CHENNAI: When Innu Nevatia and her husband Sujay Suresh were setting up their new home, three years ago, they were frustrated by the lack of options in design and colours of furniture, home decor, lampshades and the like that they were looking for. “We found it difficult to find customised products in the exact colour/tone/design we wanted,” recalls Innu.
The idea snowballed into a brainwave that led the engineers-turned-entrepreneurs to create Zwende, an online mass customisation platform that allows users to customise branded products with traditional designs, all falling within the boundaries of a very stringent design ethos.
“Customisation with minimal confusion is at the core of Zwende’s philosophy,” explains Sujay. “We felt that as customers we were treated very passively with respect to the kind of designs and products we saw online.
Customers who said aur dikhao would be subjected to an infinite scroll of standardised products and designs. So, we thought why not involve customers in creating a design that they would like best on a particular product?” Or as Innu adds, they intended to ‘gamify’ the shopping experience.’
The software, which they’ve developed themselves, evolves and learns according to the customers preferences while also showcasing the best possible combinations for that particular product.
“Imagine you wanted a blue leather product, there are different filters and designs that the software suggests for you that would go best with blue leather,” explains Sujay. This, he says, is done to maintain the design ethos of the designer and to avoid jarring colour combinations. “So, this gives the customer freedom to play around within the boundaries of the designer’s ethos — a win-win,” grins Innu.
Once the customer orders the product, the designs and colours are handpainted by master craftsmen from each of the art forms, and delivered within three weeks. Besides that, Zwende also promotes what Sujay calls ‘incidental sustainability’, since with each order the art forms themselves receive a boost while remaining commercially viable.
“The name Zwende is inspired by a Spanish word duende, which roughly translates to that magical feeling when you see something you like, or a heightened state of emotion, expression or authenticity. So we added a zing to make it Zwende!” adds Sujay.
Registered in Chennai but for now based in Bangalore, Zwende had a soft launch in October 2016 when they started operations through word of mouth, but have ramped up in March this year. Though they have products starting from Rs 500 onwards, their latest range of products will be catering to the luxury accessories and home decor segment in the range of Rs 15,000-18,000.
What it offers
A range of products like lampshades, furniture, stationery, bags and accessories, from brands like Studio Moya, Tamarind Tree, Kari, and Bli and Chi, with each customisable with a range of traditional art forms such as Tholu Bommalatta, Kalamkari from Andhra Pradesh, Madhubani from Bihar, and even Decoupage from France.
For more details log onto www.zwende.com