrong. Just because somebody has done it in the past, it’s not necessary you will also be able to do it,” quips Sanjay.

He adds that every market is unique and every business develops differently. It’s impossible to replicate the same business model across the country and this is how a fresh business idea is built. When Shopclues entered the market, it focussed on Tier-II and III cities and has set up a complete unique e-commerce platform.

When asked about the need of money to start a business, Sanjay says that things have changed in the past few decades. Days are gone when only big industrialists used to establish businesses over businesses. Today, new generation of entrepreneurs have changed it. They are building great businesses using technology.

Replying to another query on offline and online channel of sales, Sanjay says that startups need to leverage every sales channels which can give better result. With new policies coming in, like GST and push for the use of plastic money, online infrastructure has been developing much faster, but it is not the only channel.

“In technology, India is standing at an interesting stage. India has leapfrogged desktop and laptop technology to mobile technology. I would suggest entrepreneurs to invest in today’s technology and reap its benefits tomorrow,” concludes Sanjay.

A big shout out to all our sponsors – Sequoia Capital India Advisors , VMAX, Shopclues, MapMyIndia, Qualcomm Ventures.