NeedyBee.com: An eCommerce Venture Providing Dressing Solutions for Kids
Jaipur-based NeedyBee.com is an eCommerce (B2B & B2C) venture in the kids and moms e-tailing space providing ‘Head2Toe’ Dressing solutions for Kids. The startup offers a vast array of products with over 5,000 unique designs including Accessories (Shoes, Socks, Hair Accessories, Jewellery, Sunglasses, Organic/cotton apparel, Beddings and Mom’s Corner (JaipurSe: bags, jewelry, bedding, home & kitchen soft furnishings). The company continuously adds more than 100 products each week to well match the changing styles and trends. Founded in 2012 with a seed capital of Rs. 3 lakh by Nidhi Mehta and Alop Mehta, the company caters to national and international buyers also.
SUJATA SANGWAN INTERACTS WITH THE NEEDYBEE.COM'S TEAM AND SPOKE TO THEM
How did the idea came to start?
Our story begins once upon a time ... our first born is a boy. After two exciting years of trucks, trains, planes, dirt and searching for colorful tees in the boys section, our daughter was born on 07/07/07. Overnight, we were surrounded by beautiful clips and bows and the fun of dressing up a girl... we were searching near and far to find the best of kids' clothes in India, which were both fashionable and functional. We found some good clothes and accessories, but we felt that "There was a gap in the market for quality, design-driven kidswear and accessories like we could find easily in the USA".
The seed was planted then. We shortly moved to Singapore and got busy in our work roles. Destiny beckons. Five years later we relocated to India to embark on our entrepreneurial journey, and thus NeedyBee was born, and began to grow – initially, as an e-tailing business, soon followed by various boutiques, chain stores buying our products for in-store sales.
What are the special key features of your startup?
NeedyBee has nurtured its brand ensuring that all product design, and marketing to the customer are developed in-house. This delivers a consistent approach to branding which increases brand recognition amongst customers. NeedyBee is a part of the #MakeInIndia initiative. We work with pure fabrics like cottons and voiles to create comfortable, breathable, sustainable and child-friendly clothing.
Our manufacturers are largely based locally and countrywide in India. The continuous design philosophy results in regular orders to its manufacturers. Vendors are selected based on their skills, product quality, timeliness and cost. Many of the vendors have been working with us since our foundation and understand the company's quality aspirations while still meeting the demanding production timelines of an internet company.
Who are your competitors? How are you different from the existing ones?
We are a unique brand in the sense that we are not a multi store brand like a Zara or a Benetton and nor are we a small time brand that buys from china or other mass market and sells under their brand name.
We are unique in the way that we have chosen the path we want to walk on. We want to be a kid’s brand that creates clothing from pure materials and fabrics. We want to bring back the memories of a parent's childhood into their child’s wardrobe by creating unique pieces of clothing with embroidery work, chikankari work, hakoba, patchwork, smocking that their mothers and grandmothers did .We want to revive the traditional grandmothers sewing and embroidery techniques into our clothing line and ensure that both the craft and those involved in it, thrive and feel pride in what they are creating. We want to prove that it is possible to run a successful craft-based business using traditional techniques to meet modern days requirements of parents for their babies.
How much amount of funding your startup raised till now?
We have been bootstrapping since our foundation and are self-funded. We have been working wisely and hence have been able to generate positive cash flows for our working capital needs.
We will think about funding when we feel the time is right to take the Brand to the next level and when we find the right investor who believes in the same values and vision that we have for the Brand.
How do you monetize?
Right from the start we knew that we wanted to create a strong business model – not based on valuation; but on real figures and real revenue and growth. Profitability was a key factor. We don’t believe in giving huge discounts to attract customers. Our quality speaks for itself and we have a lot of repeat customers. As a result, growth has happened organically and is real growth. We have been profitable and we use our profits to plough back to fuel growth.
What is the market size and market opportunity?
The market in India for Kids accessories and apparel in India is over Rs. 85,000 crores (65% apparel) and growing at the rate of 12% annually which makes it one of the fastest growing categories in the retail industry! Current market is an unorganised sector mostly populated with small non-branded players
What are the traction details?
We ship about 150+ orders a day and we are not just getting our sales from online channels but also now our brand is carried at all Mom & Me stores across India, various kids boutiques . So our brand presence and recognition is increasing.
What advice you want to give the new entrants in this space?
We often take the opportunity to address school and college kids on Entrepreneurship. It's our attempt to inform them and motivate them to keep working on their ideas, seek help, ask for advice and go head on if they believe in their idea! In fact, college is the best time to get on the path of entrepreneurship because you have the energy, the drive, less financial baggage to worry about and not much to lose!
They must be clear on how they will shape their idea up and be financially conservative while making their plans. It’s important to make a financially viable business model..
