Started with Rs 50K, how this Jaipur-based gifting brand clocked Rs 2.5 Cr turnover despite pandemic
Confetti Gifts was started in February 2020 by Saumya Kabra. The brand, which focuses on personalisation, serves 1,300 customers every month through its website, and counts Amazon, IBM, Adobe, Razorpay, etc, among its B2B clients.
Thanks to increased digitisation, it is now possible to reach out to your loved ones on special occasions even when physical meetings may be a bit of a challenge. That is why online gifting is becoming so popular.
According to a report, despite many shops being shut, the gift card market was influenced by several factors in the past year, including the growth of ecommerce, incentivising employees to work remotely, digital gifting, and initiatives undertaken by the government, hospitality, and travel industries to revive growth. Indian gifting market is projected to grow from $119 million in 2019 to $159 million by 2025 according to market research company TechSci Research.
is a Jaipur-based gifting brand founded in February 2020 by Saumya Kabra. The brand started out with corporate gifting and slowly made its way into the B2C space. The company was able to clock Rs 2.5 crore turnover this year despite the pandemic.
Here is how the company was able to scale up despite various challenges:
Recognising a gap
The beginning of any entrepreneurial journey starts with recognising a gap.
Saumya returned from the UK in January 2019 after completing her MBA from the University of Manchester. She wanted to order some goodies for her friends in India but couldn’t find any portal that combined “personalisation and emotions of the sender.”
She elaborates, “The available gifting options were very basic and didn’t really care about individual emotions. The variety was very limited and there was nothing that honoured an individual’s taste or likeness.”
This got Saumya thinking. Interested in becoming an entrepreneur because of the freedom of expression attached to it, she thought this was the right time and segment to dive into.
In 2019, she founded Confetti Gifts with an initial investment of Rs 50,000 amassed from personal savings.
Saumya Kabra, Founder of Confetti Gifts
Catering to every individual
Saumya says that Confetti Gifts is built on personalisation. Speaking on how she is achieving the same, Saumya tells SMBStory, “If somebody likes coffee or tea, then the box will be curated specifically for them keeping in mind their preferences.”
Confetti Gifts enables the customers to style their own boxes in a three-step process – selecting a box, choosing the products they want to gift, and finally, selecting a greeting card to send along with the hamper.
The company offers a host of products that can be added to the box, including photo frames, mugs, candles, tea, coffee, bow, tie, socks, face mask, stationery, and much more. Some of the brands it collaborates with to offer this variety include The Whole Truth, Puffmaster, Country Bean, 4700 BC, Tiggle, The Pastel Mind, Phy, Stallion Barware, Paul & Mike, Spread it, Nutty Gritties, Tea trunk, Brownsalt etc. These brands offer the products at a margin of 30-40 percent.
Gift boxes start from Rs 1,000 and go up to Rs 3,000. The average selling price is Rs 2,500. “You can find everything on a single platform,” reiterates Saumya.
For corporate gifting, Saumya says that the companies reach out to Confetti Gifts either directly or by dropping an email, after which the company sends them a questionnaire which includes details like the purpose of the gifts, the number and type of employees etc, to personalise the gift boxes.
Some of Confetti’s corporate clients include , , , , ING Bank, Mercedes Benz, Godrej, , Zee Media Group, , etc.
Gift Box
Online versus offline
As of yet, Confetti sells through its own website. It was listed on Shopify but Saumya says that right now, she wants to only focus on the website to “maintain exclusivity.” The brand is also marketing products on its Instagram and Facebook handles.
Around 60 percent of the company’s sales come from online requests and 40 percent from corporate gifting. The brand, which serves millennials aged between 18 and 28, not only sells pan India but also exports to countries like the US, the UK, Denmark, the UAE etc.
Talking about the export market, Saumya says, “Gifting chocolates is getting out of trend now. People in and around the world are looking for innovative products.”
The road less travelled
Confetti was launched shortly after Saumya returned from the UK. In addition, the company was in its infancy when the global pandemic struck India’s shores and caused disruptions. Talking about these challenges and cracking deals with companies like Amazon and IBM, Saumya says,
“We worked on low margins; we didn't want large margins from them while starting out. I have realised that a lot of these bigger brands are sales-centric. Giving them volumes at lower rates gets them quickly interested.”
She also added that the coronavirus pandemic created a lot of uncertainty but their sales saw a jump owing to the move from offline to online. In February 2021, Confetti sold 1,300 boxes with an average order value of Rs 2,753.
On average, it sells between 1,300-1,800 boxes a month.
Several players – both big and small – operate in the gifting space in India, including ITC, Ferns and Petals, The Gift Affair, IGP etc, but Saumya is confident that her product will stand out.
“They are curating a lot of products but they're not able to specifically target the emotions of the people. At Confetti, we're making sure that every single individual is getting the customisation they need. And it's not just about getting the names or the pictures printed on products. It's more than that. It's about understanding their likes and preferences,” she adds.
Confetti also offers a Period Pamper Box, which is specially designed for women experiencing distress during their menstrual cycle.
Going forward, Saumya shares the company is researching on how to introduce artificial intelligence in the backend systems. It is also planning to come up with a wedding category in the coming months.
Edited by Kanishk Singh