Kaveri Sachdev decided to start an ecommerce venture in India when she was studying bachelor’s degree in Global Business at Coventry University in the UK. She was eyeing India’s internet economy that was worth $ 125 billion at the time in 2017.
Kaveri, along with her brother, has been a part of the growth story of India’s internet economy with their Delhi-based startup My Pooja Box. They began with sourcing rakhi products made by women in Rajasthan.
Their main idea was to provide curated pooja needs and the startup did really well on Karvachauth and Diwali. However, it has now started focussing more on home décor and gifting products. There is a wide range of products from healing crystals to eco-friendly idols of Ganesha, aroma diffuser, envelopes with gold foils etc.
The startup has organically grown into a home décor and gifting brand. According to Kaveri they are just celebrating India’s culture and heritage by offering products that were crafted and made in India. For example, a set for Diwali would include an idol, thali, and décor pieces with an instruction note telling the significance of each product and how to use them.
The startup has over 3500 SKUs, with products priced between 50 INR and 1 lakh INR. It has grown from having nearly 4,000 daily visitors to nearly 15,000 daily visitors. My Pooja Box is also on track to record 6 crore to 7 crore INR for the current financial year.
After a few months of market testing, Kaveri and Prateek Sachdev zeroed in on women above the age of 30 as their target audience. Customer acquisition became the initial challenge due to pandemic as people in the age group were not as tech savvy to rely on ecommerce platforms for their prayer and ritual necessities.
So, they addressed this gap with a robust customer care service that is available via a WhatsApp account linked to the website. In addition to social media marketing, the team harnesses the power of word-of-mouth and ensures quality service and products.