To inspire the vast majority of Indians who shop for furniture/home décor to start buying online, Gurgaon headquartered, online furniture store, FabFurnish has launched a content-driven, local marketplace on its website for customers in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Customers in these three cities, who are looking for specific products, will be able to see the names and addresses of retailers selling those products in their city.
“Home furniture is a $25-billion market in India that is set to hit $35 billion by 2020. Just 1 per cent of furniture transactions happen online, while 99 per cent transactions are offline purchases. We want to tap this vast base of offline customers with a content-driven local marketplace that will enable efficient online discovery and sale of local curated products,” Ankita Dabas, co-founder of FabFurnish, told Business Line . The local marketplace will be rolled out for customers pan India, starting January 2016.
Stating that there are 800 vendors on the FabFurnish platform, Dabas said: “We will be adding 200-300 local vendors in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru and thereafter, in each of the cities where we roll out the local marketplace. The content on the local marketplace includes, different looks, 3D visualisation of products and design services wherein, customers can place furniture virtually in their homes to see how it would look before making a purchase.”
FabFurnish app The FabFurnish app will provide tools for in-store comparison and visualisation. By scanning the QR code tagged on the product in a store, customers will be able to browse through ‘looks’ using that product on the FabFurnish platform.
The company has ramped up its logistics arm Fabone, which was available in five cities to 10 cities. Fabone offers specialised services such as free expert assembly, open delivery, on-the-spot product demos and accurate package tracking. “Our engagement with customers doesn’t end with them buying from our site. A huge differentiator we offer is, the after-sales delivery, assembly and repair services,” said Dabas.
FabFurnish offers one lakh products, receives 20 million page views a month and attracts 1.4 million unique users to its site every month. The company is in the process of transitioning from its inventory-led business model to a 100 per cent marketplace model by December and is on track to generate a turnover of ₹600 crore by March 2016.
Backed by Sweden-based AB Kinnevik and Berlin-based Rocket Internet, FabFurnish has raised $30 million in three rounds of funding since its inception in 2012. And it is also in talks to raise its fourth round of funding of over $50 million from new and existing investors.