In 1999, when K Vaitheeswaran, along with his five friends, started Fabmart—India’s first ecommerce company—the entrepreneur was treading a new path. “It was so new that I was always in doubt if ecommerce is a hyphenated or non-hyphenated word,” he recalls. When Fabmart launched music cassettes, Vaithee invited his friends to buy a cassette. “I thought it would help us in getting the business to move,” he says. Most of his friends did oblige, but had one common query: “Please give us the address. We will come and buy.” Vaithee persisted, and believed that online will take off in the country.
Three years later, in 2002, Fabmart was renamed Fabmall, with an offline avatar as well. The move worked. The brick and mortar business took off and, in 2006, it was bought by the Aditya Birla Group and renamed More. Meanwhile, Vaithee changed the name of the online part of Fabmall to IndiaPlaza, which finally got shuttered in December 2013. The online nightmare continued.
Two decades later, in 2019, the serial entrepreneur started dairy beverage brand Again Drinks. This time, Vaithee started offline, with a small online component. Reason: 90 percent retailing still happens offline in India. So far so good. Cut to the lockdown in March. Offline came to a grinding halt, and Vaithee went direct to consumers. “Now it feels like a homecoming,” he smiles.
Denne historien er fra August 14, 2020-utgaven av Forbes India.
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Denne historien er fra August 14, 2020-utgaven av Forbes India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Home-Cooked Meal Is Now Greatly Valued
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Paytm 3.0 - Reaching Near Breakeven In Two Years
As of 2020, Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s super app for financial services had run up losses in thousands of crores. Now, as digital payments gets yet another boost courtesy Covid-19, he’s hopeful of reaching near breakeven in two years
THE PANDEMIC HAS CAUSED WOMEN GREATER LABOUR PAIN
Covid-19 has shown that women are more likely to face the brunt of job losses than men, and find fewer opportunities when they want to resume. That apart, several have to deal with increased hours of unpaid work at home and even domestic abuse
LEADERSHIP WILL BE ABOUT SEEING THE BIGGER PICTURE
Leaders must not only guard their teams first during a crisis, but also deal with stakeholders with respect and dignity. And apart from pursuing business goals, they should remain committed to our planet and the environment
PHILANTHROPY SHOULD BE HUMBLE, BUT NOT MODEST
Apart from building a flexible and resilient framework for the future, philanthropists, civil society and the government must work in tandem so that every rupee is absorbed on the ground
INTEGRATED HEALTH CARE, TECH WILL DISRUPT SECTOR
While clinical research will get a boost, having a skilled workforce and public spending on health care will be challenges in the near term
DIGITALISATION WILL HELP IN VALUE CREATION
As the pandemic brings technology and innovation to the core of business and daily life, the next decade will see about 150 million digital-first families in India
Industry 4.0: Climate Revolution?
Augmenting sustainability alongside digital capabilities is an economic, competitive and global opportunity for India’s businesses, but regulations need to reflect intent
EV Dream Still Miles Away
Electric vehicles have remained a buzzword in India for years. But not much has moved on ground due to high upfront costs, range anxiety and charging infrastructure
Living Waters
A virus has caused us to scramble for oxygen but our chokehold on the environment is slowly strangling the very waters that breathe life into us. The virus is a timely reminder: We are merely consumers, not producers of life’s breath on this planet
