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Pepperfry

Pepperfry

Template:Use Indian English Vinod saini

Pepperfry.com is a furniture and home products e-commerce marketplace headquartered in Mumbai. A managed marketplace which houses products across categories like Furniture, Décor, Kids, Furnishings, Lamps & Lighting, Kitchen, Dining, Bar, Bed & Bath, Hardware & Electricals, Garden and Housekeeping.

Pepperfry
IndustryOnline shopping] (E-commerce)
Founded2012
FounderAmbareesh Murty & Ashish Shah
HeadquartersMumbai],India
Worldwide
Ambareesh Murty (CEO), Ashish Shah (COO), Kashyap Vadapalli (CMO), Sanjay Netrabile (CTO)
ProductsFurniture, Home Decor, Furnishing, Lamps, Bed & Bath, Kitchen, Dining, Kids, Bar, Hardware & Electricals, Housekeeping & Gardening
Website
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History

Pepperfry was established on January 3, 2012 by founders Ambareesh Murty (former eBay Country Manager) and Ashish Shah (former head of eBay Motors-India and Philippines).

Post their association with eBay India in leadership positions, they decided to set up their own company. Pepperfry initially offered a selection of products across multiple lifestyle categories. However, since 2013, the company pivoted to sell only furniture and home décor products sourced from SMEs, artisans and large brands in multiple cities across India. A strategic business move made by the company. It achieved a milestone of shipping 1 lakh units of furniture in November 2014. It recently processed 3 million customer shipments.

In December 2014 the company launched its first concept store "Studio Pepperfry" in Mumbai.

This was followed by a similar Studio opening in Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Mumbai (Linking Road) and Kolkata.

Funding

Initially funded by the founders themselves, Pepperfry.com raised US$5 million in Series A funding from Norwest Venture Partners in December 2011.

It raised Series B Funding from Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) in the second round of funding in 2013.

In 2014, the company raised $15 million in the third round of funding Series C led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), the strategic investment arm of the international media company Bertelsmann in India.

Pepperfry’s current investors, Silicon Valley-based Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) had also participated in this round.

The Company recently raised $100 million in July 2015 in Series D funding round led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Zodius Technology Fund existing investors Bertelsmann India Investments and Norwest Venture Partners also participated in the round.

Business model

Pepperfry operates on a "Managed Marketplace" model which serves as a platform for both small and medium business artisans and merchants, who wish to sell their merchandize to millions of discerning customers.

Currently, the website has over a 1000 plus merchant partners, who can showcase their design skills, craftsmanship and service orientation to customers across India and the world.

For many merchants, it has become the primary source of their income.

Pepperfry has a range of around 1 lakh products listed on its marketplace from brands and small merchants across the country.

Supply Chain and Logistics

Pepperfry has developed a proprietary large-item shipment network to ensure quick and damage-free doorstep delivery of bulky furniture.

Through its own Last Mile Delivery infrastructure it is able to deliver products in 400 towns and citiesthrough 400 owned trucks that operate from 16 distribution centres across country in Mumbai, Jodhpur, Pune, Delhi, etc. to enable speedy delivery of products.

M-Commerce

In April 2013, Pepperfry launched its mobile site that can be surfed on any web browser or mobile device.

It features a customizable cart before checkout, creation of wish-lists – which can be shared with friends & families through Twitter, Facebook & Pinterest.

The company recently launched its app in June 2015 to assist millions of Android and iOS users with enhanced ‘Augmented Reality’ features.

Using this feature customers can virtually place the products in their home and share them with their family and friends.

They can also pick any colour to represent their walls to check how it looks

Marketing

In September 2014 Pepperfry tied-up with Satchi&Satchi to release its first television commercial with “Happy Furniture to You” as its unique brand proposition.

It was spread across radio, digital, outdoor and social platforms like Google, YouTube and Facebook.

The company has launched a series of campaigns in the last 2 and a half years.

The company recently launched a new marketing campaign with the aim to expand the online furniture market with an outlay of Rs 10 crore.

Offline Presence

Pepperfry launched its first concept store Studio Pepperfry in Mumbai on December 18, 2014 followed by another one in Bangalore in May 2015.

The company subsequently launched concept stores in Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata.

These Studios have been conceived as experience zone to showcase a curated range of furniture from Pepperfry’s online portfolio and provide design consultancy.

At these Studio’s Pepperfry offers complimentary consulting services on various aspects of design, specifically related to furniture.

The brand plans to open 20 such offline stores in top cities like Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, and Chennai.

The company has tied-up with HomeStop to launch the first Shop-in-Shop concept store in the category called "Pepperfry Live" at their Ahmedabad, Chennai and Mumbai outlets with similar store openings at various other HomeStop outlets.

It also has pop-up stores at Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru airports.

Pepperfry recently introduced ‘Pepperfry Bespoke’ which allows customers to shop for curated design ideas across any room, style and budget on the portal.

These designs have been created by in-house designers who also assist in customizing them.

Other Initiatives

The brand launched the first-of-its-kind initiative Furniture Design Crowdsourcing Challenge- Design Democracy on 26 January 2014 which was open to all Indians.

The winning designs will be sold on the portal.

The e-commerce portal joined hands with Grow Trees, an NGO for planting trees across major States in the country.

Products and Brands

The company has a tie-up with leading global and national brands like Godrej Interio, Nilkamal, Spacewood, @Home, Durian, Hometown, Furniture Kraft, Evok, etc. and global furniture brands like GEBE, Eurosteel Office Furniture, Defianz, HeveaPac, etc. on its website.

In other home categories, Pepperfry has leading national brands like HomeStop, Philips, Portico, Raymond, Prestige, Tupperware, and global brands including Whirlpool, Joseph Joseph, Kitchen Craft, Philips, Corelle, Morphy Richards etc.

Awards

Pepperfry was the recipient of the '2012 Red Herring Asia Top 100' award which honours the most promising private technology ventures from Asia.

The company also won the 'Pure-Play eRetailer of the Year' at the Indian eRetail Congress 2014 that recognises outstanding performance and innovation in retail.

Pepperfry won the Gold award at the Neons for Best Creative under the category of Retail Advertising for its Outdoor campaign - 'Happy Furniture to You'

References

[1]
Citation Linken.wikipedia.orgThe original version of this page is from Wikipedia, you can edit the page right here on Everipedia.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Additional terms may apply.See everipedia.org/everipedia-termsfor further details.Images/media credited individually (click the icon for details).
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