Online Grocery Portal eBZaar.com is Looking to Raise an Angel Round of $150K-$250K
Mumbai-based eBZaar.com sells fruits, grocery, mithai, cakes, flowers, meat & seafood etc. eBZaar.com makes local shopping easy and rewarding for the consumer. Local shopping has many inconveniences and despite that customers love their local stores. eBZaar empowers the local neighbourhood store to have a quick online presence while the customer gets to see all of them at one place and in an online avatar. It is live in Grocery, Indian Sweets, and Fruits, with service across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and pockets of Surat, have processed few hundred orders with sales of close to Rs 10 lakhs. Besides, eBZaar is incubated at Govt. of India approved incubator, part of IBM’s Global Entrepreneurship Program and in Top 25 of eBay Startup Cup Mumbai. Also it is recognised as a Changemaker as part of Economic Times Powered Catapooolt Changemakers (Season 2.0) on Catapooolt.com.
A major part of the revenue is through generating a sale for their store partners; it is directly linked to the quantum of sales. In future eBZaar will leverage data to provide value-added services & help its store partners improve their business; probably some of these services may attract a fee. However, it is sometimes into the future, probably the next phase of tech build out. The current focus is to build scale before such value-added services and/or this fee-based model kicks in. The startup is totally bootstrapped and is funded by Founder, and friends and family. It is looking to raise an angel round - $150,000 to $250,000 should be a great start. A large part is needed to build team, technology, strengthen supply side and build more traction.
Being a lean business model, there is a realistic chance of a quick break-even and a quick scale up; focusing on two core skills tech and marketing. Also, at the backend, eBZaar intends to provide deeper technology services and enablement for their store partners. It will be interesting to see what forms it takes. While eBZaar works with curated and handpicked stores only, the big story will play out as and when eBZaar decides to broad base the platform by opening it up for mom & pop stores as also for modern format retail stores [Big Bazaar, Dmart and Reliance Fresh etc]. There is clarity about one thing, differentiated value proposition and clear communication about it to the customers - at each stage of its evolution. Of course, it may need more funds to build out this platform but then it will be a much broader technology play ensuring it connects all the dots and offer varied tech solutions to both – sellers of all kinds and buyers too, having an option to shop from a larger set of sellers.
eBZaar aims to grow into a Rs. 5000 crore business in a few years’ time. This will happen when eBZaar expands to say about 15 cities in 2/3 years and execute as per plan for the big story to play out. For the current, the focus is first on expanding segments, stores and customers. Marketing is a mix of digital marketing – SEM/SEO/SMM, emails etc and the traditional word of mouth and customer references. Likewise, on the supply side, there are many enquiries through their website itself. Apart from this, eBZaar’s team constantly looks out for good sellers through the internet or when they are walking around; at other times the customers themselves guide us to the next seller they would love to see online with eBZaar.
Grocery & Food constitutes the largest pie in retail – almost close to 60% - and this is not at all surprising as large part of this is our daily need items. The estimated market in India is about $400bn, and online market is not even at $1bn – all players put together! It surely shows the huge potential for this segment, it has to lay catch up with the more favoured electronics & mobile, followed by fashion and fashion accessories. In 5 years, even if online can get a share of 5% the online segment can be $20bn – i.e. 20X in 5 years. In this perspective, the long-term aspirational target of being a Rs. 5000 crore company is hardly a fraction of $20bn and so sky (and of course, capital as an important fuel!) is the limit.
For now, the focus of eBZaar is on moving from few hundred orders to few thousand. Getting first few customers is always difficult. The fact that eBZaar has some early traction having processed hundreds of orders; and that there are a fairly loyal set of customers who repeatedly shop from them is what keeps their business going. The customers are the best brand ambassadors and can help spread the word about eBZaar. The faith of repeat customers is something very important, and eBZaar is striving to keep it going.
By taking the first step to crowdfund eBZaar, you will not be doing a favour for yourself but you will also cut down the time a person normally spends in a supermarket.
Today, eBZaar stands amongst the top 32 Catapooolt Changemakers Season 2 and is trying to bring a change in their disruptive idea – ‘your Kirana store under one roof.’ You too can be a part of their initiative by backing them on - catapooolt.com
