Ezmall ships over 5,000 units on a daily basis and plans to scale it three times by Diwali
Essel Group-backed omnichannel content to commerce (c2c) start-up Ezmall plans to cover 90 million homes in the next one year from 60 million at present.
Launched in 2017, Ezmall currently operates across home, kitchen, cleaning and ethnic wear categories and is present across all major DTH and Cable platforms via its 24x7 television channel and reaches over 60 million homes. The company covers 26,000 Indian pin codes.
Amit Bansal, chief executive officer, Ezmall, said, "With a 20% repeat customer rate, we make money on every shipment. A 40% month-on-month user growth is a good indicator of business model scalability." He said that the company's unit economics are healthy and margins from operations more than cover all costs except headquarter and marketing.
The omnichannel c2c company ensures product quality by working with select partners. Besides, it hand-picks products and buys deep, thereby enabling the business to achieve sharp price points even at the initial stages. Currently, it ships over 5,000 units on a daily basis and plans to scale it three times by Diwali. The company management also plans to expand reach to over 90 million homes (over 360 million users) with a repeat customer rate of 35% over the next 12 months.
In terms of leveraging the expertise of Essel Group's businesses, Bansal said, "We are able to learn from Zee in leveraging rich contextual insights. For example, one of the insights was that the next hundred million (NHM) users seek conversation and advice before decision-making. This insight clearly reflects in the EZmall content, which is heavily conversational and advisory in nature and thereby creates an experience that is very close to touch and feel."
An Essel Group spokesperson said, "Essel is delighted to be a strategic investor for this vibrant venture that is positioned to bridge the gap between the growing content market and existing commerce industry by creating a meaningful amalgamation of the two. It is fantastic to see the team's focus on customers and responsible growth." Essel owns the largest TV distribution network – Dish TV, Videocon D2H and Siti Cable – and reaches over 160 million homes via the Zee bouquet of channels.
According to Bansal, the current e-commerce solutions have done a good job of reaching the first hundred million users. "However, a large part of India is still comfortable with assisted commerce. Easy access, personal interaction and trust are important for them. These need to be solved to bring the NHMs in a self-help shopping environment," he said.
The NHMs, according to Bansal, are heavy content consumers on TV and their lifestyles are greatly influenced by what they watch. Television remains a primary source of entertainment and trustworthy information for them. These NHMs will embrace 'content' on their devices before 'self-help commerce' however, they also require assistance to start transacting in a non-store environment.
"Video commerce helps us in reaching out to NHMs in the comfort of their home. Detailed product demos and Hindi content helps in reducing the trial barrier. They can place an order at our call centre or self-checkout on the website. Assistance at the call centre, cash on delivery and easy return policies help us build trust with them," said Bansal.
WIDER AMBIT
- Ezmall ships over 5,000 units on a daily basis and plans to scale it three times by Diwali
- It hand-picks products and buys deep, thereby enabling the business to achieve sharp price points even at initial stages
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