Ever wondered how corporates and SMEs source stationery and office products? While the demand for stationery is high, corporates by and large have been traditionally relying on local vendors for office supplies. Rarely do they pause to check the quality, pricing or credibility.

Abhishek Kamani of The Zuri Group Global (in hospitality business) says he did just that by asking the procurement department at the hotel for the office supplies quotation file. “I was shocked to note that procurement was totally disorganised and scattered. We were getting paper and pen from one place, sourcing cartridges from someone else, mementos for guests from yet another vendor and so on. I decided to put things in order. Thus was born zoffio.com , the online store for office supplies,” says Abhishek, about his foray into this venture.

Google shortlist

The portal, launched in May 2013, has within two years of its existence in the market place managed to establish a niche for itself. The company was recently shortlisted by Google as one of the five Google SME Heroes in Bengaluru.

Sharing Zoffio’s growth story with BusinessLine , Abhishek said the company was able to deliver over 45,000 orders pan India in the very first year.

“At inception, there were only 10 employees. We have now grown to 125+ with an office and warehouse in Delhi-NCR region. We plan to open a warehouse in Chennai and Mumbai in 2015 to reduce delivery time. Our goal is to emerge as one of the top five eCommerce companiesin five years. Our month-on-month growth has been exponential,” Abhishek said.

Huge potential

Stating that there were no organised players in the office supplies business space, he said, “The market is estimated at over $20 billion. Even if we target 5 per cent of this market, the potential is huge.”

Zoffio.com is in a way redefining the office supplies market,” he said. On sourcing from Flipkart or Amazon, he said, “These products have its nuances. Corporates look for 20 or more products and indulge in volume purchase. You can’t order 100 pens in Flipkart or Amazon,” he said, citing an example.

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