Excerpts of the interview with Saurabh Rai, CEO, Surpluss.in
Q: What is the idea behind Surpluss.in?
A: It is all about becoming an ecosystem for providing “access to excess” aspirational brand seeking customers and value seeking retailers. We use a hybrid of B2C and B2B in D2R2C direct to retail to customer including hyperlocal version which is a differentiator.
Q: How do you differentiate Refurbished, Unboxed and Pre – owned products? ·
A: Refurbished is repaired product with brand/ seller warranty which is mostly dead on arrival products. Unboxed are mostly e tailer returns in perfect working condition and pre-owned is product that changed hands but attracts residual brand warranty or seller’s warranty
Q. Are they all integrated in Surpluss.in?
A: Yes these are a category in surpluss in addition to actual overstock, fresh raging inventory of brands and retailers
Q: How big is this market in India?·
A: The market of surpluss in mobile, apparel and consumer durables alone is over 20 Bn US$ . At any given point of time atleast 10 % of these categories qualify for surplus, overstock, ageing inventory, refurbished etc . Add to that the surplus held by traders and you are looking at a very big opportunity
Q: Tell us more about the opportunities of the growing re-commerce market·
A: The re-commerce space has got a lot of attention and new entrants due to its growing appeal . It is a great opportunity to prod mobiles or consumer durables at low price to aspiring customers . The growth of e-tail has further filled its growth through availability with ease of buying and added trust factor of returns. Surpluss.in for instance only sells branded products with a free look period apart from warranties
Q: What is your outlook on the future of this segment?·
A: The future is very bright as the sectors growth there will be more goods changing hands. Growth in India will also be spurred by its aspiring youth and demographic dividend will be visible. .
Q: When was Surpluss.in started? What is the current business size?·
A: We started 18 months back and in last FY we have done a GMV of over 60 Cr INR which is significant for a startup which is bootstrapped.
Q: Brief us about the product categories that are currently listed on Surpluss.in. ·
A: We are currently focused on Mobiles and consumer durables in electronics space apart from select apparel in lifestyle. We have an ambitious plan of adding 4 more categories and about 100,000 sku’s in next quarter
Q: Where are your customers coming from? Is it the metro cities or the two tier and three tier cities?
A: Most of our customers are in age group 18 to 34 years and they come from 17 states and over 100 cities. The representation is mostly from tier 2 followed by tier 1 . Bull of the traffic comes from states in west and south followed by northern states. East has been slow to pick but just yesterday I saw orders from north east which a very promising trend is.
Q: Do you have alliances with anyone? If so, who are they?
A: We do have supply alliances with multiple brands and over 30 sellers. In addition, we have contracts with retailers of repute like Amazon and Flipkart.
Q: Do you have plans to integrate the SMEs s in your business model? ·
A: Yes it’s an era of cooperation than competition. We give a great opportunity for SME’s to liquidate their surpluss . We are eager and open to to collaborate with SME E-tailers
Q: If so, please tell us more about your future plans pertaining to SMEs and ·
A: We have welcomed with open arms even our competitors who want to sell on our portal and in terms of sellers want to create value for everyone in food chain. We plan to integrate more with mobile wallets with captive base as well boutique e commerce companies who will find our value catalogue very interesting
Q: How do you see the sector participating in your business model.
A: Initially both brands and manufacturers were hesitant however having tasted blood they are keen to associate in larger numbers. We literally doubling numbers month on month. The industry including competitors have a healthy respect for surpluss.in and as I said earlier it’s about competition and healthy collaboration . There is space for everyone who wants to do ethical business and we for sure will become the ecosystem of surpluss liquidation in India which benefits customers, sellers, retailers as well the larger market.