Pepperfry.com operates an online marketplace model for furniture and home goods. It connects over 1,000 merchant partners with customers to sell their products across India. The company pivoted its business model in 2013 to focus solely on furniture and home decor, seeing opportunities in the large and growing market. Pepperfry's founder believes this pivot helped build a profitable business through strong margins and unit economics. The company aims to further expand through new store concepts and custom design offerings.

1. 82 RETAILER April 2016
Sharmila Das
Every retailer creates his
own path towards success
and so this eCommerce
player-Pepperfry.com.
VOLUME 11 NO. 4. April 2016 issue and it contains 84 pages including cover.
My Pivot Pepperfry.com
Ambareesh
Murty,
Founder & CEO,
Pepperfry.com
Present Business Model
Pepperfry operates on a
“Managed Marketplace” model.
Currently, the website has over
a 1,000 plus merchant partners,
who can showcase their design
skills, craftsmanship and service
orientation to customers across
India and the world. It also
provides carpenters to assemble
furniture items in major cities on
the same day. In December 2014,
the company launched its first
concept store “Studio Pepperfry”
in Mumbai. This was followed
by a similar Studio opening in
Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Mumbai,
Kolkata and in Pune.
The Idea to Pivot
As per Murty, Furniture and
Home Products constitute a large
US30billion market segment.
He said, “The long tail nature
of these categories synced well
with our marketplace business
model. Strong margins and
good unit economics in this
segment also helped create a
strong foundation for building a
profitable business.”
He adds further, “Once we
pivoted, we started an initiative
of regularly going and making
deliveries to customers in our
fleet of Last Mile Delivery
vehicles. It helps us connect
with customers, understand
their purchase motivations and
help them create and build great
households. Happy to say it’s
something we continue to do
today.”
Future Outlook
Pepperfry has tied-up with
HomeStop to launch the first
Shop-in-Shop concept store in the
category called “Pepperfry Live”
Also it has introduced ‘Pepperfry
Bespoke’ which allows customers
to shop for curated designs.
P
epperfry.com’s Founder
and CEO Ambareesh Murty
could hit the wave of news
before he launched his
venture in 2012. The former India
Country Manager of eBay, Murty
could fetch a funding of US$ 5
million ‘Series A’ funding from
Norwest Venture Partners and that
made him an admired entrepreneur
in the start-up world. His vision
was clear as he wanted the modern
Indian consumers to indulge
in shopping related to lifestyle
products. However, since 2013,
the company pivoted to sell only
furniture and home décor products
sourced from SMEs, artisans and
large brands in multiple cities
across India.
For
Pepperfry
SuccessIs
Failure
Turned
InsideOut
“Post our pivot, we’ve
tripled gross margins with
close to 3x topline growth
year on year”.