Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, CEO and Founder of Bluestone.com, an online store for precious jewellery is a Computer Science graduate from IIT Delhi and brings almost 10 years of experience in the fields of Technology, E-Commerce and Internet Marketing.
A well known figure in the realm of start-ups, he has been an entrepreneur for almost half a decade. Before BlueStone, he served as the CEO of Chakpak, an online entertainment portal, which he co-founded in 2007. He grew Chakpak.com to over 3 million unique users a month in less than 2 years and successfully raised two rounds of funding from Accel and Canaan Partners respectively.
Using his experience to his advantage, in this short span of time he has advised many start-ups in the fields of SEO1, SEM2 and Product Strategies. Gaurav started his career with Tavant Technologies, a global IT services and solutions provider and subsequently worked with Amazon for around 4 years. At Amazon, he was responsible for building web products for the US E-Commerce market. Gaurav believes that dreams can be easily fulfilled and his indomitable spirit is a source of inspiration for the team.
Here, in an interview with Rough & Polished, Gaurav interprets the nuances of online jewellery business and adds a few words of caution to new entrepreneurs with his advice - ‘The Key is Adaptability’.
Can you walk us through your company’s journey, from the time you started the online business till the present?
BlueStone.com was founded in 2011. Initially, we were funded by Meena Ganesh, Saama Capital and Accel Partners.
Our two-year journey has been full of learning. In addition, we had to dispel numerous myths as an online high involvement category3 had the industry and consumers raise eyebrows alike. Setting up our own unit and scaling up a made to order manufacturing system was one of the biggest challenges that we were able to conquer efficiently.
Further, with time we have built the trust of consumers by introducing customer friendly practices like our Lifetime Exchange and 30-day Return Policy. We also went a step ahead by introducing a Home Try-On facility in key cities of Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Chennai and Hyderabad.
What kind of research was done as spade work before venturing out, given that the product is high-value? What steps were taken about the security aspect of delivering goods to the buyers?
In the e-commerce market for Bluestone.com, I and my partner Vidya Nataraj saw an opening for a relatively untouched category such as jewellery.
Moreover, jewellery was a tough category with high entry barriers with a clear need gap4 of established and trusted national players. Since traditionally customers have always gone to known names for ages, our challenge was to change this viewpoint by introducing a novel way of buying jewellery online.
This responsibility was a huge one since it needed complete dedication, passion and expertise all the way. Because jewellery as a category was not prevalent in the online space and admittedly still is one of the most difficult categories. Nevertheless, we identified a gap in the industry and realized that there were not many brands with a national appeal. Therefore, we decided to make use of this gap and a high entry barrier, following which we then decided to build a market for a category as unique as jewellery. That is how BlueStone came into being.
As far as security is concerned, there are specialized courier services for our jewellery. In addition, all goods are fully insured by us until they reach our customers, so making their purchase 100% safe.
What about competition when you began, was the ‘space’ crowded? How did you position yourself to differentiate from the other players?
Our competitors in the jewellery market are mainly offline players with a national presence and talking about the online space; we compete for share of mind and wallets, which makes leading lifestyle players our competitors as well. Other than that are not many players in the online jewellery space barring one or two.
Has your company BlueStone.com been as successful as you predicted? Are you pleased with the present growth rate of BlueStone.com? Can you give us your annual sales figures and profit percentage, if possible?
We have received more than expected response from the customers and fraternity alike. While jewellery as a category is not an online purchase one inherently, but we have been able to communicate the benefits of convenience and transparency buying to our customers efficiently. This has been helping us garner a great response. We are profitable at an operational level already.
Do you cater to pan India? How is BlueStone better than other online stores? In other words, why would a buyer choose BlueStone.com over others?
BlueStone has a pan India delivery. We differ in our quality of service and present very well rounded design catalogue that ranges from traditional to fusion and contemporary designs.
In your opinion, what are the plus points of running an online business vis-à-vis a regular brick-mortar store business? What price discount do you offer (considering less maintenance cost of online business)?
Online business offers less inventory costs since we are made-to-order, which means that every piece we deliver is made especially for our customer. Also we pass on the benefit of lower costs to our customer. Thus, we are honestly priced and do not have much discounts to offer.
At the risk of sounding skeptical, has ‘Online Business’ in precious jewellery really caught on in India? Recently, some leading retailers discontinued their ‘online jewellery businesses’. What could have been the reason/s?
Considering all aspects, jewellery is a very specialized category as it involves a massive amount of consumer understanding and very high level of service. One really has to uphold a strong focus on all of these at all times. I cannot comment on why others have shut down.
Jewellery buyers, especially Indians, are comfortable buying from familiar brick-n-mortar shops; and also ‘touch’ and ‘see’ and ‘approve’ the precious jewellery piece before deciding to purchase. Your comments?
Initially, customers had also bought clothes, shoes and electronics from brick and mortar. However, with changing times, online shopping has become a mindset that is catching up fast across all categories. Reasons being, it offers convenience from the comforts of an individual's home and moreover allows other incentives like giving them time to decide, not make it obligatory for customers to purchase at their very first visit. Also, it provides easier options to browse by defining the parameters of one's budget, presents the choicest design or styles along with any other requisites for an individual.
As a businessman with an ‘online’ business, what’s your advice to entrepreneurs who may be interested in starting an online venture, more importantly a high-value jewellery online business?
My only advice to them is, be passionate. Remember that it is a tough road and if you are not passionate about what you are pursuing, chances are good that you will not stand the hardships.
Also, be open to changes and detours at every step. There is a very little probability that the product you had envisaged when you started was the optimal one or even close to that. Your users, data and the market will give you signals on what is right and wrong. Be aware. Lastly, remember to be receptive to those and change course. The key is adaptability.
Where do you see this online jewellery business in the country in general, and BlueStone’s in particular, say 5 years down the line?
While the industry will continue to grow in the next 5 years, we have already started to see consolidation. In the near future only players who are serious about improving customer experience will survive. We see ourselves playing a crucial role in the industry.
Aruna Gaitonde, Rough&Polished, Mumbai
