Every hacker, designer, amateur, marketeer or who ever took the plunge to become an entrepreneur has a story for how it all started and why are they into this battlefield. Not every one is exceptional, nor does every one disrupt the niche captivetd by footholds of giants. But the courage to take the plunge still sets you apart from the usual ones who don’t want to part ways from the comfy cubicle and the corporate.
We being in digital media are great believers in what Ira Glass once quoted, “All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste.”
Campus Sutra set an epoch of delivering the best in quality and design for customized merchandise and ascended the scale.
We had an opportunity to get in conversation with Khushboo Agarwal, Founder of Campus Sutra and learn more about the story behind and the efforts that go into bringing out quality products.
Campus Sutra has gained a good amount of popularity and clients as well, Can you tell us the story behind, and how did the idea come up? And how and where this all started?
Following an invitation, I attended an Alumni Meet held at college. All of those old memories flew into my mind and was left completely emotional. The nostalgic feeling made me think how it would be to have a memento which would remind of these memories whenever I wanted. This was when I came across a stall put up in the campus which was selling customized merchandise. The quality of the merchandise put off all my hopes and felt disappointed. From here started a story that I decided to write myself. With an aim to foray into the market and make a mark through high quality of products, proficient supply chain and most importantly, the pricing, Campus Sutra was born. We haven’t looked back since then; all we have in mind is making it big in every sense.
For T-shirts and Hoodies, can you tell us about the product material and the technicalities i.e. the real hard work that goes into the making?
The clothing merchandise is mainly made up of three fabrics- cotton, polyester and polycotton, a mixture of polyester and cotton. Based on manufacturing costs and glow on the finished product, as preferred by the customer, these fabrics are designed to give the merchandise the perfect fit. The printing processes like screen, digital and sublimation printing along with the option of meticulous embroidery make it a point that the image on the t-shirt, jacket or hoodie is clear and lasting. To reinforce the quality of the fabric, the clothing is taken through several types of enzyme treatment, and bio wash. Various materials used for the varied products, right from clothing to accessories, are chosen with the sole purpose of casting quality onto it.
Campus Sutra makes T-shirts, Hoodies, Bags and other Accessories as well, which one is the most ordered one?
Campus Sutra has worked towards breaking the status quo related to customized merchandise, which is the t-shirts sell the most. Along with the t-shirts, other exclusive merchandise like jackets, bags and accessories have made to good numbers in sales. The fact that customers have started realising that customized merchandise apart from just t-shirts, are a crucial investment, has added impetus to the sales of these products.
With competition building up in this space, does Campus Sutra have some novel marketing or business strategies on their board? Would you like to share some tips or points with us?
As our market research suggested, the present market scenario speaks of the inefficiency of the supply chain, low quality of products and various unorganised players in the market. We have taken up the challenge of turning around these factors completely in order to make the market more efficient and provide better product and service to customers. High preference is given to the customer’s viewpoint and satisfaction when it comes to pricing, quality and delivery of products. Broader supply chain, quicker delivery system and meticulous manufacturing processes have been a significant part of our success strategy.
Advice to the entrepreneurs who have just started their journey.
To start, as an entrepreneur, you should concentrate on building a strong backend setup which would complement your sales directly. This would include having a widespread supply chain ready to deliver anytime efficiently and a delivery system which would make the customer’s wait for the product shorter and sweeter. Being someone who is just trying to foray into an already competitive market, one should believe that he/she can attain a unique brand identity among a cluster of brands. The belief that you can make a position for your brand in the almost saturated market is what would make way for your success. Lastly, the most crucial point to be kept in mind is that e-commerce is not only about the work done online; instead it’s majorly about the work which is done offline. The misconception that you can get a business rolling by just setting up a website needs to be set aside. Carefully setting up a team which can deliver to their best every single time, is what would make the commerce of your company ever progressive.
Team behind Campus Sutra.
In order to build a business that’s successful and sustainable, you have to bring the best minds together, experts in their own fields, at one place at the same time. With this intention in mind, Khushboo Agarwal and Sonal Agarwal, with their expertise respectively, took charge of the ship. Khushboo’s expertise in Operations & Finance and Sonal’s expertise in Design guided by industry experts like Ravi Kabra with few others, have kept the business strategies on track. Ravi’s experience in online retail and other experts from retail and marketing industry has proven to be the backbone of commerce at Campus Sutra.
From Left to Right – Khushboo, Sonal and Ravi – Team Campus Sutra
What are your future plans for Campus Sutra?
The aim would be to sustain the momentum all throughout the journey, to attain the goal of being the market leader in the segment of customised merchandising by 2015. It’s still the initial phase of development for the brand, and we would like to continue to achieve all short term and long term goals. Our immediate plans include collaborations with leading companies like Flipkart, Jabong, Sweet Couch, Tradus and many more. Expanding our collaborations with NGOs and other organizations, which currently stands with organizations like AIESEC, Breakthrough and MAD, has been on the forefront of the strategy. Now that we have made a mark in the industry by clinching one of the biggest clients and orders, and not to mention satisfying them, we aim to take it all the way at a steady pace.
