Hyderabad influencer Ankita Jain is empowering women entrepreneurs through live sessions on Instagram

Abhilasha Chaudhary, who runs a small business of educational books for children, had never sold over 10 orders in a month since starting in 2020. However, on a Wednesday afternoon in 2021, she sold over 150 products in just an hour over a live session on Instagram.

Things changed for good when Chaudhary took a chance and sought help from 'Ankita Jain ki Wednesday Shopping Live'—a popular live session on Instagram known for promoting various products.

Content creator Ankita Jain helps women entrepreneurs sell their products by showcasing them on her Instagram page.

“Since 2021, Ankita has done many lives for my products. I send her the samples which she shows in the live. I am so grateful to her as my sales weren't this good before, but now, if she is doing a session, not less than 40 orders get sold in an hour,” Chaudhary tells HerStory.

Jain, a mother of two from Hyderabad, started these live sessions in 2020 and has about 80K followers on Instagram.

“This page started as my way to get financial independence, but along the way, it has gained a profound purpose of helping all those women entrepreneurs who make wonderful products but don’t know how to sell them,” Jain says.

The first steps

Hailing from a traditional family, Jain became a housewife after marriage. However, she knew she was talented enough to become financially independent.

She started making content on Instagram, varying from sharing clips about her daughters or her food experiments. 

“During lockdown, I became very active on Instagram and started making content around what I was teaching my children. All this garnered a lot of attention from the viewers,” she adds.

While she was at her parent’s place, she decided to do a live and showcase a range of toys, books, and stationery she had bought for her daughter’s summer break. 

And there was no turning back. Soon, queries started flooding in about where to buy these products and their price. This flood of inquiries sparked an idea within her—why not keep these live sessions going?

She recalls when she did her first live, she bought six boxes of toys, which she sold completely in 30 minutes. Soon after, Jain's initiative garnered an overwhelming response from more than 30 enthusiastic women entrepreneurs.

“That gave me a lot of confidence that I can do this,” she adds.

Jain began by selling Magnetic Tiles and Blocks—an educational toy for tweens. Although the toy costs around Rs 15,000 in India, Jain received it at one-third the price from a friend in China. She recalls that in 30 days, she sold over 5,200 products through her Instagram account.

“Since my in-laws did not want me to go out and work, I brought the work home. They do not have a problem with what I am doing now,” she says.

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Empowering women entrepreneurs

Starting with toys, Jain now deals in footwear, clothes, accessories, and more. Once she is approached by an entrepreneur, she either buys their products wholesale or takes samples.

If she has bought the products, she sells them directly to the public. However, she takes in orders for samples and charges a commission for every sale. 

“There are a lot of small-scale women entrepreneurs who do not have the resources to package and send their products. So, I buy their products and then sell them off. In such cases, I handle the packaging and delivery as well,” she adds.

Jain holds her Instagram live sessions every Wednesday and Saturday at 3 pm and 10 pm for an hour. In one day, she displays and sells the products of only one entrepreneur, allowing interested viewers to have a firsthand look at what's on offer.

To make a purchase, all a viewer needs to do is take a screenshot of the product, and once the live session concludes, they send her a message on Instagram expressing their interest. Post this, Jain starts the delivery process. 

She adds that a lot of women approach her, so she has to be selective at times. Jain usually makes this decision based on the occasions and festivals going around. “If a women entrepreneur is making a product relevant to a festival, I would choose it,” she explains.

“I do not want to endorse one entrepreneur every time, so I keep enough time gap between two or more sessions with an entrepreneur,” she adds.

Amid her busy schedule, which involves packing products and coordinating with courier companies to ensure proper and on-time shipments, Jain remains dedicated to maintaining an active presence on her Instagram page.

This influencer believes that in this new age, most people do not want to go out to buy products and online shopping has become their haven.

“My customers are women who want to shop conveniently without leaving their homes due to family restrictions or time constraints,” she says.

She also adds that many small women entrepreneurs are making remarkable products, but due to a lack of proper resources and marketing skills, they cannot sell their products efficiently.

“These live sessions are a platform that connects these entrepreneurs to the customers and help their products reach far and wide,” she says, adding, “There is no greater joy in helping other women entrepreneurs expand their businesses, one at a time,” she concludes.