Opportunity for innovation in the SME sector is huge: CEO, Pricebaba.com
Updated: Oct 23, 2015 03:08:52pm
New Delhi, Oct 23 (KNN) PriceBaba, a Mumbai-based price and product research platform that provides retailers with information on the buying behaviour of Indian consumers, has been working to find solutions to a tough problem - converting offline retailers to online consumers.
Currently available in major cities across India including - Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon, PriceBaba features over 1000 retailers. CEO, Pricebaba.com, Ankur Agarwal tells KNN about their journey, explaining that opportunity for innovation in the SME sector is huge.
“Pricebaba is a product search engine that helps users choose what to buy, where to buy and how much to buy it for. So if someone wants to buy a LG Nexus 5X in Delhi, we can tell them what the price and the shop that is selling the same. We can also help them find online prices and offers,” Agarwal said.
The online research platform covers the entire spectrum of research with product search, price search online and local and editor recommendations on its platform.
Pricebaba started owing to a personal need felt by the team. “We often happen to be the lucky ones in our neighbourhood to be approached for any technology buying advice.
We therefore wanted to take on this service and initially we did it for our friends. But we wanted to create a larger impact, hence we started Pricebaba and today we are serving over 4.5 million users a month,” said the CEO.
The start-up requires a lot of heavy lifting in getting the data online, engineering to build the catalogue and a very vigilant team to maintain accuracy. Thus it has to meet and educate over 2000 retailers in over 13 Indian cities to build this experience for the users which comes out to be quite an issue for the company.
Agarwal also talked about fund-related issues of the start-up. Fortunately for the company, Pricebaba was spotted by some good angel investors and California based VC firm 500 Start-ups that proved to be a huge help. “However we are firm believers in making a profitable business and using investment only for growth. Today Pricebaba's revenues help most of our operations breakeven,” he said.
USP for Pricebaba is its team of 25 people. “We are a group of people who have backgrounds ranging from running servers for the national stock exchange, selling phones at a retail store and writing about technology for some of India's largest publications. Thus once Pricebaba decides to work on a problem, the perspective we bring to the table is unmatched,” the entrepreneur explained.
Acknowledging the growth of e-commerce and the fact that consumers need to have a choice, “We want to make sure that we let them get all the information before they make the choice. At the same time we also think that local shopping is unique and would not perish even in the distant future.”
However, Agarwal acknowledged, “There are conveniences and experiences of a local store that online just can’t match. Rise of omni-channel retail is a trend that we foresee in India.”
The CEO pointed out that as large internet businesses boom in India, SMEs can play a major role in fulfilling various needs of this industry. Right from training skilled labour for warehouses and logistics to building packaging materials, the opportunity created for innovation in the SME sector is huge. He also asserted that the new generation entrepreneurs can take this as an opportunity to reinvent traditional businesses and align with the change in consumer internet space.
“Pricebaba would continue to innovate to help our consumers shop better. We are working closely with retailers and building mobile apps to assist transactions by our users. In the coming months, Pricebaba would enable a seamless buying process using a mobile app for Indian consumers. We are also exploring entering newer product categories,” he said.
The firm is appreciative of the business friendly government and its Make In India campaign. However, it believes that there is still room to make it easier for smaller companies to do business by reducing the compliance and taxation overload. “We have seen several small enterprises spending too much time managing the company rather than the business,” Agarwal concluded. (KNN Bureau)
Currently available in major cities across India including - Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon, PriceBaba features over 1000 retailers. CEO, Pricebaba.com, Ankur Agarwal tells KNN about their journey, explaining that opportunity for innovation in the SME sector is huge.
“Pricebaba is a product search engine that helps users choose what to buy, where to buy and how much to buy it for. So if someone wants to buy a LG Nexus 5X in Delhi, we can tell them what the price and the shop that is selling the same. We can also help them find online prices and offers,” Agarwal said.
The online research platform covers the entire spectrum of research with product search, price search online and local and editor recommendations on its platform.
Pricebaba started owing to a personal need felt by the team. “We often happen to be the lucky ones in our neighbourhood to be approached for any technology buying advice.
We therefore wanted to take on this service and initially we did it for our friends. But we wanted to create a larger impact, hence we started Pricebaba and today we are serving over 4.5 million users a month,” said the CEO.
The start-up requires a lot of heavy lifting in getting the data online, engineering to build the catalogue and a very vigilant team to maintain accuracy. Thus it has to meet and educate over 2000 retailers in over 13 Indian cities to build this experience for the users which comes out to be quite an issue for the company.
Agarwal also talked about fund-related issues of the start-up. Fortunately for the company, Pricebaba was spotted by some good angel investors and California based VC firm 500 Start-ups that proved to be a huge help. “However we are firm believers in making a profitable business and using investment only for growth. Today Pricebaba's revenues help most of our operations breakeven,” he said.
USP for Pricebaba is its team of 25 people. “We are a group of people who have backgrounds ranging from running servers for the national stock exchange, selling phones at a retail store and writing about technology for some of India's largest publications. Thus once Pricebaba decides to work on a problem, the perspective we bring to the table is unmatched,” the entrepreneur explained.
Acknowledging the growth of e-commerce and the fact that consumers need to have a choice, “We want to make sure that we let them get all the information before they make the choice. At the same time we also think that local shopping is unique and would not perish even in the distant future.”
However, Agarwal acknowledged, “There are conveniences and experiences of a local store that online just can’t match. Rise of omni-channel retail is a trend that we foresee in India.”
The CEO pointed out that as large internet businesses boom in India, SMEs can play a major role in fulfilling various needs of this industry. Right from training skilled labour for warehouses and logistics to building packaging materials, the opportunity created for innovation in the SME sector is huge. He also asserted that the new generation entrepreneurs can take this as an opportunity to reinvent traditional businesses and align with the change in consumer internet space.
“Pricebaba would continue to innovate to help our consumers shop better. We are working closely with retailers and building mobile apps to assist transactions by our users. In the coming months, Pricebaba would enable a seamless buying process using a mobile app for Indian consumers. We are also exploring entering newer product categories,” he said.
The firm is appreciative of the business friendly government and its Make In India campaign. However, it believes that there is still room to make it easier for smaller companies to do business by reducing the compliance and taxation overload. “We have seen several small enterprises spending too much time managing the company rather than the business,” Agarwal concluded. (KNN Bureau)
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