Surpluss.in was conceived with an idea to reach out to digitally active consumers across India, and make the ‘sought-after’ brands and products more affordable.The company is primarily engaged in the sales of overstocked, unboxed, refurbished products, ranging from high-end LED televisions, mobile phones and tablets to other lifestyle merchandise on the Internet. With an anticipation of becoming an ecosystem managing surpluss inventory of brands and trade Mr. Saurabh Rai, CEO, Surpluss shared insights about the idea of Recommerce and the market opportunities for refurbished industry.
- Team Estrade: Tell us about Surpluss.in and how did you come with the idea of a recommerce portal?
Mr Saurabh Rai: “We are India’s Number 1 e-retailer of surpluss inventory, overstock, end of life, refurbished, and fresh branded product deals” It is a business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce Company, started by a group of likeminded entrepreneurs having decades of experience in retail sales, logistics and digital technology. The Company is primarily engaged in the sales of overstocked, unboxed, refurbished products, ranging from high-end LED televisions, mobile phones and tablets to other lifestyle merchandise on the Internet. Our brand offer customers the smartest way to buy their dream product at reduced price with brand assurance.
Surpluss.in was conceived with an idea to reach out to digitally active consumers across India, empowering the aspirations of these consumers, and make the ‘sought-after’ brands and products more affordable.
We believe in providing “access to excess” to aspirational brand seeking customers and value seeking retailers. We use a hybrid of B2C and B2B in D2R2C direct to retail to customer including hyper local version which is a differentiator itself. Recommerce is one of our product portfolio which offers high value through ethically refurbished products.
Our USP is – we sell brands cheap (we DO NOT sell cheap brands) and cater to the consumers with aspiration. We sell these products with reliable warranty.
- Team Estrade: What are the constraints in becoming a re-commerce business? How do you mitigate them?
Mr Saurabh Rai: Indian customers are value seeking. Surpluss proposition gives them branded products at value for money which also meets their aspirational needs. We act as a marketplace to provide these deals to end customers in an ethical fashion by calling Surpluss as it is.
The constraints and challenges are:
- Sourcing ethically refurbished products
- Educating the customer about the additional value proposition
We mitigate these through a screening process of our marketplace vendors. For the later we are running campaigns to grow the awareness of recommence proposition.
“We believe in providing “access to excess” to aspirational brand seeking customers and value seeking retailers.”
- Team Estrade: How huge is the refurbished industry in India?
Mr Saurabh Rai: The most up-to-date and growing vogue in the market are refurbished products, including electronics, IT products, telecom gadgets etc. The refurbished market here in India has a great potential for the coming years and has the intensifying market power with vast untapped potential. The refurbished mobiles-only market size is expected to reach USD 14 billion globally by 2017, according to Gartner Research”
For all fine grounds the market in India for such devices is expected to rise from $20 billion now to more than $50 billion in 2020, according to industry estimates. The refurbished and unboxed market itself has puffed by 50% in 2014 to about $2 billion and is expected to grow @30 per cent annually till 2020.
The current target group of www.surpluss.inis from the age-group 18-30 yrs, as these youngsters have more disposable income over a period of time they will continue to purchase to fuel their aspirations. The life time value will be directly proportional to the demographic dividend of India.
Today’s customers are replacing their gadgets and upgrading wardrobe at a high frequency never before seen in India, hence, re-commerce via refurbishing is a large and growing business. These products are sure to boom and create a buzz as brand-conscious consumers hound for good bargains.
- Team Estrade: Who do you regard to be your biggest competition?
Mr Saurabh Rai: When we started we had indirect competition from boutique players however now we are seeing traction in biggies and unicorns. Our strategy is competing and collaborates at same time and hence we have deep engagements with Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal. We recently invited SME E-Commerce companies to join hands and received a very encouraging response. We also plan to consolidate new startups in our domain to grow the market together. The distinguishing factor is the deep domain knowledge our team has including hands on retail experience. With the blend of technology, analytics and business knowledge we have all the necessary elements to make our vision come true. Our other big differentiator is business ethics.
Within a short span of time we had established our self as the undisputed leader in this segment from the perspectives of digital popularity, traffic, and revenue.
“With the blend of technology, analytics and business knowledge we have all the necessary elements to make our vision come true”
- Team Estrade: What is the guaranty or warranty of any product?
Mr Saurabh Rai: In most cases there is 6-month manufacturer warranty. For example, all major mobile brands sold through Surpluss.in come with 6-month brand warranty, while LED’s have 1 year warranty. When the products are within the manufacturer warranty – then the brand is responsible. We also provide industry best return-policies for customers who face any issues.
- Team Estrade: How do you set pricing of the products?
Mr Saurabh Rai: As per our vision, we cater to people’s aspirations. Great brands at great prices with great user experience. We do competitive pricing which often translates into prices better than established players. An advanced pricing analytics engine is in development that will give more real times competitive.
- Team Estrade: What are your expansion plans?
Mr Saurabh Rai: We have a simple and clear expansion strategy by category and customer segments. In terms of category we continue to do controlled experimentation and focus on one’s that offer maximum value to customers. Our strategy is to maximize Surpluss choices for customers across categories in mobility, lifestyle etc. These would include aging inventory, International Surpluss, Export Surpluss, manufacturing Surpluss apart from refurbished mobile categories. An honest positioning is the key to our high traction and pull in the market.
Leveraging our analytics we realized that a sizable portion of our buyers were small retail shops and started the direct to retail online channel of surpluss focusing on LED’s, white and brown goods. In D2R (Direct to Retail) through www.bizpluss.in our focus will be on hyperlocal model where we are able to solve pain of small retailers and provide them a trading platform. Here we plan to increase our retailer base to over 10000 active retailers and over 100 brands to fuel D2R (Direct to Retail) and B2C marketplace.
Our business goal is to become an ecosystem managing surpluss inventory of brands and trade. A synergistic target is to achieve number 1 online e-commerce sales in the categories we operate in.
SURPLUSS.IN – India’s No. 1 e-retailer of refurbished products
