If you have something to sell, we will give you the store, with this ultimate aim the proposition for the
Purple Stores was taken back by the team in 2009. Initiated as a SEO company, the team served customers in the UK, primarily from eCommerce space and further expertised in magento in 2011. By 2012, team emerged as an e-commerce consulting and development platform. In the following years, Apparel India.com was founded by the team and beta launch of Purple stores was done, later several modified add-on features were added and later in 2015 the official launch of Purple Stores happened. They have grown through time and gained expert knowledge and have learned the ropes of the art. Today they are working with some of the popular retail brands helping them grow online.
What might come as a surprise is that the idea of creation of the venture resulted from a ‘conversation’, yes, you heard it right. Amit Jain, the founder had a conversation with a husband-wife duo who wanted to start their own organic cosmetics label. And during the conversation, he realized the need for a low-cost offering (eCommerce solution) which is a one stop shop for the Indian SMEs.
What is the intendment of Purple Stores?India's eCommerce market is expected to breach the $100-billion mark by FY20, triggered by increasing internet usage, discounting and investment by online retailers, [economictimes]. The internet and mobile penetration have brought about an progression in the eCommerce sector, resulting in an elevation in the number of retailers. All retailers necessarily do not have the equal proficiency of managing an online store which often leads to a fizzle business venture. Purple Stores aims to address this issue through their assistance.
Purple Stores is a DIY eCommerce platform devised specifically for the Indian Retailers which empowers them to run their own eCommerce platform with ease at an affordable price and on-demand technical support. Few successful ventures gone online with Purple Stores are BeeBay(India), ART4U (India), Brand Alley (UK) and Jacaranda living (US).
Purple Stores is a self-funded venture and is currently serving clients ( mostly apparels and groceries domain), in India. Amit Jain, founder Purple stores says, “Purple Stores’ goal is to help every SME in India to sell its goods and services online.”
The company further claims that the clients’ turnover is almost 2.5Cr per month via Purple Stores eCommerce platform.
About Owner of the Store that helps merchants to sell online:Amit Jain, founder, Purple stores, is an engineer from IIT Delhi, MBA from SP Jain Mumbai and worked with Fortune 5 company for 8 years in operations, finance, and risk before taking the entrepreneurial plunge. He is a certified 6 sigma black belt and LEAN expert. Amit is also an active speaker and contributor in the e-commerce space in India. Presently, Purple Stores has 12 members in their team and is headquartered in Okhla, Gurgaon.
How is Purple Stores disparate from the contemporaries?The contradistinct feature of the Purple Stores lies in its altered service i.e. a webstore which is easy to manage even by a computer novice. By using Purple Store’s SaaS platform each Merchant gets a separate user account while using the common application and infrastructure. Once the merchant sign up, he/she can designate from hundreds of unique templates and a unique domain name to create their website and start selling services online instantly. Hence, Purple stores allow merchants to get going online in a matter of minutes.
The venture brings complete throughgoing solution including services such as product management, catalog design, logistic support, payment gateway, site management, internet marketing, etc. Apart from providing designing and content development services at hourly rates, purple stores gives an ‘A La Cart’ feature to add services on demand. Hence, clients pay what they use. The venture provides a first-hand experience of technological support and global best practices to all its clients. They entertain limited customizations and are offering free android app for a limited period.
Buttoned up against challenges:One of the most common problems faced by Purple Stores is the training of the client and privation of skilled resources on the part of their clients.
But, Purple Stores is designed and developed keeping in a view that, merchants are businessmen and not techies. Hence, the team offers high level of hand holding and support, which includes setting up the store, uploading first 20 products and training the client to manage the store. Currently, the team provides on-demand dedicated technical support to their clients through phone calls. But to tackle this issue more feasibly and making it a wonderful experience for their client, their team of experts keeps on discovering new strategies.
The Plan ahead:The Purple Stores will keep enterprise-level functionalities in focus and plans to grow to 3000 customers the coming year compared to the current 500 registered customers. Another point of focus for them is the further innovation of their technology. They will add plug and play 3rd party integrations in their system modulation. Presently they are focusing on Indian market and they might go to international markets on later stages.
