Belonging to a jewellery family and being a certified diamond grader as well, Puja Bansal has been actively involved in manufacturing, retailing, and designing; and has showcased her expertise in several events and fashion shows in India and international fashion arena.
Launching herself in the year 1998 as a brand under Khandelwal Jewellers Ltd (KJL), Delhi, Puja’s keen interest in jewellery and her passion for designing led her to conceptualize MYHEERA.COM, a unique online platform, presenting itself as a virtual world of a globally connected business to business stage for the Gems & Jewelry industry. As founder and Director of MYHEERA.COM, Puja brings with her an extensive industry experience of over seventeen years.
In this interview with Rough & Polished, Puja talks about her ‘one- of-a-kind’ online B2B portal dedicated to the gem & jewellery industry, serving all the options in a single platform.
Excerpts:
We understand that MYHEERA.COM is a start-up … can you explain the concept of the portal? Are there other similar companies in existence at present?
MYHEERA.COM is India’s first online gems and jewellery industry portal catering to the B2B segment. We launched this platform with the sole aim of bringing businesses and sourcing all business needs within this industry on a single platform. While dealing for my family business, I realized that sourcing and networking is a big challenge for this industry. Subsequently during my survey with more than 1 000 stakeholders conducted over a two-year period, revealed that the industry is looking for a platform to connect and trade beyond their close network. Another key challenge was the absence of a common place to source industry professionals of different expertise area.
With the launch of this portal, we are consolidating the entire value chain from this industry and helping them meet online and getting new potential buyers for their existing business. SMEs and large enterprises were brought together to network and bring new opportunities in business and get new potential buyers.
At present, there is no other online B2B portal dedicated specifically for this industry serving all the options in a single platform.
We opened our interface with more than 6 000 members and are adding more than 200 members every day.
How did you come about conceiving this idea? Was it something you found missing during while at work, given that you come from a business family?
Coming from similar family background of jewellery industry I have experienced the limitations in sourcing in this industry. Finding new buyers and suppliers is dependent on few offline exhibitions which are limited to time, space and people.
In the current scenario, when the entire world is going digital in order to connect beyond boundaries, it was need of the hour to explore such platform for the gems and jewellery industry also. There are few online platforms in this industry but they cater to limited audience through B2C portals. This situation led us to start this industry-specific portal, dedicated to this industry.
With the portal having gone live in August, how is the response till now? Is there a registration fee from the companies who wish to register in myheera.com?
We opened the portal for registration in August first week and after getting more than 6 000 registrations it went live in the fourth week of September. Post that, the portal is getting lots of interest and the membership is increasing by 200 members each passing day.
There is no registration fee for joining the portal which is limited to only gems and jewellery industry players.
What medium was used to promote myheera.com and get companies to register in the company? Can you give an approximate number of companies registered… local as well as overseas?
Reaching out to industry players was the first hurdle hence we used emailers and e-fliers to reach out to them. This process was followed by tele calling to explain the whole concept. Since the concept was unique and the industry was looking forward to such platform, we received overwhelming response. Within one and half month’s period we received more than 6 000 registrations.
Registered members profile is a mix of geographical diversities. We have a good number of registrations from tier II and tier III cities including Bahadurgarh, Rewa, Aligarh, Kottayam, etc. Some international traders have also shown keen interest and joined our platform. These countries include Israel, Canada, US, China, Indonesia, Belgium.
Are all the companies listed in the portal verified, as this is business related contacts and have to be trustworthy?
Trust is an important aspect of the gems and jewellery business. Hence, we have created provision for two-layer verification. Apart from our own verification process, we have partnered with the world’s leading agency Duns & Bradstreet (D&B) to conduct third party verification of all registered members. This will help us weed out undesired elements from our portal and ensure good experience trading on MYHEERA.COM
Do you constantly update data on the listed companies’ workings; whether they are still doing business; or shut shop, etc.? Do you share the responsibility for disputes between these listed companies? How does this pan out?
Our database is quite fresh and updated. In future, even if any company shuts its operation due to any reason they can remain on the portal as a dead member.
We have clearly laid out our terms and conditions of our involvement with our listed clients in terms of transactions and inquiries. It is for the trading companies to resolve any dispute between them. We are just facilitating a platform for the industry players.
And, how does this work out for your own company MYHEERA.COM, in terms of income?
As of now, MYHEERA.COM has paid subscriptions and functionalities available in a bundle or a la carte system. These paid subscriptions and functionalities help one to upgrade their ranking within the B2B interface.
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished
