In India where the penetration of e-commerce is growing at a faster rate with a large number of new entrants, a variety of products are available online in a single e-commerce store catering to varying gender, age, category, model and price range. Menzkart , established in 2010 and owned by String Enterprises, is an online shopping portal which caters exclusively to Indian men. All the products listed in Menzkart will be only men-centric.
We catch up with Suresh Singh, Co-founder Menzkart.com for a chat on the need for all-men portal and his key e-commerce learning in startup journey so far.
Story behind the startup
The story began when two friends who went shopping for underwear and were unable to find their preferred brand. One of them with six years hands on experience in retail industry and internet marketing immediately sensed the huge plethora of possibilities that lay before them. Some preliminary search was conducted and they discovered that there a very few websites that exclusively catered to men. They both sensed it as the opportunity they have been waiting for. There was a huge untapped market for this segment. It gave birth to menzkart.com. Along the way, we they were joined by another friend, an experienced digital marketing professional, who showed deep interest in their vision and chose to partner with them on the journey of turning menzkart into the preferred shopping destination for men.
Why Men need a dedicated portal?
Men shop more compared to their female counterpart when it comes to shopping online. Men are loyal to the brand and the store where they shop from. So, men shop more on the basis of having taken a prior decision. In the present age, where time is in short supply, many people prefer shopping online. This forms the premise of founding menzkart and it seems to be working really well.
Despite competition from biggies such as Flipkart, E-bay and others, menzkart has been able to build loyal customer base.They have a high number of customers who keep making repeat purchases. When we ask Suresh on why a consumer should choose to shop at menzkart, he says, “We have identified 4 key reasons why customers like what we do: 1) We offer quality service; 2) We understand their needs better; 3) We ensure privacy of customers; 4) We give them the best deals on the best brands. The combination of the 4 factors leads to high customer satisfaction and has evolved to be our USP. “.
Learnings & Road Ahead
Where all the e-commerce stores have been going the CoD way, Menzkart team begs to differ. The startup is able to sustain and grow without having to offer this mode of payment. The biggest learning for the founders in their startup journey so far is,’Ecommerce in India can thrive without CoD’.
Right now, the team is focusing on optimizing traffic and revenues for existing products listed on the site. The startup has achieved break even, and have set revenue targets for next 6 months. “Once we achieve those targets, we’ll be approaching VCs for investment. We have been able to bootstrap so far, but to ensure the business scales fast enough, we’d need to look beyond internal resources and reserves”, says Suresh.
Growth Hack for fellow Entrepreneurs
To have patience.
To periodically do things which keep your morale up (really helps when the going gets tough)
To have extreme focus on the USP that your business offers to customers
TTP’s take on Menzkart
If it manages to keep up the loyal customer base with good customer service and expand its range of products from basic intimate wear to all range of men’s garments and accessories, Menzkart seems to be promising e-commerce platform for men. However, it remains to be seen how far this e-commerce startup can sustain in the online price wars becoming more common every day.
