ENTREPRENEUR SPECIAL... Now curated serendipity in the mail

Now curated serendipity in the mail 
 

Startups think inside the box, deliver everything from cupcakes to cosmetics

    A year-and-a half ago, Kaushik Mukherjee and Vineeta Singh were trying to figure out ways to sell personal beauty and grooming products online. E-commerce, after all, had been around for a while. That is when they chanced upon subscription boxes — a monthly service of curated products that is hugely popular in the West. The concept, described as ‘discovery commerce’, is simple: A subscriber gets a box of goodies every month. What he or she pays is usually less than the cost of the goods, but what these entrepeneurs are interested in is not the small subscription fee but the chance to convert customers.
    “It is the surprise element that is interesting. Vineeta met customers in the US and visited a similar business in China. It appealed to us because it held the possibility of a unique box for every member and that could be very exciting,” says Mukherjee, co-founder of Vellvette.com. The box service for high-end beauty products (started in September) now ships to 3,000 customers across India.
    A curated box is an idea that could appeal to anyone. Who can resist the joy of opening up a bundle whose contents are unknown? These days, such unique box services are arriving at
Indian doorsteps and they could hold anything, from food and jewellery to kids’ activities. The elements are carefully picked by connoisseurs every month. “It is a good way for people who are interested in a new segment but don’t know what to buy,” says Janice Shah, who co-founded Gourmet Box, a two-month-old subscription service for gourmet high-end food products.
    The current theme of Gourmet Box is Japanese so the boxes have udon noodles, soba noodles, miso soup paste, teriyaki marinade, rice crackers, edamame beans and wasabi-coated peas. “When people talk about Japanese food, they only think sushi. But this introduces them to other foods. The tendency when we go to a supermarket is to only buy what is familiar,” says Shah.
    Several of these businesses link supply and the demand sides. It could be that new or foreign entrepreneurs and suppliers do not know how to find consumers or that consumers do not know where to source new or rare products. In the case of Bake Box, it is both. For new home bakers, finding customers is quite a tough job once the “friends and family” circles are saturated. “We were very surprised by the number of home bakers in Delhi. We asked them if they would be interested in something like this. Facebook and social media pages can be quite limiting. Today, we have managed to build a network of dedicated clients for baked goods,” says Mansi Sharma, creative director, Bake Box.
    Though Bake Box makes a profit on the boxes, Gourmet Boxes actually sells its boxes below cost price because the company’s primary business is the online sale of gourmet food products. The boxes are only a means to create a buzz around the product. “The products that went into the box ended up becoming fastest selling products on the site,” says Shah. She adds that suppliers are also very interested in this model. “In a supermarket, there is a one-in-a-thousand chance that someone will pick a product up. This is a chosen product and it offers suppliers a direct chance to get into houses,” says Shah.
    For Vellvette too, making consumers go from using sample sizes packed in boxes to full-size products is an important objective. “In most cosmetic box businesses in the West, conversion is a big part of making the business sustainable. But in India, consumers use even samples over a much longer time. So, the conversion doesn’t happen in a 30-day cycle. It is a 90-day cycle that is why we give them discount coupons with 90-day validity,” says Mukherjee.
    A key sub-segment which has seen a boom in boxes is for kids’ activties. Puja Bhoj, who cofounded Small Brown Box, says, “Traditionally, large toy companies sort of had a strong grip on the market. But the new focus on edu-tainment (learning through fun) has pare n t s t r y i n g n ew things,” says Bhoj.
    Curators agree that though finding products for a box that please everyone can be quite a task, there is no dearth of suppliers. Shah says, “There are a lot of people making a lot of amazing things out there. They just need a chance.”

Padmaparna Ghosh | TOI130901