Pepperfry, India’s largest marketplace for
furniture and home goods, has opened its first Studio in Vijayawada. The
offline expansion is in keeping with the company’s goal of penetrating niche
markets and creating India’s largest omni-channel furniture and home product
business. Pepperfry, which opened its first Studio in 2014, now has over 100
Studios in over 50 cities across the country. In Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad,
Mangalore, Kochi, Trivandrum, Kozhikode, Coimbatore, Vizag, Madurai, Kottayam,
Kollam, Salem, Gulbarga, Trichy, Vellore, Secunderabad, Chittoor, and now
Vijayawada, Pepperfry has 35 Studios.
The Studio, which is being launched in
collaboration with Saikr Retail Private Limited, is located on Guru Nanak Road
in Vijayawada and has a carpet space of 1,500 square feet. It provides
customers with a first-hand experience of a curated assortment of furniture and
décor, which has been hand-picked from Pepperfry’s diverse portfolio of over 1
lakh products. These Studios offer customers the opportunity to touch and feel
the wood finishes and quality of these high-ticket objects before making a
purchase. It also houses design specialists that provide complimentary design
consulting, assisting customers in the creation of their ideal homes.
Building on their omni-channel network, in
2017, Pepperfry introduced a unique franchise model and in a very short span
they launched 70 FOFO Studios across metros, Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets like
Pathankot, Trivandrum, Patna, Bengaluru, Indore, Chennai, Guwahati and Coimbatore.
For these Franchise Studios, Pepperfry decided to partner with the finest local
entrepreneurs who are well versed with hyperlocal demand cycles and trends. The
company revised this franchise model in 2020 to make it more lucrative for both
existing and potential franchise partners. It now offers a reward structure
wherein the franchise owners can benefit by earning commission of 15% (previous
model: 10%) on each online transaction made via the franchise studio.
Pepperfry established the Pepperfry
Accelerator Program in June 2021, with the goal of establishing over 200
Studios in a year. The goal of this freshly designed initiative is to
exponentially grow Pepperfry’s offline footprint by adding one entrepreneur
every day for the remainder of the year. However, the new program’s biggest
differential is the franchise partners’ necessary Capex, which is roughly INR
15 lakhs – a third less than the old franchise programme.
Both models are built on price parity and
do not need the partner to keep product inventories, resulting in a mutually
advantageous economic relationship.
Speaking of the launch Amruta Gupta,
Business Head, Pepperfry said, “We are delighted to expand our omni-channel
footprint by launching our first Studio in Vijayawada in partnership with Saikr
Retail Private Limited. At Pepperfry, our aim is to be available to our
customers through as many touchpoints as possible, offering great variety at
great price points. Thus, in the current times where individuals have become
more conscious towards their home-environment and are investing behind creating
a space that is functional and aesthetic, we believe our Studios will aid
consumers in creating an ideal home.”
Kamalakar Hanumanthu and Runjhun
Hanumanthu, Partners, Saikr Retails Private Limited said, “We have been in
partnership with Pepperfry since 2020, when we launched our first Franchisee
Studio with them in Vizag. This our 2nd Franchisee Studio with Pepperfry and we
are happy to partner with India’s leading home and furniture marketplace. Pepperfry
has pioneered a truly differentiated omnichannel business and we are glad to
join them in their journey to create the largest omnichannel home and furniture
business.” Courtesy: www.apnnews.com
