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Husband-And-Wife Duo
Launches New E-Commerce Portal:
Simbacart's Mandeep Kaur & Mandeep Singh

SINDHU KASHYAP

 

 

 




According to a December 2014 report by Google, with the increasing penetration of the Internet, and growing preference for online shopping and e-tailing, the e-commerce in India is poised to grow to US $15 billion by next year. In fact, the report also stated that the online shopper base will grow three times by 2016.

Along with the three biggies Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal, several other e-commerce portals with other players are taking up their space in this ever-growing market.  Some of these are growing, while others see a quick demise. Only time can tell if these portals will survive the test of the ever-fickle needs and wants of a customer.

One such entrant in the market is Simbacart.

Based in Mohali, Punjab, Simbacart was founded in 2014 by husband and wife duo, Mandeep Singh Sidhu and Mandeep Kaur.

Giving a brief insight into her background, Mandeep Kaur says, “I was born and brought up in a small village called Tangra, which is 26 km from Amritsar. My family owns a flour mill in the village, and they were very insistent that I get a good education.”

She is an MBA and has worked with Hypercity and a Bangkok-based premium jewellery brand, Pranda.

Initially, Simbacart was started by Mandeep Singh as an online/offline handicrafts store.

“He is a core IT professional who was working for Infosys at that point in time. The operational work of Simbacart wasn’t doing well, and it had to be revamped,” says Mandeep Kaur.

This time around, both decided to combine their skill sets and work towards building Simbacart.

“I was looking to do something of my own. I felt that I just wasn’t giving my 100 percent in a job set-up as there was lack of freedom and ownership. This was something that I could work on with complete freedom,” says Mandeep Kaur.

When the duo decided to revamp the portal, they faced several challenges and roadblocks. One of the biggest was funding.

“We had diversified from the initial model to include electronics and other products online. After convincing the distributors and talking to several people, we were able to sell a variety of products online. Once the orders started coming, we realised we needed the money before we got it from the customer. So, for example, if we got two orders, to ship those, to pack them and for all the other operational costs, we needed the money,” says Mandeep Kaur.

In order to combat these challenges, the duo pooled in their savings, and while Mandeep Kaur left her job to manage the operational aspects of the business, Mandeep Singh retained his job to ensure continued flow of funds into the business.

Also, to ensure smooth functioning of the portal and bring in diversification, the duo ensured that they built a complete IT solutions infrastructure. This covered all aspects of the business like safe and easy finance, proper cataloguing, CRM systems and the sales backend.

“It’s been a year, and we’re now a small, but growing, team of 20 people, and have processed over 20,000 + orders resulting in sales of over Rs 20 million. We began with just one vendor; today, we have over a hundred,” says Mandeep Kaur.

Simbacart is currently on the brink of expansion with aggressive marketing plans in place.

“We’re targeting over a hundred thousand orders this year,” adds Mandeep Kaur.

In order to diversify, Simbacart has a sister concern Simbaquartz which sells IT services . They’re looking to bring work as a third-party logistics with a few clients.

“We’re bringing several field experts on board to help us diversify our IT solutions base,” says Mandeep Kaur.

Simbacart plans to secure the necessary funding by the end of this year to meet its goals.


[Courtesy: Your Story. Edited for sikhchic.com]
March 28, 2015
 

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