The fourth panel discussion at The Golden Cart Summit was on the topic "Rise of Vertical E-Commerce Industry in Indian Spectrum". The panelists included Vineet K Singh, Founder & CEO, Buildzar; Vivek Gaur, Founder & CEO YepMe; Vinay Sharma, Business Head - Digital & Services, S Chand Group; Amit Jain, Co-founder & CEO, Cardekho; Nidhi Agarwal, Founder & CEO, Kaaryah; Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder, ShopClues & Droom; and Mayank Kamal, Head of supply chain vertical, Tolexo.
The panel discussion started on relevant topics ranged from 'Future trends in niche sales categories'; 'Challenges of maintaining amplified product maintenance'; and 'Keeping abreast with increased domain knowledge and upgrading accordingly'.
Vineet K Singh initiated the conversation and asked everyone to introduce their venture and their experiences. While speaking about his entrepreneurial experiences, Vivek Gaur said, "My experience taught me to focus on margins and unit economics, so if that is right even if the tap is dry, you can tone down the recreational pool of resources because every investor will come at a level when he will try to take an exit. So prepare for something that will happen for sure."
Amit Jain shared CarDekho's unique key points and he added, "We bootstrapped for a good amount of time, almost 7 years and now we see everyone is trying to play in terms of verticals to accommodate themselves into the life cycle of a consumer. We want to support the consumers and be his first or his second choice whenever he buys cars."
Ratan Tata backed startup Kaaryah's Founder, Nidhi Agarwal stated, "The inception of a Kaaryah itself happened to be from a disruptive idea where we are thinking of times when women shall become active consumers than consumption- enablers which they have been for a long time."
Further Mayank Kamal shares Tolexo's customer acquisition strategy and he mentioned, "In B2B supply chain and among players like Tolexo, customer acquisition is costlier than the B2C which proves to be a major challenge. I also see services as something that reaches a customer so building a sustainable and commitment driven is important."
Commenting on the business's growth factors, Sandeep Aggarwal highlighted, "If you cannot measure, if you cannot control for the first 3 years, then it is difficult to show growth in the next 30 years too. Do everything but do not let the growth go would be my word of advice. If the consumers can stop believing that availing discounts is their birthright, entrepreneurs too would be happy to look beyond."
When asked about the Ed-Tech future scope, Vinay Sharma said, " In EduTech seasoned people and entrepreneurs have seen tough times and for long, the market was not been so open but now we see no dearth of funds for even the quirkiest idea. It is a big boon. People want to accept further change. Even though this year we may be seeing a little financial crunch but it's a temporary phase. "
On a concluding note, the entrepreneurs also discussed the GST bill and welcomed it. As the bill was dangling on for over a decade and the logistics going up high due to double-taxation and many other complexities. It was a hinderance in the fastest way to do business but the government's move this year is worth an applaud that they want to cut down the distances people had from e-commerce entrepreneurs.
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Sujata is an engineering graduate and has done her Post Graduation in Human Resource Management. She has a deep interest in startups & technology.
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Soumya is a young writer and journalist, with bachelors in Multimedia and Mass Communication. She is an alumini of the Asian College of Journalism, and finds politics and sustainability intriguing beats to work with.
