KashmirOneStop is an eCommerce platform started in January 2015 by Rohit Bhat and Meenakshi Bhat. The portal wants to reconnect people of Jammu and Kashmir living outside Jammu & Kashmir to their roots.
The company processes around 3-5 orders per day and during festival time the demand increases. It is also adding a lot of new categories like clothing, apparel ,carpets etc to make it a one-stop shop.
They also work out the modalities to start international shipping. The market size of the company is very large as these products are in demand globally.
About Founders
Rohit Bhat (Co-Founder )Rohit is a Kashmiri Pandit in his early thirtees . He is a Kashmiri Pandit living in exile in Jammu since 1990. He has a total work experience of over 10 years in Operations and Logistics. He has been doing a regular job for a living after completing his graduation. But his real passion is to work for the welfare of Kashmiri Pandit community living in exile. He was always inclined towards theatre and he thus started Vomedh theatre group in Jammu (Vomedh in kashmiri means hope). Vomedh is his endeavour to highlight the plight of kashmiri pundits through his plays. Next he founded kashmironestop.com which solves another problem of Kashmiris living far off from Kashmir.
Meenakshi Bhat (Co-Founder )Meenakshi comes from an academic background. She holds masters in public administration and Education and has worked first in schools as teacher and then as lecturer in college before taking sabbatical for the birth of her child. Meenakshi was not keen on going back to job and wanted to be an entrepreneur. She was contemplating starting a pre-school but her hunch held her back in taking the full plunge. But when the idea of kashmironestop.com emerged the whole family supported Rohit and Meenakshi. Meenakshi is now working full time for kashmironestop.com.
Chitrakshi Suneja Interacts With Rohit Bhat, Co-Founder, KashmirOneStop and Spoke to Him
How did the idea came to start?Rohit and Meenakshi had seen lot of their relatives and friends who are scattered across India and abroad, are struggling to get Kashmiri Spices, food items or other things. Also, the tourists who visit the state buy lot of stuff including shawls etc. But later if they want to buy any such authentic stuff they have channel. So, they thought of a one stop eCommerce platform where Kashmiri pandits could buy authentic high quality items like Kashmiri Mirchi Powder, Saffron, Rajma, Dry fruits etc. Even non- kashmiri people across india wish to buy these items. They thought everyone can get benefitted by this particular idea. For Kashmiri Pandits they have made available customized products like Shivratri pooja set, Kashmiri Music albums, Kashmiri Calendar called Janthari etc.
Unique Key Features ->We don’t just resell brands. To maintain the quality of the products, we ourselves source the products from best of the places and then package them
->We have made available everything from dry fruits to food items.
->We are customer centric and even service special or custom requests
Also Read: Check Out These 5 Growing Startups in Jammu & KashmirFunding Status & Monetization We are bootstrapped and plan to continue to be so for a few years. We have a certain strategy and vision for KashmirOnestop and we don’t want that to get influenced by investors.We also build up a small margin on our products.
Challenges FacedThe journey of entrepreneurship is always full of challenges. The first and foremost challenge is funding. Rohit had first exhausted his savings on Vomedh and now on Kashmironestop.com.
Another challenge is the reliability of shipping partner. It takes lot of follow up to ensure timely deliveries.
Also sourcing of quality material is a challenge. You can sit back and expect you would always get quality. You have to keep looking for better and better quality. Because that is what gains us trust from customers.
Advice For New Entrants in This SpaceGet your basics right. You don’t get a second chance with customers. This looks very glamorous from distance but on ground there are lot of challenges.
BW Reporters
This is Chitrakshi Suneja currently pursuing graduation and diploma in journalism and mass communication. She is crazy about Writing stuff on Startups, Entrepreneurs and reading as well.
