MUMBAI: The e-commerce sector in India is going through a purple patch and the latest one to enter the bandwagon is none other than Arvind Sharma.
After spending over three decades in the advertising industry, Sharma has been bitten by the entrepreneur bug. He along with one of the founding members of Yepme, Amit Gaur, has launched an online platform for the treasured Indian outfit – sari.
The self-funded, Indiasarihouse.com, aims to enhance and simplify the sari shopping experience along with benefitting the weaver community.
“A sari is more than a piece of commerce. It is the Indian women’s attire for every day and for special occasions. It represents the spinning, dyeing and weaving arts of India, nurtured by kings, queens, and princesses and perfected by India’s craftsmen over centuries. Each sari woven by a weaver’s family represents a piece of Indian history and culture. India Sari House aims to build a self-sustaining long-term channel directly between the weavers and sari consumers around the world. Amit’s wealth of experience in sourcing and e-commerce operations will help us hugely in our ambitions,” says Sharma.
The platform has recruited textile and fashion graduates, who find and verify the weavers across 20 centers in the country. From pure silk offerings like Kanjivarams, Dharmavarams, Banarasis to pure cottons ones like Ikkats, Mangalagiris, Tants and Kerala Cottons, the recently launched website has everything a woman would desire in her wardrobe.
Apart from increasing the number of sari centers in the near future, the sari house plans to get some of India’s famous designers to each adopt a weaving center and help modernise the designs some of these centers produce.
On funding the project, Sharma highlights that after three to four months he will start talking to the investors to raise funds for the platform and take it to the next level.
Gaur says, “We are building a channel with quality and integrity. To deliver these to the consumers, we have deployed a team that visits and identifies weavers that India Sari House will deal with. They hand pick saris from these weavers. We have put together another team of qualified textile and fashion experts to examine each sari and rate it on 4F factors – Fabric authenticity, Fine workmanship, Fashion quotient and Fitness for occasions. Each sari we sell will come with a 4F certificate. Since, India Sari House buys and stocks all the saris it sells, consumers can be sure that all saris will be shipped to them within 24 hours.”
Indiasarihouse.com is accessible to consumers around the world. However, initially it is being promoted in the US, Canada and the UK. Over time, it plans to cover 23 major countries of the world where there is a significant Indian diaspora presence.
Currently, Resultrix is handling the digital promotions of the web store while Underdog is the creative agency for the account.
