KOCHI: Covid pandemic has been the worst nightmare, tearing asunder lives and depriving several lakh people of their livelihoods. However, the powers be are yet to get a handle on the new normal. Even in these trying times, there are a few glittering examples of those who managed to stay relevant. TNIE profiles them
Competition was stiff when Gokul and Bindya started Shopbingos.com — an e-commerce platform dealing with a wide range of products across categories like vegetables, grocery, personal care products, household items and ayurvedic products — two years ago.
“We were like minnows,” Bindya said.
“All that we aimed for was to make the shopping experience easy and fun without the usual hassles of shopping like congested traffic, parking issues, long queues and heavy bags. Most importantly, we could save precious time.”
Unlike many, the Kochi-based techie couple received their big break during the pandemic.
“People began using our website to shop. The order placed is delivered at the customer’s doorstep on the chosen delivery slot,” she said.Working in the IT industry for the past 15 years, they visualised the venture three years back.
“It took two years to do the ground work and build the business working model. Gokul resigned and I am continuing with my IT job. Our business discussion and planning starts after midnight,” Bindya said. For three months, they didn’t receive any order except from relatives.
“In the first six months, there were just 10-15 orders. We were paying staff from our mutual funds. We found it difficult to convince people to shift to online shopping. But we didn’t lose hope. Now, we have around 280 customers, 70% of whom shop for big brands and our monthly turnover has crossed `2 lakh,” she said.