Today we are in conversation with Mr Saurabh, who joined his family shop in Karol bagh Delhi, where they sold apparel imported from China and Thailand. With the experience of more than 15 years in the industry including 7 years of experience in the E-commerce industry, he attained knowledge and insights of both. Now it’s been a total of 11 years journey since Mr Saurabh Gumber launched TINTED.
Mr Saurabh Gumber added: After being in the family business for a few years I decided to start a brand on my own which was not well appreciated by my family initially.
In the beginning, I started with the bestselling product of the market that was body-hugging t-shirts and tried to sell them, to shopkeepers in a classic B2B manner, but it wasn’t soon enough that I realized that the business was quite competitive because shopkeepers didn’t want to purchase from a new brand that had no recognition, rather wanted to buy the same product from a known brand. Therefore, just to gain their trust I started to take payments after they sold the Tinted’s products.
Even though it was discouraging I never intended to give up as I knew I’m selling something that is of quality, fashionable and most importantly affordable too. This trust was paid off after quite some time with the great responses to Tinted, the shopkeeper started placing regular orders with us.
In 2014 we started selling on major marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal as well as the biggest fashion marketplace - Myntra. We also got a chance to meet their top management multiple times where we learnt a lot.
What was the biggest challenge you faced while building TINTED and how did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge was establishing a new brand amongst other brands and gaining the trust of the customers over a new brand. We were not yet done with this challenge as a new storm waited ahead of us, the marketplaces started giving out heavy discounts on our products to generate better business but unfortunately, it started affecting our B2B sales and left us with no control over it. Looking at the future we decided to focus more on collaborating with fashion marketplaces and improving our sales on e-commerce platforms.
How has the taste of success been at TINTED?
Well, hard work has the power to bring success. After being waitlisted for 2 years, we got a chance to be a part of the biggest fashion marketplace of India- Myntra in 2017. Also, we were able to achieve the highest rating on other marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart and generated revenue of more than16 Cr. GMV in a year. Today Tinted has expanded to its website, a hardworking team and much more.
Honestly, with no history in technology Tinted made a benchmark in the fashion-commerce industry. (He added)
How were you able to mark your footprints of TINTED in the industry? What’s the USP of the brand?
Tinted wants to unite the country that is diversified with different fashion languages, state-wise. Even though diversity makes every style unique there’s always a little something that people wants to feel connected with. Tinted came with a minimal approach to clothing that has bold and strong language that everyone feels comfortable in and style it in their way with this we also want to make fashion affordable!
USP if I need to sum up then I must say: Minimalistic Fashion, Affordable Fashion, Fast Delivery, Great Customer Relations. These USPs are not only what we claim but also appreciated by our consumers.
How the industry is supposed to grow up and what are your goals to win along?
There is more to this fashion industry than selling clothes, with the presence of social media there are many other approaches that are going to grow in no time, like affiliate programmers. People get to earn small passive incomes and add credibility to the brand and themselves. It has become a two-way relationship than just a one-way buying approach. My goal is to create an ecosystem where people can buy sustainable fashion at affordable prices. Creating employment is one of my major goals with either directly or indirectly approaches.
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Becoming an entrepreneur is not an easy job. You have to face ups and downs, stress, sleepless nights, work hard, manage everything yourself until you create a strong team that works toward creating a benchmark and then making yourself financially stable. But trust me if you can come over all these things, there’s no looking back.
