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Wooplr, a fashion discovery and content start-up has pivoted to a social commerce model that brings social sellers, consumers and brands together on its platform, with a vision to create the first social commerce unicorn business in India.
Wooplr has created a pan-Indian network of 30,000 social influencers in the age of 18-25 years, who are encouraged to set up online stores on Wooplr at zero investment, to sell women & men’s fashion, kidswear, home and kitchenware and mobile accessories, with more categories to be added driven by the social influencer network. Social influencers like 22-year-old Sahib Noor Singh, who has 4 million Youtube followers and one million Facebook fans and 21-year-old Alisha Chettri a huge Instagram influencer, are now recommending brands on Wooplr.
Market domination
Consolidation in the e-commerce industry has seen horizontal players like Flipkart (Myntra, Jabong) and Amazon dominating the fashion e-commerce market, forcing smaller vertical players like Wooplr, Roposo, Voonik and LimeRoad to either pivot their business model or change their user profile every 12-18 months, as they fight to keep their heads above the waters. For instance, Roposo, that has raised $21 million to date and is backed by Tiger Global and Binny Bansal, pivoted from a fashion social discovery platform to a full-fledged social media platform last August. It now offers a TV-like interface that allows users to watch a variety of videos and pictures across 24 channels like Beats (music), Musafir (travel), Haha TV (comedy), and so on. Roposo earns from brands advertising on its platform and pays its users based on their follower base and engagement on the platform.
Voonik, has been trying to keep afloat as it continues to struggle to raise fresh funds to keep up with its high cash burn rates. LimeRoad that was targeted at women only, is open to men and more recently to teens as well.
Wooplr, which has raised $14 million to date and is backed by Helion Ventures, Sistema Asia Capital Advisory and Ankit Nagori, co-founder of CureFit, claims to have a monthly growth rate of 20 per cent. The company expects the social network to drive sales worth $50 million in FY 2019 and $1 billion by 2022. The start-up aims to create one million social sellers who speak over 20 languages, who will reach 200 million customers across 600 towns and cities by 2022.
Road ahead
“While the last 10 years brought in 100 million online shoppers, the next 3-5 years will see 200 million first-time online shoppers mostly from tier-II&III locations who are driven to shop through discovery and trust. Our social influencer network with 2000–3000 followers each, including friends and families, will drive discovery and trust on their online stores on Wooplr” said Arjun Zacharia, co-founder and CEO, Wooplr.
Social influencers can open up their online store in a minute, choosing from Wooplr’s catalogue of one lakh products from over 300 brands including 20 Chinese brands and start selling them on social platforms like Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube.
They earn a profit on every sale made on their store, while Wooplr takes care of all the background work including shipping, payments, returns and customer service.
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