Interview with Gokulraj – COO of Zapstore
Last week, we posted an article about Zapstore, mentioning how the system works and how a user can buy gadgets at a cheaper price. Today, we are excited to present you the interview of Mr. Gokulraj, COO of Zapstore. Gokul finished the interview earlier today and here we are with the same.
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Tell us your story until the day you launched zapstore.
Launching ZAPstore.com was freakingly hard.
I did my Bachelors in SRM University and headed to University of Texas to pursue Masters in Engineering Management. That’s where I met my colleague and friend Balaji Gopalan. He had come to the same University to pursue Masters in Business Administration. He told me about starting an eCommerce venture back in India. We celebrated the idea of starting a fun-filled eCommerce site for more than a year before we came up with a final business plan.
We did a market research on the viability of this new eCommerce idea in India during summer of 2010. Backed by the positive outcome of the research, we came back to India after our graduation on May 2011. Once we landed in India and started working on ZAPstore we realized that all our excel calculations that we have been doing for the past one year has to be re-done completely due to frequently changing data and market conditions.
We improved the ZAPPING concept during the development phase and made sure that every customer at ZAPstore.com is well taken care of and satisfied. We have made sure that our customer’s voices are heard and their feedbacks are put into effect ASAP. We have been tweaking ZAPstore.com for the betterment, every day since it has launched depending on the customer feedback and reviews.
Why ecommerce?
eCommerce in India is still at a very nascent stage. The Internet penetration in India is very low, but the no. of internet users is big. The no. of Internet users is almost doubling every year and that means a lot of people are aware of internet, which would lead to increase in shopping online.
In addition to the above fact, we think every other eCommerce site in India is boring. They are bland and colorless. We wanted to have an eCommerce website that would shout fun and ooze out brilliance, in the mean time enabling customers to buy the product of their choice at really competitive prices.
What is your role at zapstore?
I am the Chief Operating Officer at ZAPstore.com. As said before, I take care of Operations, Marketing and Logistics.
How and when this idea of zapping came to your mind?
ZAPstore is a brain child of Balaji Gopalan. He came up with this idea during spring 2010 when we were drinking in a bar.
Why is that you have zappacks starting from rupees 30 to 13,500 and what’s the difference between each of them? Do you offer higher discounts for packs that cost higher?
We offer ZAP Packs in different iterations to motivate the customers to try ZAPPING. We also offer 5 Free ZAPs to every new registrant. We do offer discounts on packs that cost higher. Cost of ZAP reduces to Rs.14 in the costlier packages.
Current challenges you are facing at zapstore?
Meeting the demand and satisfying the varied Indian population are the challenges that we are facing right now.
Can you list out the major brands you are working with right now?
- Nokia
- Samsung
- Apple
- LG
- Sony
- Nikon
- Canon
- Panasonic
- HTC
- Blackberry
- Dell
- Creative
- FujiFilm
- HP
- Skullcandy
- Transcend
We are increasing the population in our portfolio every other day. Get ready to see a lot more varied products in the near future.
How good is the response from the public for your online store?
As of now, the response has been really good. We are getting some valid feedbacks from the customers on the function of the site.
We know that you are a start up, but we just want to know how big your team is right now.
We have a core team of two members. Me (Gokulraj.GK), COO taking care of Operations, Marketing and Logistics / Balaji Gopalan, CEO taking care of Finance, Scope & Seller Communications. We also have Mr.JayaKrishnan, working as Tech Master. We also have dedicated Customer Support team of two.
You started up with gadgets; do you plan to expand zapstore to other categories like games, music etc?
As of now, we want to establish ourselves in the Gadget segment providing better products at competitive prices backed up by fanatic service.
New Year is coming up, how big are your plans for the upcoming year?
With the advent of 2012, you will see a lot more about ZAPstore through various mediums. We will be starting our 2nd phase of Marketing during Mid-January that would enable us to reach a much bigger audience. In the mean time, we would be building up our infrastructure to support the increase in demand.
Last but not the least, any suggestions for new startups?
My suggestion for any startup would be is to come up with something unique that would either solve a problem or give a better solution to an existing problem. In addition, make sure you have the capital in place before you launch.
So, that ends this interview. Checkout zapstore today to buy gadgets at cheaper price.
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