START-UP ISLAND. Not just talking shop, but building one too

Sometimes the big idea that works for the small customer gives a start-up meaningful traction. Two stories in this edition of Start-up Island have to do with how that can actually happen.

StoreHippo is a commercial initiative of Manusis Technologies that specialises in setting up online stores for entrepreneurs or SMEs that need their own e-commerce platforms.

Twenty Four Seven is a brand of convenience stores that was kickstarted nearly 10 years ago to serve a gap in the retail segment.

With a product like StoreHippo, conceived in 2011, if you’re a small business with products to take online, you won’t have to think about code and design. StoreHippo makes e-stores customisable and scaling up easy for the small retailer.

Rajiv Kumar, CEO and Founder, Manusis Technologies, says: “Our architecture is truly oriented towards mobile commerce and has cloud capabilities. Obviously, our clients can add this functionality to the architecture of their e-commerce sites. All the stores we build are capable of integrating with social media and ensure SEO readiness, among other things.

“All the optimisation that is not possible for smaller merchants otherwise is made easier through our platform and services.”

As in the case of Factoryse.com, a B2B site that allows manufacturers and factories to become sellers and retailers to buy from them.

Pankaj Chopra, CEO of My Online Store Pvt Ltd, the enterprise behind Factoryse.com, says: “…new, blazing fast platform with latest technology to create online stores… I could focus on other core issues of running my business. Today, with my website functional, my business volume has increased manifold.”

If you’re used to the Seven Eleven stores abroad that serve students and other passers-by when supermarkets aren’t open, you can relate to Twenty Four Seven built for the same need. The Samir Modi-led business is part of the KK Modi Group, in turn a part of the nearly $3-billion Modi Enterprises.

Twenty Four Seven is nearly ten-years-old and serves travellers or people working late. Spreading beyond the larger Delhi area is taking time, but the brand has been working at expanding its reach deeply in a smaller area before heading anywhere else. There’s also an advantage built-in for franchise owners.

“We’ll stay in Delhi this year. We want to open 100 new stores, with a 40-60 split between franchises and company-owned stores. We have 48 stores already and they’re all owned by us,” says Samir Modi, Founder, Twenty Four Seven.

Twenty Four Seven offers food ranging from sandwiches, hot dogs and pizzas to Indian fare like ‘thali’ and ‘biryani’ and offers nearly 3,000 items as a convenience store. “What we are here to do is offer an international experience and convenience to the consumer. We also want to help our partners, the franchise owners that come on board with us, become profitable within eight months,” Modi explains.

Twenty Four Seven, according to him, is still not making profits. However, each store on an average across a 12-18 month period recently has been able to rake in about ₹2 lakh in revenues a day.

What’s more, the company is set to invest 60-70 per cent of the fit-out cost in new franchises.

Although Rajiv Kumar’s StoreHippo is an ‘easier’ model and the company is reportedly adding more than 50 clients a month, geographies other than India contribute 10-15 per cent to revenues right now. Kumar is aiming to take that up to 50 per cent in the next few years. He’s also aims to set up 10,000– 20,000 stores in three years.

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