ELITIFY – For the Successful Man

Snake Skin Patterned Wallet from Etro at Rs. 22,900/- or an artificial leather Wallet from an unknown brand at 50% discount for Rs. 1,999? Which one do you prefer? Are you a premier customer or a bargain hunter? Read on if you’re the former; you can visit Jabong.com OR Myntra.com if you’re the latter.

In the cluttered world of B2C eCommerce portals in India; the question often becomes – “How are you NOT another me-too website?” rather than ‘what’s your offering?’. Thus, with over 400 registered B2C eCommerce portals in India; all vying for that 10-12million eCommerce lifestyle customers out of 110-115million Internet accessible Indians; competition is fierce. Cut throat. Thus, most companies, whether bootstrapped or backed by VCs; are resorting to the ‘Last Man Standing’ theory; burning cash like anything. Jabong – 20 Crores per month on advertising; Deals&You – 12 Crores and so on. With practically no loyalty amongst Indians; since unfortunately over 75% of this basket size of 10-12million Indian eCommerce savvy customers are “deal hunters or bargain hunters”; the CPAs are going through the roof. Came across companies in the recent past, whose P&L statements show horrible figures; and CPAs are sometimes same or more than their average basket size. One word, shocking.

One brand that is making a sincere effort to stand out from this clutter and create a niche for itself and its community is ELITIFY. Before moving to Bangalore recently for work; I met ELITIFY’s CEO & Founder, Amit Rawal at his offices. Founded in April 2012, ELITIFY prefers keeping things simple. Simple offices – less number of people – extremely important to keep costs down. The driving force behind ELITIFY is passion – to create something unique – something niche – something extremely chic for Today’s Successful Man. In fact, ELITIFY is not targeting that 75-80% of the bargain hunters of the eCommerce basket size. Rather the extremely posh, niche, HNI class of Indians; who aspire not only for the aspirational items from International Brands; but wouldn’t mind to save time to buy their favorite items online rather than visit showrooms and shop for these items in malls.

The USP for ELITIFY lies in the fact – Indian middle class is definitely increasing, but Indian upper class is getting richer as well. And with more people moving from the upper middle class to the HNI class; the desire to own something aspirational always increases with time. E.g. you’re a Senior Consultant at KPMG; recently promoted to Partner; wouldn’t you mind wearing those Gucci shoes you always aspired for? Or maybe, go for the Rolex you always desired for. That’s where ELITIFY comes in; and helps you become chic, sexy and feel gorgeous.

So which brands are currently being showcased on ELITIFY? Categories currently under display include – ACCESSORIES, SHOES, CLOTHING, GADGETS & GIFTS. Some of the world’s most chic, luxury & premium brands are included. Cufflinks from Paul Smith, Striped Tie from Burberry, Snake Skin Patterned Wallet from Etro, Whiskey Flask from Neiman Marcus, timepieces from Hugo Boss & Emporio Armani, Jack Daniels, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tod’s, J Crew, Apple, Jawbone, Sony, Bose, Burberry, Prada, Versace, Cole Haan, Bvlgari and others, to name a few.

The website is effectively simple – easy to use and navigate. Help present every step of the way. The MANual is an excellent feature on the site, which is usually absent in most B2C eCommerce portals in India. Registration via social media plugin, Facebook connect makes it extremely easy to register with ELITIFY. In fact, make sure you like their Facebook fan page for staying updated on all the latest additions to their already existing impressive list of luxury brands on the site. Additionally, extremely impressive was the Facebook fan page application, “What’s Your Style?”. Make sure you take it to know what kinda style quotient you personally possess. I took the quiz and mine came – “Style Aspirant”. Said, you scored 4 on the quiz. As a thank you, I have received a 20% off at ELITIFY.com.

Personally, am extremely impressed by the look and feel of the site, the offerings and categories of offerings on-site. I haven’t purchased anything from ELITIFY as of now, thus, cannot comment on the quality of a product(s) in question, delivery timings, and extremely important – customer service as well. But from the looks of the effort that Amit has put in; am sure he would nail all these aspects of the eCommerce business as well. After all, if you wish to serve the Stylish Gent of Today; your product, quality, service offering and customer service has to be of the best of world standards. Which in India, often becomes a bit of a challenge, but definitely worth the effort every cent.

All in all, ELITIFY is definitely the only B2C offering as of today, catering to the style needs of the Successful Man of India. How successfully this business can scale with the HNI and HHNIs of India – remains the question; and remains to be seen. But overall, full marks to the ELITIFY team for ‘Think(ing) Different‘.