Shaadi ki shopping? These two entrepreneurs are making it a stress-free affair with Shaadilogy
Shaadilogy aims to be the enabler for every Big Fat Indian wedding by providing services like an event app, wedding store, designer concierge, gift registry, and others.
At a Glance
Startup: Shaadilogy
Founders: Aayshya Jhunjhunwala and Vasundhara Mantri
Year it was founded: 2016
Where it is based: Kolkata
Sector: ecommerce/event management app
Problem it solves: Wedding planning
Funding raised: Bootstrapped
It was a particularly busy wedding season. Vasundhara Mantri, 35, and Aayshya Jhunjhunwala, 27, were caught in the wedding frenzy, helping close friends and cousins shop for their weddings while playing agony aunt.
The duo realised that all weddings – be it one’s own, or that of a loved one or close friend – tended to be stress-filled. Why couldn’t this momentous occasion be a hassle-free and fun affair, they thought?
With shopping being an integral part of weddings, the two friends decided to build a platform that eliminates some of the stress associated with wedding shopping and planning. Launched in October 2016, Shaadilogy provides solutions for wedding shopping and planning.
Its website and mobile application curates the online wedding experience for those getting married, and anyone attending weddings. It also has a curated e-marketplace and event management application.
Aayshya says, “We believe that a wedding is much more than celebrations in the lives of the couple and their close ones. Knowing that, we plug in all the efforts to make it perfect in every possible way.”
The Wedding Store
Shaadilogy’s product, the Wedding Store, is a curated marketplace for outfits, accessories, and gifts. One can create bespoke wedding services, customised gifting, a gift registry, a unique designer concierge, and manage the entire wedding process.
Vasundhara explains, “Shaadilogy’s store includes products from leading and upcoming Indian designers. To offer users an unparalleled experience, the store is carefully curated, with products featured in theme-based closets. So we have a beach wedding closet, cocktail closet, and bridesmaid’s closet along with various other occasions like puja, mehendi etc. An extensive wedding gifting section is also included. Customised, bulk gifting packages for special events and occasions are also available.”
The Designer concierge service lets users get appointments from several designers across India for couture and bridal shopping.
Aayshya says, “Our Design Concierge service is a great resource for clients. We take a small deposit from the client to confirm the appointment with the designer. The amount will be adjusted against a transaction with the designer or can be converted into Shaadilogy store credit, which can be redeemed over a period of six months. This is one of the many bespoke experiences offered by Shaadilogy.”
For D-day
The Shaadilogy event app assists couples and their event planners in managing the wedding. The customisable app allows the couple to create their exclusive “wedding” on the App, invite guests, share ceremony details and venues, allow guests to directly share their travel information, let friends and family capture, upload, share and comment on photos and videos from the wedding, and send reminders and push notifications to guests among other things.
The app is available on both iOS and Android platforms.
Since its launch, the team has also done several offline events (in Kolkata and Mumbai) to showcase and sell products by designers and vendors associated with Shaadilogy.
Explaining its exclusive feature , the gift registry, Vasundhara says, “How many times have we wondered what to gift a couple on their wedding? Wouldn’t it be great if you knew exactly what the couple needs? The Shaadilogy Gift Registry addresses this dilemma as to-be-wed couples can share their personal gift list with a closed group of friends and family, who can purchase gifts accordingly.”
The e-marketplace also offers a wide variety of items to choose from, and eliminates all unwanted or duplicate gifts for the couple.
The Shaadilogists
The startup has a B2B business model for designers; this works on a commission basis. For the end user, it has a freemium business model.
The Shaadilogy team - also called the Shaadilogists - includes 14 people with backgrounds ranging from styling and merchandising, event planning and execution, graphics and design, and tech development and marketing. Shaadilogy also has resources dedicated to vendor and customer relations, and concierge management. The average age of the Shaadilogy team is 27 years.
Aayshya began her career as a psychologist and a counsellor, after graduating with a master’s degree in psychology from Aston University, and an undergraduate programme in the subject from the University of Nottingham. At Shaadilogy, she is the Chief of Operations and Business Development.
Vasundhara, Chief Curator at Shaadilogy, is also a fashion jewellery designer known for her eponymous label, Vasundhara. She has showcased her work at leading fashion weeks in India, and participated at several events abroad. Her jewellery is available at her stores in Mumbai and Kolkata, at leading multi-designer stores across India, and, on Shaadilogy.com.
Aayshya’s brother, Advay Jhunjhunwala, 30, is responsible for managing the finances and tech development at Shaadilogy.
Strong comeback
In the second year since the launch of its website, the startup is seeing strong growth month-on-month.
Vasundhara says, “When we started we did struggle for the first six months, partly due to demonetisation. But ever since, we have been working aggressively on getting our marketing right, and developed multiple revenue channels. We have also seen a strong uptick in the demand for luxury in recent months, since the dust from demonetisation has settled. Demand from Tier II and II cities, as well as NRIs and the Indian diaspora has also been encouraging.”
Shaadilogy is bootstrapped and has been funded by the friends and family of the founders.
The market landscape
The Indian wedding market, which is pegged at $40 billion, has witnessed the mushrooming of startups offering various kinds of solutions to the industry. In end-to-end wedding services, 7Vachan, BandBaajaa, Wedmegood, Shaadisaga, Bollywoodshaadis, TheWeddingBrigade and many similar platforms are competing with each other.
Talking about their differentiator, Vasundhara says, “Most startups in the wedding space have a listing of wedding service providers. We decided to focus on a curated wedding shopping experience, and provide specific tools such as our gift registry, designer concierge and event app, which provide holistic solutions to the couple, their friends and family, and their event organisers. Our theme-based shopping experience and extensive wedding gifting section also set us apart.”
Shaadilogy has done pilot projects in the wedding services space too, but is taking a slow and steady specific route at the moment.
In the future, it aims to expand the LabelFree by Shaadilogy section, to bring tasteful yet affordable wedding fashion to the market.
“While we are working aggressively on our marketing within India, we are also rapidly finding ways to provide solutions to potential clients abroad. Having successfully completed our pilot runs and fine-tuned the model, our event styling and wedding services are also poised to take off,” Vasundhara signs off.