Elango Ponnusamy, Founder
The online retail market in India has grown by leaps and bounds from its nascent state in the mid-2000s to its current market of USD19.5 billion worth of transactions at a gross level before returns and rejections. Although the online retail market is said to be subjugated by many world retail leaders yet only 10-12 per cent of the potential is tapped. There are quite a number of Kirana shops that well operates in the unorganized sector. Affiliate models across the world are time-tested to help small businesses like Kirana shops to operate online. CostKing.in is striving to create a unique online market which is overlooked by mass online market places.
While the market places are known to derive success by drawing consumers’ attention with reduced costs of products and many of these consumers are driven by the market place sellers’ distribution and the quality of products being delivered. CostKing.in delivers only branded products that have quality certifications and offers more of loyalty savings to the customers along with an extensive range of benefits with its membership model.
“Currently we see our self as one of the emerging online retailers. Our revenue has increased to five fold from 2017 to 2018 and we expect a more accelerated revenue pace in 2019. Also, we are going to begin our affiliation with kirana stores who can partner with us and procure 100 percent of their inventory from CostKing.in,” speaks Elango Ponnusamy, Founder. The platform encourages Small Business Retail Owners (SRBOs)i.e. kirana shops partnering with them to procure 100 per cent of inventory to increase their profit margin at least 5 per cent or more. Additionally, they make use of online technology for the SRBOs to help them refill their inventory by sitting in the store.
On the other hand, for retail individual consumers, the company offers various and customized guest plans and paid membership plans where the consumers can subscribe to andbenefit by buying their home or kitchen needs in bulk volumes. “Currently we see 15-20 per cent of our customers' comeback and place orders, which is a great volume for a startup,” he says.
The Genesis
A trademark of EZCost Wholesale Private Limited, CostKing is an innovative online retail wholesale store that strives to bring the greatest value to the Indian consumer through merchandise quality, merchandise selection, merchandise pricing, and customer service. This ground-breaking concept offers consumer goods in bulk volumes with wholesale pricing through tiered club memberships. Over time, CostKing will be offering its own line of “CostKing Wholesale” branded goods that offer exceptional value and quality to its Members. The enterprise was founded in July 2016, with retail sales commencing in February 2017.
The ideation of CostKing dates back to a 2014-2015 when Elango was in his business school,
drafting the project plan and idea. It took him quite some time to study and analyze the US, World and India retail markets before zeroing down to his own venture. Throwing light on, Elango says, “As per my research, I found that the two important things – trust worthiness and loyalty that are absent both from the online retailers and as well as the consumers. To bridge this, the idea of CostKing took shape. Our objective is to develop mutual trust. We are building this strong relationship with our consumers and retailers by selling the most trusted brands and customer acclaimed brand products only in our web store.”With a wide experience of 15 fifteen years working as a developer to leading a multi-billion-dollar customer facing US sites engagement, Elango has gained extensive experience over the period. This is greatly helping CostKing to address the needs of the Indian market.
"A Trademark Of Ezcost Wholesale Private Limited, Costking Is An Innovative Online Retail Wholesale Store That Strives To Bring The Greatest Value To The Indian Consumer Through Merchandise Quality, Merchandise Selection, Merchandise Pricing, And Customer Service"
The Silver Lining
When it comes to customer contentment, CostKing discourages selling of generic products in its website, whereas most of the online retailers do sell generic including the largest online retailers. What makes the company stand out in the crowd is its exclusive online retail wholesale with an affiliate model selling only branded products. “We believe that our loyalty program will be the future trendsetter of India. People, who associate with our Loyalty programs with more than five years, get a free 90-day return policy. This means if you purchase a product use it 89 days, return on 90th day due to a defect or product quality. You will receive a 100 per cent refund or exchange of another product. Obviously, there will be exclusions. People are going to love it,” he exclaims.
With an impactful online presence and availability in most of the popular social media, the customer support team at CostKing is proactive and responds within 24 hours of sharing queries. The concerned team then proactively calls the customers to ensure that their orders are being delivered in the event of logistics and supply chain issues. “Our help desk is active and our email and online feedbacks help the customers including any new product additions and expectations,” he mentions.
CostKing houses a team of 20 members and some freelancers who works in contracts. The company is aggressively looking for angel investors and VCs for expansion. “We are planning to accelerate and expand our workforce to 150 resources by the end of 2020. Our team works rigorously day and night, behind the scenes even on weekends. In future CostKing’s culture would be spoken highly about co-working, collaboration and hardworking,” smiles Elango.
The Journey
Established in 2016, the website of CostKing has become operational since Mar 2017. While it generated a single online order organically in the first month, today it ships to over 3000 orders. Elango mentions. “Our lifetime revenue is almost INR 3.5 million and our website carries 9000+ branded products. Currently, we ship all over India, with the different payment mechanisms including COD. One of the greatest milestones is our
"A Trademark Of Ezcost Wholesale Private Limited, Costking Is An Innovative Online Retail Wholesale Store That Strives To Bring The Greatest Value To The Indian Consumer Through Merchandise Quality, Merchandise Selection, Merchandise Pricing, And Customer Service"
The Silver Lining
When it comes to customer contentment, CostKing discourages selling of generic products in its website, whereas most of the online retailers do sell generic including the largest online retailers. What makes the company stand out in the crowd is its exclusive online retail wholesale with an affiliate model selling only branded products. “We believe that our loyalty program will be the future trendsetter of India. People, who associate with our Loyalty programs with more than five years, get a free 90-day return policy. This means if you purchase a product use it 89 days, return on 90th day due to a defect or product quality. You will receive a 100 per cent refund or exchange of another product. Obviously, there will be exclusions. People are going to love it,” he exclaims.
With an impactful online presence and availability in most of the popular social media, the customer support team at CostKing is proactive and responds within 24 hours of sharing queries. The concerned team then proactively calls the customers to ensure that their orders are being delivered in the event of logistics and supply chain issues. “Our help desk is active and our email and online feedbacks help the customers including any new product additions and expectations,” he mentions.
CostKing houses a team of 20 members and some freelancers who works in contracts. The company is aggressively looking for angel investors and VCs for expansion. “We are planning to accelerate and expand our workforce to 150 resources by the end of 2020. Our team works rigorously day and night, behind the scenes even on weekends. In future CostKing’s culture would be spoken highly about co-working, collaboration and hardworking,” smiles Elango.
The Journey
Established in 2016, the website of CostKing has become operational since Mar 2017. While it generated a single online order organically in the first month, today it ships to over 3000 orders. Elango mentions. “Our lifetime revenue is almost INR 3.5 million and our website carries 9000+ branded products. Currently, we ship all over India, with the different payment mechanisms including COD. One of the greatest milestones is our
average order value is INR 1300. We have more than 4K customers in our site and our click-through rate is 2.7 percent which is above the standard industry average.”
In 2019, team CostKing will look forward to accelerating its revenue to 5-10x compared to the previous year. It also aims to add at least 100+ more brands in the website, adding around 100K customers in the next 18 months. The email campaigns are targeted to reach 10 million consumers and to reach 10 million online customers by the end of 2019. “On a longer term, we would foresee our self to be one of the top 10 online retailers in India. We want to launch our IPO and expand across 100 cities in India with our supply chain available for same day delivery by 2024,” he concludes.
CostKing.in is an innovative hybrid affiliate online webstore which strives to bring in two mantras in Indian retail market - Trustworthy Consumerism & Loyalty
1. We Sell A-Z Brand Products In Online To Our Customers
CostKing.in has launched its website sales in 2017. We want to be the top online retail wholesaler in selling brand products in India. Our goal is we want to create two mantras in Indian Retail and bring innovation in them:
a.A culture name “Trustworthy Consumerism”
b.Relentless customer focus with“Loyalty”
CostKing.in is an innovative hybrid online store that that strives to bring the greatest value to the Indian consumer through Merchandise Quality, Merchandise Guarantee, Merchandise Pricing, and Customer Service. Each and every part of our business values and services are measured with the above two mantras continuously and improved upon for our customers.
2.CostKing.in Membership Affiliate Model
Currently, we run 4 major types of membership affiliate models: One Free membership “Guest” (Free to general public) and 3 paid membership models – “Prince” (Individuals and small families), “King” (Large Families more than 2 members) and “Business” (For Retailers or Resellers). Our affiliate membership models carry out specially designed with unique benefits for its own membership types and various special promotions for paid memberships all around the year.
3.Our Retail Partnership & Franchisee Model
We poised to expand our reach with association of retailers in India fully integrating their store purchases into CostKing.in where we will provide large support on four quadrants in inventory, resources, technology and finance. We plan to franchise out CostKing.in stores to match up with local kirana shops (alternatively called as Kirana Stores or “Pops & Moms” store). Our aim is to create 100,000 CostKing.in format stores across Indiato cover all the towns and villages.
4.Brands & “CostKing.in” Brand Only
Our first and foremost goal is to sell high quality brand products. We are proud to announce that our online webstore currently listed with 9,000 + brand only products. Entire line of products in our web carries either registered brands or trademarks, or “CostKing.in” labelled and certified products. We want to be the most trustworthy company in India when it comes to customer satisfaction on consumer products sold in online and in-store experiences.
In 2019, team CostKing will look forward to accelerating its revenue to 5-10x compared to the previous year. It also aims to add at least 100+ more brands in the website, adding around 100K customers in the next 18 months. The email campaigns are targeted to reach 10 million consumers and to reach 10 million online customers by the end of 2019. “On a longer term, we would foresee our self to be one of the top 10 online retailers in India. We want to launch our IPO and expand across 100 cities in India with our supply chain available for same day delivery by 2024,” he concludes.
CostKing.in is an innovative hybrid affiliate online webstore which strives to bring in two mantras in Indian retail market - Trustworthy Consumerism & Loyalty
1. We Sell A-Z Brand Products In Online To Our Customers
CostKing.in has launched its website sales in 2017. We want to be the top online retail wholesaler in selling brand products in India. Our goal is we want to create two mantras in Indian Retail and bring innovation in them:
a.A culture name “Trustworthy Consumerism”
b.Relentless customer focus with“Loyalty”
CostKing.in is an innovative hybrid online store that that strives to bring the greatest value to the Indian consumer through Merchandise Quality, Merchandise Guarantee, Merchandise Pricing, and Customer Service. Each and every part of our business values and services are measured with the above two mantras continuously and improved upon for our customers.
2.CostKing.in Membership Affiliate Model
Currently, we run 4 major types of membership affiliate models: One Free membership “Guest” (Free to general public) and 3 paid membership models – “Prince” (Individuals and small families), “King” (Large Families more than 2 members) and “Business” (For Retailers or Resellers). Our affiliate membership models carry out specially designed with unique benefits for its own membership types and various special promotions for paid memberships all around the year.
3.Our Retail Partnership & Franchisee Model
We poised to expand our reach with association of retailers in India fully integrating their store purchases into CostKing.in where we will provide large support on four quadrants in inventory, resources, technology and finance. We plan to franchise out CostKing.in stores to match up with local kirana shops (alternatively called as Kirana Stores or “Pops & Moms” store). Our aim is to create 100,000 CostKing.in format stores across Indiato cover all the towns and villages.
4.Brands & “CostKing.in” Brand Only
Our first and foremost goal is to sell high quality brand products. We are proud to announce that our online webstore currently listed with 9,000 + brand only products. Entire line of products in our web carries either registered brands or trademarks, or “CostKing.in” labelled and certified products. We want to be the most trustworthy company in India when it comes to customer satisfaction on consumer products sold in online and in-store experiences.
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