Storrz is a Bangalore based online social shopping website that seems to have a few good things going for it. It recently demoed at the Delhi edition of Proto (where I thought it was one of the best startups on display). They have a concept that is intriguing, they seems to have struck the right initial channel partnerships and have paying customers to vouchsafe for the concept (check out the pitch slide deck below for details).
As the deck illustrates, shopping is (PARTLY) a social experience; the social influence varies from product to product and if done right, it can be a powerful idea. I think there are different grades of consumer behavior as far as shopping goes. Some shopping behavior is not social at all- think of the big branded products. Their share of voice in mainstream media is strong enough to induce trial purchase on a self-sustaining basis. On the other hand, for unbranded products (having low share of voice), the word of mouth component becomes more strident; often it can lay the seed for future mass market penetration. From that perspective, Storrz is doing something smart – check out their panel of online merchants. There is a disproportionate representation from lesser known brands, many of which are local players in different Indian cities. These merchants will see online orders from Storrz as a crucial part of their order basket (and coming from a hitherto untapped market as well) and hence strive for higher service quality. At least for a start, this is a much better strategy than trying to sell the omnipresent nationally branded items and try to take on the Ebays & Futurebazaars of the world.
Storrz is currently looking to raise some capital to fund its growth, in case this sounds interesting, you can ping its founder CEO Chandan at chandan.maruthi@justondemand.com.
And yes, the slide deck could have done better with Indian names…Tim has a poor connect with the target market.
Amit,
As you rightly mentioned not all purchases are solcially motivated. Yet basic knowledge for some can be very valueable for others and the internet has the ability to capture, store and share this information. Social interactions are more pronounced in areas like Fashion, apparels and accessories as the needs off approval from peers is easily addressed. Yet there are other categories like art , home accessories etc where we are yet to see social shopping make a difference. We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg in adoption of social shopping.
@Chandan – I’d like to commend you on an absolutely beautifully executed product. I’m also completely sold on the concept – I just wonder, whether the online shopping market in India is mature enough for product such as this? Are enough people shopping online (this is not a challenge, just an innocent question 🙂 )
Gautam Kshatriya
gautam.kshatriya@moneyvidya.com
http://www.moneyvidya.com
Gautam,
Thank you for your complements. The Indian consumer who started shopping online with IRCTC and then ETicketing is now ready to shop online for other things he needs. India is set to become among the 3 largest internet economies with growing penetration of broadband and a large young population. This should be a good market to target . Parallely storrz will offer the services to other mature markets
Chandan,
First of all I’d like to congratulate you for having the courage to venture into the e-commerce retail market in India, that too with a new and untested idea; great job so far, and all the best for the future.
I was wondering, though, since Indian merchants (eg Cookie Man) do not have affiliate programs for their online stores – how do you make your money? I mean, do you agree on a commission-per-sale basis with the merchants (like an affiliate program), or do you monetize solely through ad revnue?
Regards,
Ravitej
Ravitej,
Thank you for the complements.
At Storrz Merchants Setup their own Stores and reach consumers through our store management platform. The store itself is free but Storrz takes a commission on every sale, which happens to be the revenue model. Targeted ads could be another model but we will lauch it at an appropriate time.