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ShopatPlaces: Aiming to get the best of India at your doorsteps

Zuhaib Khan used to receive regular requests from his loved ones to get some unique products from places he visited. These casual requests later brainstormed his entrepreneurial journey and along with Shefur Rehman he cofounded ShopatPlaces. Shopatplaces is an e-commerce firm which delivers authentic products from places famous for them, at the doorstep of the customers and at the best prices. It removes the need to travel to far away destinations to buy the right stuff.

There are umpteen ecommerce companies in India, so what exactly separates ShopatPlaces from the others. According to Zuhaib the difference lies in the authenticity of the products they supply. “We only sell those products which are famous from a particular place like Pearls from Hyderabad, Filigree jewelry from Odisha, Pashmina shawls from Kashmir and so on. We are also the first ones in India to execute this concept of ‘Famous Places. Best Buys.”’

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Bringing best of India online

Shopatplaces is working on solving the problem of availability, quality assurance and authenticity verification, coupled with the fact that when these products were made available in other parts of the country, the good quality ones are exorbitantly priced. Essentially, the company is trying to get a reasonable supply chain in place . While the company has not shared the extent to which the supply chain can bring down the costs of these products, some industry watchers peg this in the range of 10-40 per cent depending on the type of product.

Get Famous Items From One Place - Shopatplaces

Making items from famous places available to people

Founded in 2012, Shopatplaces is the one-stop destination for authentic stuff from places famous for them. Customers can possess quality products like Chikankari apparel from Lucknow, Pashmina scarves from Kashmir and so on, without having to travel to these places. We hope to cover all states of India within a year of our launch and add products from international locations like Italian leather products and Indonesian batik prints after that.

Replacing The Middleman In India’s Retail Scene

It used to be that many Indians would ask friends or family to buy and bring back goods when they visit certain places. Both traveled extensively in their previous jobs, and would be inundated with such requests. “During my last visit to Jaipur, I had to lug a Bandhej Suit and Mojri for a friend whose request I couldn’t decline,” shares Khan, 26, who used to be in private equity and investment banking. They also found that the prices at which those products were manufactured and sold at the places famous for them was nothing as compared to the prices at which customers could buy them in other parts of the country. “(There) was too much flab and leakage in the whole supply chain,” he explains.

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WD: Tell us the story of how it started and the challenges you have faced?

 Zuhaib: The idea for Shopatplaces came to us in September 2011, while I was working in JP Morgan’s London IB office while Sherfur was working in the Procurement department of Cadbury (now, Mondelēz International). We used to travel a lot while working for our respective organizations and every time we visited a new place, there were regular requests from our loved ones to ‘get something unique from that place’.

And that is how Shopatplaces was born! A site which will provide unique, hard-to-get products from places famous for them to its customers. We believe we are re-imagining the way traders operated on the famed silk route once upon a time.

Setting up a robust vendor base and supply chain was our biggest challenge so we left our jobs and traveled across the country for 6 months. It was a great learning phase for us, being on the ground and meeting the people who actually create all this superb quality stuff. This was a new domain for us and similar was the case for many SMEs and artisans who had never entered into a legal vendor agreement, ever.

Learning their challenges has helped us in working together in a better manner. For instance, now we understand that an intricate piece of Chikan apparel from Lucknow can take up to 6 months to finish. So, sourcing copies of this kind of product when we get an order from the customer is not possible at all.

SAVE UP ON TICKETS, SPLURGE ON STYLE

Want to flaunt an original Chikankari kurta from Lucknow or dazzle everyone by wearing a breathtaking pearl jewellery set from Hyderabad? Don’t fret if you can’t find time to jet set to other states to pick up goodies. Your dream of an interstate shopping spree may have finally come true. Buy filigree jewellery from Orissa, brass jewellery from Uttar Pradesh, Tussar silk stoles from Jharkhand and more at great prices at www.shopatplaces.com. So save up on the tickets and let the splurge begin. 2 January, 2013.

Famous Places. Best Buys at Shopatplaces.com

We have been true to our Raison d’être of ‘Shop At Places‘. We have on our site only and only those products which are famous from a particular place. Be it Filigree jewelry from Orissa, Brass jewelry from Uttar Pradesh, Tussar silk stoles from Jharkhand, Chikankari apparel from Lucknow and so on and so forth. We make these hard to find products available to our customers and provide assurance of quality with a promise of best buy. Our idea of best buy is pretty simple, say, we have leather bags from Kanpur, we will sell them at a price which is lower than the retail price of those bags in Kanpur itself. If we beat those markets where these products are manufactured, we automatically beat retail markets in all other cities.
With the product range we plan to keep, there will be specific target audience / targeted age group for specific individual categories. For the present portfolio of products, our target audience is Female / Male from age 21 years to 30 years, with a taste for quality products.

Buy authentic Kashmiri Shawl sitting at your home

TC: What is the USP of ShopAtPlaces?

We sell authentic merchandise that is very tightly integrated with places. Be it Filigree jewelry from Orissa, Brass jewelry from Uttar Pradesh, Tussar silk stoles from Jharkhand, Chikankari apparel from Lucknow and so on and so forth. We make these hard to find products available to our customers and provide assurance of quality with a promise of best buy. Our idea of best buy is pretty simple, say, we have Chikankari apparel from Lucknow, we sell them at a price which is lower than the retail price in Lucknow itself. If we beat those markets where these products are manufactured, we automatically beat retail markets in all other cities.

This idea has never been executed in India ever. The closest peer that we have is FabIndia. However, we do not limit ourselves to handcrafted products only.

Another first in the Indian market is Free Customization for all our apparel. At present, the women who are shopping online, buy apparel and get it altered as per their requirements later on. We know that each woman is unique and what fits one doesn’t fit another. If we succeed in providing them customized apparel at no cost and if it fits them perfectly, we will surely have a loyal customer base.

Follow your dream. Go places.

1. What is your startup about? An elevator pitch, please.

Shopatplaces delivers Authentic Products from Places Famous for them to the customer’s doorstep. Thus, our tagline – ‘Famous Products. Best Buys‘. Currently, our active categories include Accessories, Apparel, Bags and Fragrances. By the time we turn one (1 year from the date of our launch), we will have products from all states of India on our portal.

2. What is its value proposition and how is it different from competitors?

We have been true to our motto of ‘Shop At Places’. We have on our site those and only those products which are famous from a particular place. Be it Filigree jewelry from Orissa, Brass jewelry from Uttar Pradesh, Tussar silk stoles from Jharkhand, Chikankari apparel from Lucknow and so on and so forth. We make these difficult to find products available to our customers and provide assurance of quality with a promise of best buy. Our idea of best buy is pretty simple, say, we have Chikankari apparel from Lucknow, we will sell them at a price which is lower than the retail price in Lucknow itself. If we beat those markets where these products are manufactured, we automatically beat retail markets in all other cities.

This idea has never been executed in India ever. The closest peer that we have is FabIndia. However, we do not limit ourselves to handcrafted products only.

Buy Bhandej from Jaipur to Chikankari from Lukhnow

We tend to ask friends and family to fetch speciality products from well known places when they visit such places. For instance, during my last visit to Jaipur, I had to lug a Bandhej Suit and Mojri for a friend whose request I couldn’t decline. But now, I can direct such demands to Shopatplaces.com, an online store which collects popular products of well known places.

The Delhi based startup currently showcases famous products such as Pashmina shawls, Filigree jewelry from Orissa, Brass jewelry from Uttar Pradesh, Tussar silk stoles from Jharkhand, Chikankari apparel from Lucknow and several others products procured from places that are famous for making them.Shopatplaces brings the flavour of the varied Indian culture. At present, Shopatplaces offers 3 categories – accessories, apparels and bags, and has a collection of products from Delhi, Kanpur, Kashmir, Jharkhand, Assam, Lucknow, Jaipur and West Bengal. Like other e-tailers Shopatplaces enables consumers to create their wishlist, avail free shipping with plastic cards and Cash on Delivery (COD) as payment options.

Sharing the thought behind creating Shopatplaces, Zuhaib Khan, one of the founders said “I used to travel a lot while working for JP Morgan in London and every time I went to a new place, there were regular requests from our loved ones to bring back something unique from that place”. And then, as the adage goes, lightning struck! and Shopatplaces was born.”

To ensure smooth sourcing and a quick supply chain, founders left their jobs and traveled across the country for 6 months to set up Shopatplaces’s supply chain and vendor base. “It was a great learning phase for us, being on the ground and meeting the people who actually create all this great quality stuff,” added Khan....