After Flipkart, ShopClues launches first exclusive label 'Home Berry' in a bid to profitability

ShopClues' 'Home Berry' aims to focus on unbranded categories like home decor and furnishing in Tier III and IV cities.

Gurgaon-based online marketplace Shopclues launched Home Berry, its first exclusive label of home décor and furnishing today. First in a series of exclusive labels, Home Berry is focussed on the affordable home décor market, and includes bed and bath linen, like washroom towels and designer bedsheets with pillow covers.

In a press release, Radhika Aggarwal, Co-founder and CBO, ShopClues, said, “In the age of brands and labels being launched almost every day for the urban population of India, we are catering to the other side of India, which is looking for branded affordable home décor solutions, which can help them make their homes look good. We provide quality and amazing range, and most importantly, value. This is just a beginning for us. We look forward to launching exclusive labels across categories in the future, to bridge the gap of good value labels in the market.”

Currently, there are only 80 products in the exclusive label. Choosing hardly 10 of its best vendors as per customer feedback and manufacturing capabilities, Shopclues has worked closely with them to co-create the new set of products.

Besides strict guideline on quality, ShopClues also provides the packaging material and branding to add an extra layer of credibility. All these products are run through a five-point quality check under Surety Program, which ShopClues claims makes them the right offering as per the price point.

Focus on ‘Bharat’

ShopClues has always maintained that a brand resonance with ‘Bharat’ is very important for them in terms of the number of orders, demography, frequent, and loyal buyers, etc., more than GMV.

Nitin Kochhar, Senior VP - Categories, ShopClues, told YourStory that the team had been deliberating on launching exclusive label for a while, and the preparations started a year ago. “We are focussing on the unbranded sector here. Other than a Bombay Dyeing, how many brands are available in Tier III and IV cities in this category? So we are filling this gap,” he said.

In an earlier interaction with YourStory, ShopClues CEO and Co-founder Sanjay Sethi had said, “Our most loyal buyers buy up to 25 times in a year. Some only come to ShopClues; if they don’t find the right product they might go somewhere else, and others who go somewhere else and don’t find it will come to ShopClues. We have to build the organisation for those people who come to ShopClues first.”

Competition

Asked about a possible competition with other sellers, Nitin said that it is healthy, as it would ensure better customer experience and increase sales. Keeping in mind the philosophy of value for money, products under the Home Berry label are priced below Rs 500.

“This is a light business model, and we are expecting positive cash flow from day one. We will also launch fashion and electronic accessories under this label by the end of this year,” Nitin claimed, adding that margins for Home Berry will be better than their average of 35-40 percent in other products. 

ShopClues’ rivals Flipkart and Amazon recently launched private labels, although with focus on the upper middle class, while ShopClues sells three bed sheets for Rs 999. Flipkart’s private label products under ‘Smartbuy’ include consumer electronics, home, and fashion.

While Flipkart and Amazon want to capture the market of structured categories, Sanjay believes that to seriously go after the unstructured categories and ‘Bharat consumer’ and scale to make money, things have to be done differently.

By the next quarter, Shopclues aims to target 20 percent of total sales in Home & Kitchen category through Home Berry. The brand plans to further grow the category to include products like bean bags, curtains, rugs and cushion covers, shoe racks, wall clocks etc., by Q4 2017. ShopClues had earlier stated that they will have an IPO by Q1 next year, and that the business is growing profitably. With the launch of an exclusive label, ShopClues will inch closer to the goal.