Is Niche the Way to go for eCommerce?JackFruits Anyone?

Friday June 15, 2012 , 5 min Read

One of the most titillating topics on internet, eCommerce (hereby referred to as eComm) always arouses opinions. Be it the marketing roadblocks an eComm startup faces or debating about reasons why one should not enter eComm. Off late, the eComm is going two ways, the bigger few are in a race to become the **largest aggregators**, selling everything at one place and there is a new group coming up that is **catering to a niche**. Instead of dealing with everything under the sun, Niche eComm startups cater to a small subset of the mainstream; they decide on ultra-explicit patrons and develop and improvise upon the products they serve.

Now, internet has portals for almost everything and by everything we mean "everything"! From exclusive menswear to Prasad from the temple of your choice for your grandmother, from the guilty pleasures of a shopaholic to the exotic needs of the kitchen-queen of your house, here is a compilation of some the most innovative niche eComm startups:

Footsy

Footsy is the brainchild of Seema Seth and Pooja Mehta selling the one thing which the least noticed in our entire wardrobe: Socks!They believe you do a "little hokey-pokey" and put your foot forward and turn your world around. In essence, footsy sells a gigantic range of socks and legwear which frankly leaves you buoyed. From erratic lemon stockings to the cozy-on-the-couch snugglers, footsy is one of the most innovative E-commerce startups lately. Taking almost an un-noticeable commodity and combining it with sheer creativity Footsy compels to you to give a thought about the poor morbid socks in your wardrobe and make a colourful change!

Menzkart

You have a gazillion e-com sites which cater to every possible commodity for a shopaholic female. A little sexist we'd say. Presenting to you, an exclusive site selling products that men need; Menzkart (The Zivame for men J ). It sells men's undergarments and other grooming accessories for men. Giving you a plethora of brands and products, Menzkart identified a target audience which otherwise was neglected in the online shopping-arena and explored the untapped market of Men's hygiene and personal care. Having understood the fact that women shop by "sight" and men with prior knowledge, this site aims at keeping stuff simple, easy and fast with offers and discounts.Laptopwale

laptopwala — Bye Bye those big ugly computers which took half of your room space, and hello the sleek, sexy and compact laptops. With the old PCs now becoming obsolete, Laptopwale sates the hunger of the laptops in our society. This online portal is aimed to help everyone who is the need of a new laptop- from a technology noob to a highly specific computer genius. With features like "compare prices" and their highly extensive database, there is hardly anyone who will not find the laptop of their choice from here. And this is one of the eComm startups that blatantly say, “We deal in huge numbers and are not a loss making eComm site.”

Online Prasad

Things come and go, faith stays. After talking about things becoming obsolete, here comesOnlinePrasadwhich helps to revive the religious sentiments in us again. Providing parsad from almost all popular temples of the country, this site is especially a tribute to the revered grandmothers and mothers in our house. Onlineprasad makes available prasad from any temple at aa very cheap cost be it the thousands of miles away temples like Nathdwara, Tirupati or Shirdi.Jolivi

Jolivi provides a range of products including kitchenware, barware, cookware and everything that has to do with dining and kitchen. An utmost niche start-up, Jolivi deals with the lesser explored possibility of kitchen hardware and products making kitchen shopping easier and better.

EV hub

Man thou art greedy .Thanks to the soaring petrol prices and the ever dwindling fuel reservoirs in the world, Electric Hybrid Vehicles are the new rave.And you have EV Hub which deals exclusively with Electric Vehicle spare parts, technology, accessories and helps in propagating companies which deal with the same. E-commerce of vehicles remains a highly unexplored market as the Indian audience is highly resentful of the idea of buying vehicles online, but EVHub marks a new landmark in Ecom in India.

These are just a few that caught our eye; apart from the ones mentioned here there very innovative niche startups (have I told you about the people that sell just Jackfruits online? Watch this space for more on that) out there. Fell free to add them in the comments and the we'll try our best to add them to the list here.

- Madalsa Singh with inputs from Meghna Chaabria and Jubin Mehta

Advertise with us