ArtisanGilt.com Ramps Up Its Product Portfolio to Address a Surge in Demand for Niche Lifestyle Products.

Online, February 4, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Online retail has seen significant growth in last 5 years in India, with the emergence of several large ecommerce players such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra, etc. Like in any other developing market, these players focused on products and categories which had huge tech savvy customer base, where logistics was not an issue (in terms of breakage, etc) & which carried manufacturer's warranty (thus reducing the liability for the online seller). Consequently, we saw significant ramp-up in the online inventory for books, electronics and branded apparels.

The online consumers, however, have outgrown these initial offerings. The demand for online products has increased multi-folds, owing to convenience, improved perception of safety & competitive pricing. This has created a need for online players with expertise in niche categories & non-standard products, serving not only the young & predominantly male dominated tech savvy population of the country but also the elderly & women population (which otherwise constitutes a very large base of offline buyers).

ArtisanGilt.com is trying to cater to precisely this customer base by offering a very large collection of designer & handmade home & lifestyle products. Starting with a portfolio of just around 1,000 handmade home products in July 2013, the company now offers a highly curated collection of more than 15,000 products across 50+ home & lifestyle categories. The key segments that ArtisanGilt.com serves include Sarees, Fashion Jewellery, Designer/Ethnic (non-branded) Apparels & Bags and Home & Living. The company aims to build a collection of over 30,000 products over the next 3 months.

When developing an offering for a niche vertical, an adequate coverage of the depth & breadth of that vertical becomes critical and we at ArtisanGilt have managed to do that. For example, in the Sarees segment, ArtisanGilt has 27 categories (4,000+ products) based on fabric, style & origin. In Jewellery, ArtisanGilt offers over 5000 products across 9 categories based on use (such as Earrings, Necklace Sets, Rings, etc) and 21 categories based on material & art form (such as Temple Jewellery, Pearl Jewellery, Kundan Jewellery, Victorian Jewellery etc). And in home & living, the segment from which the company started its business, it offers an unparalleled collection of handmade products across 34 kinds of art-forms, some of which are fairly rare in both online and offline market.

We believe with more & more online players building huge offerings in niche & under-served markets online, Indian consumers are in for a treat. The next 10 years in this country are likely to stage a retail revolution no lesser than the industrial revolution of the bygone era!