Shopclues steps up ‘bulk factory’ programme

Since joining the exclusive Unicorn club recently, we have heard a lot more from online marketplace Shopclues. Whether it was launching an interactive app for sellers, creating a new visual search feature or improving its fitness gym category, it seems to be making all the right noises as it dreams of turning profitable soon.

Recently Shopclues announced several tie-ups that would improve its B2B capabilities, including selling Chinese giant DHgate’s products. Shopclues is now promoting a ‘Bulk factory’ programme, which encourages small and medium sized businesses to purchase in bulk and receive wholesale pricing. The bigger the order placed for a product, the larger the saving achieved on cost per piece.

“There are a lot of product needs of people that are recurring and for them to get a great deal is what our focus is right now. This is across all categories, but the categories that we do best is home and kitchen and electronic accessories. Our cost goes down when you buy in bulk because the shipment cost will not go up by a significant amount. To courier one product versus four products, the cost of shipment doesn’t go up and you can pass on that value to the customer,” stated Nitin Kochhar, vice president of categories at ShopClues.

Sellers to benefit

Shopclues would save a fortune on delivery costs, as it would be able to send products in bulk. Another advantage is that it would encourage more businesses to start procuring products from Shopclues, which in turn would increase customer reach for sellers. Last year Frost & Sullivan suggested in a report that the online global B2B market could reach $6.7 billion by 2020. It also outlined the advantages of B2B over B2C.