This entrepreneur acquired a company from his boss and turned a loss-making gifting business profitable

Raise your hand if you’ve ever sent or received a personalised gift — a mug, keychain, photo frame, or posters. Customised gifting, which gained traction around the mid-2000s, is a multi-billion dollar industry. In India, the trend has gained momentum over the last few years due to internet penetration in tier 2 and 3 cities as well as access to disposable incomes. 

When Mumbai-based ZoomIn began its online and offline personalised gifting business in 2009, the gifting landscape in India was different. According to Sachin Katira, who joined the company as a Head of Customer Service and later took over Zoomin’s operations, the local market showed promise but was growing slowly, unlike western markets. 

In fact, Zoomin’s founder, whose name Sachin didn’t disclose, had to sell the business in 2018 due to the mounting losses. The founder decided to focus on his other businesses abroad. 

Sachin, however, decided to stay. 

“But we were enjoying what we were doing and were confident enough that in the coming years, this business would grow,” Sachin tells SMBStory, adding that by this time Jio had made the internet more accessible and people even from tier 2 and 3 towns were exploring personalised gifting options.

Partnering with a friend, Sachin bought out the company in 2018 at an undisclosed amount and started afresh. He focussed on the online business model through its website and mobile application. He claims that since he acquired the company, it has grown 60 percent year on year. Zoomin even survived the COVID-19 pandemic, an event that closed many businesses. 

But how did he do it? 

Turning a loss-making company profitable

Sachin says that the charm of personalised gifting never faded but yes, people needed more options to explore as mere photos on mugs and frames went out of style. When Sachin took over the reins of the business, he added more categories such as calendars, magnets, photo books, planners, etc in a variety of base materials. 

According to dataintelo, the global personalised gifts market was valued at $26.3 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $41.3 billion by 2026, expanding at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 9.5 percent during the forecast period 2020-2026. 

Capitalising on the growth, Sachin also worked towards backward integration and owning the entire value chain. He says that all the raw materials now are procured locally. Designing and printing is also done in-house. 

Zoomin has around 20 SKUs (stock keeping units) now where each product is available in multiple variants, meaning customers have several options to choose from. 

The company has seen its customer base grow from eight lakh in 2018 to 21 lakh now. Its app users have increased from seven lakh in 2018 to 17 lakhs now. Sachin claims that 50 percent of Zoomin’s orders are repeat, showing high customer retention. 

Zoomin gets around 25,000 orders in a month and the number is rising, Sachin says. 

Challenges and the competition

Talking about the challenges, Sachin says that customer acquisition has been one of the top issues. 

“The competition is huge but it is good as it opens the market. However, just like any D2C brand, customer acquisition is demanding where we are also spending a lot in marketing.”

As for competition, Sachin tells SMBStory that there are many players in the market now, both organised and unorganised. What differentiates Zoomin from others is its penetration in tier 2 and 3 towns. It has also delivered products to the remotest city — Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh. 

Zoomin has so far delivered to 18,000 pin codes. Sachin aims to add more to this number by increasing the company’s reach. 

The way ahead

Leveraging emerging technologies, Sachin plans to introduce Augmented Reality (AR) into the company’s website and app as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to help users pick the best photos for their gifts. 

Sachin is also looking for a strategic partnership to grow the company and expand business to untapped parts of the country.