A few years ago, I developed a new women’s fashion product: a net-embroidered dupatta. I began selling it on Flipkart and was delighted when it took off and started trending. Unfortunately, a host of players quickly ripped off my beautiful design and began eating into my market share. Flipkart is vehemently against any intellectual property infringement, but because my design was not trademarked, I could not report these copycats and get their product listings taken down.
This experience taught me two things: eCommerce is a powerful launchpad for great products, and innovators must have a trademarked brand to protect their products from imitators.
This is how I came to set up my brand, Mayantra Creations. For me, business has been a journey of such decisions.
I have a Commerce degree, but I started out in the social sector. When I switched to business, eCommerce was still at a very nascent stage. Brick-and-mortar stores were still the default, but I could see that a new wind was blowing in retail. Only eCommerce could give me the scale and national reach I wanted.
Since I lacked the capital and manpower I needed to get started in eCommerce, I partnered with Rahul Raj Textiles. Today, my partners and I own three enterprises: Rahul Raj Textiles, Mayantra Creations, and Harshiv Enterprises, an offline business that sells palazzos, tops and kurtis.
We are pleased with the way our business is growing. Last year, we recorded annual revenue of more than INR 5 crores, with an even 50/50 split between our online and offline businesses.
The online business is what excites me the most. Seeing how eCommerce remained resilient during the pandemic, I decided I needed to rapidly upskill and gain new knowledge in areas like product, pricing and stock management. And this brought me to Walmart Vriddhi.
I’ve learnt a lot through Walmart Vriddhi, including how to launch and promote products in various markets, how to control quality parameters, how to overcome pricing issues, and much more.
The team at Walmart Vriddhi helped me become aware of the nuances of digital business and assisted me in taking more of my business online during the pandemic.
