“All of us need to die sooner or later, however I wish to be remembered for creating one thing helpful for society, which might generate direct employment. The artwork of innovation and creation issues to me greater than financial causes,” says Harkanwal Singh, Founder and CEO, BOIP, a market the place consumers world wide can get high quality merchandise on-line at low costs.
After finishing his B.Com in 1989, Harkanwal began his profession with Ludhiana-based tyre maker Ralson India. With a eager curiosity in programming, he began making applications on FoxPro, created a Price Sheet for manufacturing, and discovered the fundamentals from the IT division on a 386 laptop.
Nonetheless, the imaginative and prescient of making a singular proposition led him to don the hat of an entrepreneur. In 2000 when Pizza Hut began its door-to-door meals supply service, Harkanwal was impressed by the development. This triggered the thought of a web based e-commerce market, which might accumulate consumers and sellers, making purchasing a extra manageable course of, whereas decreasing the associated fee.
Coupled together with his curiosity in computing, the proposition steadily began shaping up into an e-commerce web site known as Greatest Of Indian Merchandise, maybe the primary of its form in India, with one of the best merchandise for patrons.
“In 2000, I took the area www.bestofindianproducts.com and began engaged on an e-commerce market. Merging with the event staff, we conceptualized the thought of a web based market for India, which was lastly launched in April 2001 and bought captured in Might 2001 by Internet Archive,” Harkanwal tells YourStory.
Challenges and alternatives
Whereas the thought was in place, increasing it to additional levels turned a problem because the idea of a web based e-commerce market was new in India. “I misplaced all investments and needed to discontinue quickly as a result of India wasn’t prepared for an e-commerce platform. Indians had been apprehensive about on-line shopping for, because it lacked the touch-and-feel earlier than buying a product. In addition to, only a few individuals had bank cards and the web was a uncommon factor,” he recollects.
With zero funding, lack of web penetration, and several other different hurdles to cross, Harkanwal needed to discontinue the platform; and although the fervour for constructing a platform remained with him, he began working for different corporations. “In 2013, I made a decision to depart Shell and got here to Mohali to work on the thought and in addition began promoting on Amazon with the identical title (seller with Amazon). The core concept remained the identical because it was in 2000. I made a decision to relaunch BOIP in 2015, as we’d be now backed by technological innovation, and high-speed web,” he provides.
BOIP emerged once more in 2015 at a juncture when individuals had fairly warmed as much as on-line purchasing. The preliminary two years had been arduous because the startup was nonetheless bootstrapped and Harkanwal was operating a good ship. Nonetheless, with constant efforts, success began pouring in, and BOIP turned worthwhile in 2021, banking totally on pay as you go purchasing.
“With elements similar to affordable costs, buyer satisfaction, income for sellers, and a small hard-working staff, we had been in a position to create a win-win scenario for everybody. At this time, now we have virtually 5 million guests a month,” Harkanwal proudly shares.
Empowering sellers
Whereas most on-line e-commerce platforms are targeted on buyer advantages, BOIP is a balanced market that takes care of sellers and prospects alike. “Funds are transferred on to the sellers from the fee gateway, and we take solely our fee into our accounts. We chorus from utilizing the sellers’ money for our enterprise. A vendor can verify that on the fee gateway as we hold the cash protected and visual,” says Harkanwal.
At BOIP, the order supply ratio is sort of one hundred pc so sellers received’t need to undergo losses on account of courier rejection and damages as a result of courier RTO or COD orders. “With pay as you go solely or partial COD now we have lowered faux orders, thereby decreasing prices for sellers, and finally reducing costs for patrons. Additionally, with pay as you go fee, we are inclined to cowl extra pin codes by courier companions, so we will ship to extra places. Moreover, now we have solely a six p.c fee for all verticals with none mounted price. All these elements assist our sellers to compete with many of the marketplaces,” provides Harkanwal.
Development and future roadmap
Harkanwal has additionally began platforms similar to Wizekart and Commerce Bargains, each fashioned below the aegis of BOIP.
A pay as you go e-commerce market, however with the choice of particle COD, Wizekart offers with classes similar to electronics, house and backyard, and well being and wonder. Harkanwal plans to develop Wizekart solely right into a platform coping with girls’s merchandise.
Commerce Bargains, then again, are targeted on cross-border commerce for promoting Indian merchandise to different nations, thereby producing international income by protecting the fee price low for Indian sellers. “Launched in 2022, our Commerce Bargains web site is taking Indian merchandise to the world, and is specializing in developed nations now. Moreover, we have already got sellers who wish to obtain funds in USD to say the export advantages. We’re additionally trying to open an workplace within the USA,” says Harkanwal.
Harkanwal additionally shares plans of launching a platform targeted on money on supply and is working in the direction of bettering the COD fee expertise for each sellers and consumers. He additionally has an internet site title he’d prefer to register – COD.purchasing.
As a self-sufficient platform immediately, BOIP has grown from energy to energy in 5 years. Harkanwal takes nice pleasure in constructing an moral enterprise that prospects belief. “Now we have constructed this by paying heed to each single buyer question which in flip has helped us in retaining the vast majority of our prospects. BOIP is concentrated on the expansion of its companions and the individuals who have helped the platform attain the place that it has immediately,” he concludes.
