[YS Exclusive] Hopscotch.in launches today; International baby products now available for Indian homes!

Parents are uncompromising and look for the most trusted brands. Yet, the baby products industry is underserved with a huge demand-supply gap, and products aren’t readily available in physical stores in India, especially in tier 2 & 3 cities. International brands are even more difficult to find, and if available, are offered at highly inflated prices.

Hopscotch is founded by Rahul Anand and Lisa Kennedy, both of whom are Harvard Business School Alumni. Lisa worked for Quidsi (parent company of Diapers.com) where she was one of the early employees and EVP of eCommerce. She was instrumental in building the front end functions, including Marketing, Merchandising and Product Management. During her tenure, the company grew more than 10 fold before it was sold to Amazon in 2010 for $545m. While Rahul has experience in building strategic capabilities on the front-end business at Quidsi. He was responsible for on-site algorithm development to maximize profit and order size, analytics, and inventory management. He also led the post-acquisition integration, and worked closely with Amazon’s businesses. Prior to Quidsi, Rahul managed a manufacturing led business in Mumbai, and has an extensive background in Supply Chain management and optimization.

“Moms inspire everything we do at Hopscotch, from the brands we pick to the service we provide. We will differentiate through selection and service. We are working with over 100 brands many of which are new to India. We have direct relationships with these brands enabling us to access exclusive, current season's products at prices that are hard to match. These brands see Hopscotch as their launch partner for India -- a market they view as strategically important,” says Lisa, explaining the underlying theme of Hopscotch.

They are planning to bring the International brands onto the website via a schedule of boutiques that will last for 5 days each. Boutiques are scheduled through the year and the more popular ones will be offered frequently.

“Not only do we endeavor to bring world class quality products, but we aim to provide world class service too. Everything we sell is stocked locally in our Mumbai warehouse and will be delivered to customers in 2-5 business days.Everything from our site design, to the products we hand select, to our customer care is a reflection of the desire to delight customers with every interaction,” adds Rahul.

Launched today, see what's on offer here!