Parent of Shopclues Launches Reseller Platform 'EzoNow', Eyes $48-60 Bn Reseller Market

Clues Network Pvt. Ltd, that owns and operates the e-commerce marketplace ShopClues.com, has launched EzoNow, its first social reseller platform. The move is expected to enable the firm to grab a big pie of the dynamic online reseller space currently projected at $48-60 billion. Clues Network Private Limited is known for successfully bringing Bharat, ie the tier 3, 4 and beyond markets, online through its ecommerce platform, ShopClues.com. It now aims to tap Bharat for its reseller and C2C communities.

[caption id="attachment_130628" align="aligncenter" width="750"] ShopClues - Sanjay Sethi[/caption]

The company launched EzoNow in January 2019, and has since garnered a significant following amongst the growing reseller community of India. “EzoNow empowers the community to earn from their homes with zero investment. As part of this initiative, we provide our vendors andthe reseller community with additional avenues to enable them to earn more. Every seller can manage their own website, products, orders and commissions, entirely through the app. This launch is in sync with our brand strategy to reach out to, and empower the Real Bharat,” said Sanjay Sethi, CEO & Co-Founder, Clues Network.

According to internal research conducted by the Gurgaon-based firm, a large portion of the resellers’ profiles are comprised of housewives, wholesalers, entrepreneurs, and students. It is also estimated that the number of housewives who resell is likely to go up to 21-23 million by 2022.

Presently, top resellers on EzoNow earn upto INR 80,000 per month, by sharing products like clothing, accessories and home décor with their network. EzoNow currently has 4.5 lakh+ downloads, over 1.5 lakh resellers, and 2.5k+ orders a day. In the next six months of operation, the company is looking at doubling the reseller base as well as the orders.

Globally, social commerce generated sales worth $50 billion last year through social networks alone. Technavio, a market research company, reported that the global social commerce market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 34% between 2017 and 2021.

Social commerce, though new to India, has picked up fast and attracting more entrepreneurs and investments. With the advent of 4G and the availability of internet in small towns and rural areas, Clues Network is confident it will be able to reach out to digital citizens to expand its reach.

Shopclues Launches Online International Store

Further diversifying its robust bouquet of products and services in order to stay up to date with global trends, ShopClues, India’s first online marketplace, announced the launch of its new online International Store. The marketplace has partnered with prominent international aggregators to offer stylish apparels, trendy mobile accessories and innovative home décor starting with prices as low as INR 125/-, announced the company in a press release.

Aimed at expanding the range of value for money products, the International Store will have products spanning across 117 categories. Sourced from leading International aggregators from various countries, the store will offer products that are affordable, fashionable and in line with the current trends across categories.

Speaking on the launch of the International Store, Radhika Ghai, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer, ShopClues said, “As a brand, ShopClues has always been focused on partnering with the right aggregators to give our valued customers an expansive and diverse product range at affordable prices. Our new International Store will bring in freshness and excitement to the product catalog, with an interesting range of products that are not seen usually in the Indian market. We are glad to partner with international aggregators who enable us to provide our customers with a wider range of innovative products at better prices. This is our first collaboration and we will be looking at more tie-ups with other countries in the near future.”

The International Store will be live on ShopClues from 6th October 2018 onwards. ShopClues will align the logistics for the International Store through their existing tie-ups. Customers can avail the new and exciting range of products from the International Store within 15-20 days without any additional shipping charges.

Headquartered in Gurgaon, ShopClues was founded in 2011, as a preferred e-commerce destination for Real India - Buyers and Sellers in tier 2, tier 3, 4 cities and beyond. With more than 100 million monthly visits, over 20 million listed products, 6,00,000 + merchants, over 7000 online brand stores, ShopClues services 34,000 pin codes across India. Spearheaded by Sanjay Sethi & Radhika Ghai, ShopClues (an Indian subsidiary of Clues Network Inc., a US Corporation) was deemed a Unicorn in 2016 with the E Series Funding by Sovereign Wealth Fund GIC Pte Ltd. Other investors include Tiger Global Management LLC, Helion Venture Partners & Nexus Venture Partners.

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Flipkart, ShopClues Both To Enter Unboxed Gadgets and Smartphones Segment

When it comes to Indian ecommerce sector right now, the fight between Amazon and Flipkart is out in the open. Both the companies have accumulated huge capital and have great ideas under their hood to knock each other of their game. While Flipkart is currently number one in the market, there's no denying the fact that Amazon isn't far behind and if the homegrown ecommerce giant has to retain its crown, it will have to keep moving in the forward direction. One such recent step taken by Flipkart is its decision to start selling refurbished smartphones by Diwali this year.

Not only Flipkart, but even Gurugram-based online marketplace ShopClues is also entering the refurbished electronic gadgets category.

Flipkart's decided to start selling refurbished electronics in the Indian subcontinent after seeing the high rate of handset returns in the country accompanied by the absence of any pricing advantage with the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST), according to a report in the Economic Times.

On the other hand, ShopClues' decision to dive in, in the unboxed and refurbished electronic gadgets category was sparked by its aim of organising this mostly unstructured category of used and unboxed electronics in the country. By entering this category, ShopClues is hoping to almost double its gross merchandise value and reach up to 9 million customers by the end of this financial year.

According to a statement given by Radhika Aggarwal, co-founder and chief business officer, ShopClues.com to PTI, their primary research has given them a crystal clear picture of the huge need gap that exists in the country when it comes to consumers buying unboxed and refurbished gadgets, especially in terms of awareness, availability, and quality assurance. ShopClues intends to structure this massive opportunity around unboxed and refurbished electronics.

Bengaluru-based Flipkart is planning to sell its Flipkart-certified refurbished models on its online marketplace as well as offline retail stores. The ecommerce giant has already held discussions for the same with various distributors. Flipkart has also already decided to employ the services of its logistics arm Ekart for deliveries of these products.

According to the ET report, Flipkart plans on getting the used gadgets checked and certified to look and work like new and then sell as Flipkart-certified refurbished handsets. Though these products will have the Flipkart quality stamp on them, they will come with limited warranty. The ecommerce company is reportedly planning on having three categories of refurbished phones, which will be priced at 60-75% of their original value.

While Flipkart has decided to give these refurbished gadgets it's Flipkart-certified stamp, ShopClues' refurbished gadgets will have a surety badge - Surety Re-New - which would signify that the product has gone through 5 levels of quality checks.

Flipkart plans on selling famous brands such as Lenovo, Motorola, Samsung’s ‘On Series,’ Panasonic, Micromax and Sony Xperia in its refurbished category. ShopClues has also tied up with top selling brands like Nokia, Samsung, OnePlus and Motorola, Xiaomi and Asus for the same.

Amazon was the first big online marketplace in India to starting selling certified refurnished handsets earlier this year. Though the global ecommerce superpower only sells Coolpad smartphones as of now, it plans on expanding this category to other models of brands such as Motorola and Samsung in the near future.

ShopClues Launches ‘Reach’ to Enable Cashless Transactions for Offline Merchants

In order to help offline merchants opt for cashless transactions ShopClues, India’s first and largest managed marketplace, announced the launch of ‘Reach’ under its Business Edge initiative today. ‘Reach’ will help brick-and-mortar stores across India process hassle-free cashless transactions for customers who prefer making payments digitally. Offering a seamless service experience to the retailers as well as customers, the easy-to-set up payment gateway demands neither of the transacting parties to download the application and can be used for payments of all scales and sizes.

The merchants can avail the facility of ‘Reach’ at a cost effective introductory rate of INR 99 per month. The SMS-based three-step payment mechanism also eliminates the intermediary digital wallet by directly transferring the payment to the beneficiary’s bank account at an introductory rate of 0% TDR on transactions. ‘Reach’ can be subscribed to by ShopClues-affiliated merchants as well as offline merchants who are not associated with the platform alike.

‘Reach’ by ShopClues also assists the retailer in order management, inventory management, e-Billing, centralised inventory status for multiple stores, and merchant store promotion. ShopClues plans to reach out to offline merchants across cities in the upcoming months.

Speaking on the occasion, Sanjay Sethi, CEO and Co-Founder said, “In the wake of the unprecedented demand for digital payments, the launch of ‘Reach’ will most essentially offer a level playing field to the brick-and-mortar retailers across the country, who at present, are bearing the brunt due to unavailability of PoS machines at their store. The initiative, further, has laid a very strong foundation for our retailers to enhance their business operations and will imperatively enable them to realise their true potential by reaping maximum benefits of the technology.”

Apart from ‘Reach’, the Business Edge initiative is categorised under three buckets, namely, ‘Grow Your Business’, ‘Build Your Identity’, and ‘Manage Your Operations’. The three buckets offer the ShopClues’ retailers an array of premium services like the ‘Sales Booster’, ‘Capital Wings’, and ‘AdZone’, which retailers can individually subscribe to as per their business requirements. ShopClues will offer assistance in terms of training and education to enable merchants to better navigate through these services offered under the Business Edge.

Sethi further added, “In line with our never-ending efforts to empower merchants on our platform, ShopClues’ Business Edge Initiative is specifically handcrafted to offer end-to-end support to retailers and to serve as an enabler for their inevitable success. The merchants can handpick packages as per their individual requirements, thus enabling them to create an optimal business model and garner maximum revenue for themselves. This move will also prove to be pivotal for offline merchants by offering them the technological platform to upscale their business in the predominant market conditions.”

The entire range of services made available by ShopClues through the Business Edge Initiative is listed as follows:

Reach: Facilitates hassle-free digital transactions for offline retailers. Also helps in order management, inventory management and billing.

Capital Wings: Facilitates quick and hassle-free loans to scale up your business.

Sales Booster: Enables sellers to get information about abandoned products in customer’s cart and offer exciting discounts to encourage product purchase.

AdZone: Helps sellers to list their product on the top slots of the display page by bidding for individual slots, hence resulting in a greater number of views and eventually greater orders.

Business Guru: Offers a dedicated account manager to increase sales and to assist in maintaining catalogue hygiene.

Chat Concierge: A person from ShopClues will be given to the seller to respond and solve customer queries on the behalf of the retailer.

MyDomain: Seller can buy a domain name from ShopClues.

MySite: Offers customised web stores for a merchant’s ShopClues store.

MyApp: Develops mobile applications for merchant’s online store.

Google MyBusiness: Assists seller to update store description, location, and contact number to boost business visibility on Google search engine and Google Maps.

ShopClues Launches a One-Stop Shop for all Your Wedding Needs - ‘The Wedding Store’

As the wedding season kicks in, ShopClues is making inroads in the wedding space and is leaving no stone unturned to emerge as the preferred e-commerce destination for brides and grooms to fulfil all their shopping desires. With exquisite bridal outfits, eclectic jewellery collections, ethnic wear, and more for both men and women, ShopClues is going the extra mile to make the marketplace all the more exciting for all those who are either getting hitched soon or are about to attend the wedding of their close friends or family.

Just like a trusted friend, ‘The Wedding Dress Store’ at ShopClues helps you shop for all the occasions associated with your wedding. So be it your Sangeet ceremony or Bachelorette party, ShopClues has on offer the best of everything from the perfect trousseau to the most irresistible accessories. The wide assortment of offerings in outfits, accessories, footwear, beauty essentials, grooming appliances and more will ensure an elaborate yet convenient shopping experience for every user on the platform.

ShopClues has also come up with an impressive collection for the entire family and friends of those tying the knot soon. They can choose from an attractive variety of gifting options to delight the new couple. ShopClues has scored, as always, in terms of striking discounts and unbelievable prices. The wide assortment of wedding collections on ShopClues is designed perfectly keeping in mind specific regions and their cultures.

In order to offer the most unique shopping experience, the e-commerce platform has also tied up with multi-jewellery brand Gitanjali to provide flat 50% discount on diamond and gold jewellery and 70% discount on silver jewellery. So if you’re saying ‘I do’ soon, log on to ShopClues pronto and fulfil all your shopping needs with extreme ease and at great prices!

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Shopclues To Invest Rs 1 Crore Across 4 Startups

Online marketplace ShopClues, which has just entered the billion dollar startup club, plans to invest a total of Rs 1 crore ($150,000) across four startups, according to a report in The Economic Times. Shopclues also intends to provide assistance in operations, technology and strategic partnerships to the startups it will invest in.

The company is in talks with the startups to finalize the quintessence of the investment. All the details will get finalised by next week and based on the stage and the requirements of the startups, ShopClues will divide and invest the money accordingly.

Hyderabad-based Ornativa, a jewellery startup, which is already a merchant on ShopClues, wants to use this money to scale-up and build their brand. They use 3-D printing technology to build their products, which according to Balakrishnan, vice-president of Merchant Services, ShopClues, made it a unique proposition.

Other startups that will receive a part of this investment include Bengaluru-based Pepper Agro, Noida-based Glam Studios and Scrapify, which is still in the idea-stage.

ShopClues shortlisted these startups after organizing the first edition of the 'Next Big E-preneur Challenge', which they plan to make an annual event.

ShopClues has previously invested in real-time shopping-assistant app HeyBiz.

With Series E funding in January'16, ShopClues is now valued at more than $1.1 billion (Rs 7,300 crore) following undisclosed funding led by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC.

ShopClues Launches Its Worldwide Market: A One-Stop Shop for Imported Goods from Top Global Brands

Bringing exclusive products from all corners of the world to the Indian audience, ShopClues, India’s first and largest managed marketplace will now feature rare and hard-to-find imported goods on its Worldwide Market. The store will enable easy access to top-rated goods from international markets across categories such as premium watches, beauty products, home furnishing, mobiles and electronic accessories as well as sports products, smart devices, and so on.

The ShopClues’ Worldwide Market will showcase coveted items from across the globe at a price point of INR 110-13,00,000, inclusive of customs, foreign currency conversion and logistics cost. Some noteworthy brands that customers can look forward to on the Worldwide Market are Fossil, Seiko, Swiss, Edifice, Rococo, Nine Divas, Archipelago, Artistic Linen, Avondale Manor, Bedford Home, Eddie Bauer, and Highland Feather in the categories of Watches, Beauty, and Home & Kitchen. Further, prominent brands to be featured in sports, health and toys include Alex Toys, Aurora World, Barbie, Disney, Leapfrog, Schleich, Star Wars, WOSS, and Paracord. Electronic offerings by ShopClues comprise premium electronic accessories, mobile accessories, cameras, smart devices, and smart wearables of renowned brands such as Fitbit, Lucco, Pebble, ADATA, Countryman, Cowboy studio, Ape case, Desmond, Davis & Sanford, Fujifilm, Gariz, Go Pro, Halcyon, Kenko, KF Concept, Polaroid, and Vivitar.

At the launch, Nitin Agarwal, AVP – Marketing, ShopClues, said, “Today, ShopClues has become a household name with customers purchasing all categories of products from us, be it clothes, kitchen utensils, ethnic Indian handicrafts and much more. With the launch of the Worldwide Market, we aim to deliver top-of-the-line imported goods that are hard to come by in India. We’re certain that our offering will be a success as customers will be at ease when buying high-ticket products from ShopClues as the brand name today stands for trust and reliability. The ShopClues’ Worldwide Market will eliminate doubts regarding counterfeits and unfair pricing, concerns that are common when one is shopping for international products in India.”

With the launch of the Worldwide Market, ShopClues bolsters its market standing as the ultimate online destination for all customer needs. Whether one wants to purchase small-ticket home products from unbranded categories or wants ready access to high-end fashion accessories, ShopClues is the only name that will come to mind.

If you want to check the link of the store, click here.

Online Shopping Platform ShopClues Buys Mobile Payments Firm Momoe Technologies

Online shopping platform ShopClues.com has acquired mobile payments firm Momoe Technologies to add a payment service to its platform. The deal amount is still undisclosed by both the companies.

Post acquisition, ShopClues will use Momoe’s technology to boost its payment network for merchants and will look to tie this in its hyperlocal commerce business, as per LiveMint report.

Momoe was founded in June 2014 by Utkarsh Biradar, Karthik Vaidyanathan, Ganesh Balakrishnan, Neelesh Bam and Aiman Ashraf, the company allows users to pay offline merchants like restaurants, grocery stores, electronics, pharmacies, spas and salons. Using the app, customers can pay for products and services using credit cards, debit cards, net banking and mobile wallets.

In February 2015, Momoe raised close to $1.2 million from IDG Ventures India, Jungle Ventures and India Quotient. The firm currently has 4,000 merchants on its platform in Bengaluru and Pune.

Momoe, which has around 40 members on its team, will be absorbed by ShopClues, as part of the acquisition.

US-based ShopClues, which in September launched a chat feature ShopClues Connect for consumers to directly interact with sellers, is likely to use Momoe’s technology to further strengthen this platform and ease transactions. It will also help ShopClues’s hyperlocal commerce platform, which has been launched in Gurgaon and is currently in the beta stage.

ShopClues, which in January raised close to $100 million—largely from sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd of Singapore claims to have 190 million monthly visitors on its website. It has over 5 crore listed products and over 500,000 merchants on its platform. Other investors who backed the company include Tiger Global Management Llc, Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Ventures.

GoDaddy Acquires FreedomVoice and Also Announces a Strategic Partnership With ShopClues

GoDaddy Inc., the world's largest technology provider dedicated to small businesses, has entered into an agreement to purchase FreedomVoice for $42 million in cash plus up to $5 million in potential future milestones payments. The addition of FreedomVoice's team and its cloud-based communications products furthers GoDaddy's commitment to helping small businesses succeed.

There are over 210 million small businesses globally and the vast majority rely on mobile or desktop phones to communicate with their customers. With this acquisition, GoDaddy now provides another essential service for small businesses and organizations to create and maintain their digital identity – adding voice services to naming, presence and productivity.

FreedomVoice offers a product suite that delivers intuitive and affordable communications specifically for small businesses. Products include a custom cloud number (local, toll-free, vanity) that automatically routes business-related calls to a user's mobile phone, and a cloud-based phone system that delivers enterprise-quality voice over IP for small offices. Like GoDaddy, FreedomVoice further differentiates itself by providing customized customer care from knowledgeable experts who take pride in solving problems.

"At FreedomVoice our mission has always been to help companies start, run and grow, and we're ecstatic to join GoDaddy who is just as passionate about helping small businesses succeed," said FreedomVoice CEO Eric Thomas. "There is great synergy between our companies and our team can't wait to get started on delivering the next generation of voice to small businesses around the world."

Mr. Thomas will become Telephony Revenue and Integration Officer at GoDaddy.

GoDaddy recently created a new Telephony business unit to oversee the Company's communication products strategy and execution, including products related to FreedomVoice. The business unit will be led by Intuit and small business veteran Barry Saik, who recently joined GoDaddy as General Manager and Senior Vice President, Telephony.

FreedomVoice products will continue to be available online and through partners. GoDaddy and FreedomVoice plan to deliver new cloud-based voice products in the near future.

FreedomVoice will continue to maintain offices in Encinitas, California.

Apart from this, GoDaddy has also announced a strategic partnership with ShopClues. With domains from GoDaddy, ShopClues merchants can now drive potential customer web traffic directly to their page listed on ShopClues and at the same time, building their online identity and brand with a distinct domain name from GoDaddy. The ability to drive traffic to their specific page using a short and memorable URL, presents SMBs with the ability to offer promotions and better target its customers with their own website address via a link as the 'call-to-action'.

To register for a new domain name, customers can visit Domains on GoDaddy and who already have a domain name, GoDaddy enables customers to quickly connect their domain name to any website or blog or to other pages they control, like Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube profile pages.

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz. USA , GoDaddy also has offices across other locations including in Washington, Massachusetts, Iowa and California in the U.S., and international locations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore and in the UK.

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