Decoding exclusivity with ExclusiveLane.com
Decoding exclusivity with ExclusiveLane.com
We aim at bringing the domestic and international designers, artisans, craftsmen, manufacturers on one platform to build a very strong vendor base, and showcase all the type of art forms on our platform, said Druv Goyal CEO and Kaushal Goyal COO of Exclusivelane.com in a candid chit chat with Retailer Media.

Tell us about the inception of your brand?

Our 3.5-year old start up ExclusiveLane.com, as the name says, decodes "Exclusivity". We meticulously work with SMEs,artisans to designers to handpick them & their classic designs and sometimes even get our designs manufactured by them (designed by our in-house design team)& get their exclusive rights in the online space.

The focus is to display anything that’s culturally-rich, unique, exclusive, handmade, handcrafted or anything that a person makes with a vision. Our motive is to provide a global platform to the producers, designers, artisans & SMEs that can help them with a respectable identity & earn livelihood in a better way and preserves traditional art & craft. From home decor to furniture, we have a wide variety of products ranging from lamps, vases, clocks, wall decors, trays, cutlery, studio pottery, tea lights and much more.

The inception of the brand is the upshot of the entrepreneurial instincts that were well captured in me since my college days when I used to spend hours drawing inspirations from various startup websites & magazines like Entrepreneur. It was finally during my road trip to Jaipur with friend and cousin Kaushal when we together sawthe local décor & craft being created by small-time designers & artisans in their houses & local shops. This is where the idea to showcase their unique products & art on the online platform clicked to us.

What encouraged you to venture into the home décor industry?

It was essentially my & Kaushal’s passion for home décor and art & craftcategory which eventually transformed into an online global platform for handpicked designers & artisans to showcase their unique merchandisein a better and bigger way. That’s how the journey of a 3.5-year-old home décor & craft start up came into being.

The birth of ExclusiveLane.com is an outcome of a personal experience as well. While I was renovating my house, I purchased a couple of home decor products from well-known brands but I was not impressed with the product and quality.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the options to buy décor & craft item across countries and noticed that the category is fragmented and totally unorganized.

On one hand the offline space has dearth of options and existence of fewer brands like FabIndia, Mother Earth etc. and on another hand online space has no established brand in particular. Also, the products are quite sub-standard and have unpredictable price variation.

These setbacks more or less further strengthened our decision to venture into the home décor industry.

Talking about the home décor and merchandise industry, how do you plan to position your brand?

We want to stand as a strong brand in home décor and crafts category and place our brand as a curated online store for unique& everyday design products thoughtfully handpicked from the creators across the globe.

With authenticity and quality of products intact, we want to establish a platform that’s worthwhile not only for producers but also for customers where they can interact and can jointly create a product in collaboration the designer of their choice, if need be.

Besides this, we are working towards providing a global platform that showcases the special art of every city in the world. We will focus on selling high-quality and quirky merchandise handpicked directly from the producers with no involvement from the middlemen. 

With a well-defined product procurement strategy, we will let people explore the art of specific places while delivering fantastic customer service with enhanced features.

Who do you think are your competitors in this segment? What are your strategies to deal with them?

In my opinion, our closet global competitor is Pinkoi.The main strategies include exclusive tie-ups with the designers&artisans and co-create our own product range in collaboration with the designersacross countries.

We aim at bringing the domestic & international designers, artisans & craftsmen, manufacturers on one platform and building a very strong vendor base&showcase all the type of art forms in the world on our platform.

Further,we are trying to standardize the way the information is presented to the customer to help them with the best purchasing experience.

Do you have plans to add more categories in your product line?

Yes, we will be venturing into all the arts & craftcategories specifically the products, which are handcrafted, handmade&anything which is made with a vision.

Talk to us about your revenue model?

Precisely, we take cut on every sale we make (the marketplace model). In addition to this, we have our own private label which we retail on multiple online platforms.

Currently, it’s a mixed model, the private label (the inventory model), to keep stock of the products that we sell on different platforms (marketplace). This model is more intended towards helping small-scale artisans to have a sustainable livelihoodwho were otherwise missing on a great opportunity in terms of online selling. To help them overcome the challenges of Internet, we provide them with storage space, design input, fantastic packaging procedure and take up their online sales challenge.

As a startup where do you see your brand in the next five years?

We want to prove ourselves as aone-stop shop to buyunique, exclusive, arty & everyday designer products thoughtfully handpicked from the genuine creators across the globe for our customers at the same time we want to establish as an online platform where a designer can earn a livelihood by selling his merchandise to the world and get an identity of his own.

Are you looking to raise funds?

Yes, we are looking to raise funds. We are looking to raise funds by April next year.

What are your expansion plans for this fiscal?

The major plan is to open our platform for international designers/artisans and start shipping in more countries globally. Further, the plan is to add new categories includingfurnishing, arts & crafts, jewelry etc. and build depth in the already-listed categories like décor, lighting, kitchen & dining etc.

We are also planning to launch our mobile app & certain new innovative features on the website for better user experience.

 

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