This woman entrepreneur’s ecommerce platform is bringing spotlight on Made-in-India brands
Based in Mumbai, Priyanka Shetye has founded an ecommerce platform for organic and eco-friendly brands founded by women entrepreneurs.
The Indian ecommerce avenue is as diverse as it can get where global luxury brands as well as small sellers from non-metro and rural India can leverage the same online marketplaces to sell their products.
However, Mumbai-based entrepreneur Priyanka Shetye highlights that ecommerce giants are hardly equitable, despite offering access to all.
Having started a sustainable clothing brand just before the pandemic, she felt that sellers pay a high commission only to get lost in a sea of brands entertaining a common target audience with similar product offerings.
Using the money set aside to build a manufacturing plant, she founded this year.
It is a curated marketplace that aims to bring spotlight on homegrown, organic, and women-founded brands. At present, it features about 25 women-led brands.
A case of quality over quantity
Priyanka is bullish over identifying quality, Made-in-India products that are not mass produced, and found several such brands following ethical practices on Instagram and other social media platforms.
“I personally do not buy from certain fast fashion brands because I am against their unethical practice of exploitation of their factory workers and laborers,” she tells HerStory.
This and the lack of women-focussed platforms prompted her to launch The Good Thing Store last month. At present, the platform offers over 400 SKUs across categories like skincare, home decor, baby care, and women’s hygiene, among others.
With more than a decade’s experience in FMCG and pharmaceutical industry, she ensures the brands have valid certificates for all the label claims, manufacturing licence, FSSAI licence, and follows ethical practices at their respective manufacturing plants. Its buyer-seller agreement also mandates surprise audits at their plants and workplaces to check on any malpractices like child labour.
“We are not onboarding 100s of brands in the same category, causing the same visibility issue. While we will add new categories, we'll be consciously onboarding the brands,” she says.
At present, it has around 25 lesser known brands including Amyra Naturals, Natuur, ZIRO, Earthon Products, Hapikey, and Har Koi. Around ten to 15 more brands are being evaluated to feature on the platform.
The startup does not charge any annual registration fee and operates on a commission-based revenue model from each sale made on the platform. However, Return to Origin (RTO) customers send back the packages is also another challenge affecting 30 percent of the sales made.
If it offers any discount, Priyanka says the platform will pay the price for it and not sellers. “Additionally, when the customers are paying a hefty amount to buy chemical loaded products by international brands, why won't they do so for good quality desi products as well?"
Challenges and the way forward
As a platform serving women entrepreneurs, Priyanka says, it is as much a community as it is a marketplace.
“The fact that women entrepreneurs are trusting me and the platform is a milestone because gaining trust is the biggest challenge for any new platform,” she says.
Bootstrapped so far, the startup is focussing on its marketing strategies to reach the right target audience, investing in automated functions to manage multiple categories, sellers and customer base.
Started with an initial investment of nearly Rs 2.5 lakh, it has invested in advertising as brand awareness is a priority. Priyanka is also leveraging her personal and the brand's social media presence to reach more customers.
Besides the ecommerce giants, The Good Thing Store's direct competitors include Sublime Life, One Green, and Quora Health, tapping the ecommerce market that is expected to reach $111.40 billion by 2025, according to IBEF.
“However, most are onboarding lots of brands, which will just make them the second Amazon or Flipkart - The Good Thing Store won't be that way as we focus on quality control,” she says.
Edited by Megha Reddy