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Today, the marketplace is flooded with several e-commerce options for shoppers to choose from. It has been phenomenal as more shoppers have started discovering the benefits of using this platform. There is enough scope for online businesses in the future if they understand and cater to their needs.
ShopClues is an Indian online marketplace owned by Clues Network Pvt. Ltd. It was established in July 2011 in Silicon Valley by Sanjay Sethi, Sandeep Aggarwal and Radhika Aggarwal. Based in Gurgaon, India, the company claims to have over 600,000 merchants and 28 million products on its platform, serving over 32,000 pin codes across the country.
ShopClues - Company Highlights
- Startup Name-Shopclues.com
- Parent Company-Clues Network Pvt. Ltd
- Headquarters-Gurugram, Haryana, India
- Industry-Online Shopping
- Founded-July 2011
- Founder-Sandeep Aggarwal, Radhika Aggarwal and Sanjay Sethi
- CEO-Sanjay Sethi
- Area Served-India
- Website-www.shopclues.com
ShopClues - About and How it Works?
ShopClues is a marketplace to establish a connection between buyers and sellers in a managed environment. It offers global and domestic brands, multiple online stores from brands or retailers across various listing categories. The Company provides delivery facilities, a rigorous merchant approval process, and a safe online platform for offline merchants.
ShopClues was the 35th company to enter Indian E-commerce market. Started its operations in 2011 today Shopclues has around 700 employees across different locations in the country and headquarter is in Gurgaon.
The company's online shopping platform simplifies shopping experience by featuring a range of products including apparel, electronics, gadgets, kitchen appliances, accessories, and home decor and offers multiple payment options like cash on delivery, etc. enabling users to share their favourite products with friends via WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, get notifications for deals, offers and coupons.
ShopClues - Logo and its Meaning
The ShopClues logo represents the two strongholds of the brand ‐ comprehensiveness and trust, while bringing a contemporary, simpler and stronger vibe to the brand. It perpetuates our image as the most accessible online shopping partner for the real India.
ShopClues - Founder and History
ShopClues was founded in July 2011 and the mastermind powering the venture was Sandeep Aggarwal, one of the co-founders of the company. The other co-founders of ShopClues are Sanjay Sethi, CEO of ShopClues and Radhika Aggarwal, Chief Business Officer (CBO).
Sandeep Aggarwal, Sanjay Sethi & Radhika Aggarwal | Co-Founders, ShopClues
ShopClues is headquartered in Gurugram and is an Indian subsidiary of US-based Clues Network Inc. ShopClues was founded with the goal of providing the best bargains to people of India. It is common knowledge that buyers in the country will visit multiple stores to get the best deals. This is the primary need that ShopClues fulfilled by launching the country’s first and largest fully managed marketplace.
ShopClues started operating in 2011 via Facebook (with a team size of 10 teammates). Their plan was to provide the buyers with very good deals, knowing quite well that people in India are always looking for the best bargains. The company launched its app and the country’s first Wholesale Marketplace (TVC) in 2014. In 2016, ShopClues came to be listed amongst the top e-commerce companies in India, as it crossed 100 million visits per month. In the same year, ShopClues increased its merchant base to more than half a million.
In 2014 Shopclues launched India’s first wholesale marketplace TVC and launches its window app.
In 2015 Shop Clues hosted a competition called “The Next Big e-Preneur” with more than 1000 entries from merchant across India.
In 2016 Shop clues crossed 100 million monthly visits and more half a million merchants and acquired a payment gateway Momoe.
ShopClues - Mission
ShopClues mission statement says,
"to create a robust technology platform that allows buyers and sellers to transact seamlessly."
ShopClues - Recent News
ShopClues opens up for grocery and medicine delivery in March 2020.
ShopClues announces two-day delivery of essential services in New Delhi and Gurugram because of COVID-19 pandemic, in April 2020.
Southeast Asian e-commerce platform Qoo10 has acquired Gurgaon-based online marketplace ShopClues, ending all speculation over the latter's future in 2019.
ShopClues - Business Model
Shopclues business model is same as many of the online marketplace. It is a business to consumer shopping platform. They charge 12% selling service fee on every successful transaction. Shopclues does not charge any setup fee to the sellers. Shopclues targets small businesses like retailers and shopkeepers and encourages them to sell their stuff online. The transaction process is so smooth that people with no technical knowledge can sell online through Shopclues. Shopclues also provide support to the sellers through helpline and emails.
Shopclues provide an ultimate platform to small sellers to showcase and sell their product all over India. ShopClues deliver products to over 30000 pin codes.
Shopclues spends heavily on its TV commercials for awareness and branding purpose. Shopclue’s Sunday flea market and Wednesday Super Saver Bazaar are two main traffic pullers for Shopclue. They also have huge social media presence with more than 4 million likes on Facebook and more than 2 million Twitter followers. Shopclue engages with their audience regularly and also handle queries through these two platforms.
ShopClues - Products
Shopclues sell products under 9 different categories including Mobile and Tablets, Electronics, Men, Automotive, Computer, and Cameras etc. with more than 5 lakh sellers across India Shopclue has around 5.3 crores products worth more than 50,000 crores. Shopclues deliver products to 30,000 cities in India with help of its logistic partners. Shopclues has 3 fulfilment centers in India.
ShopClues - Revenue and Growth
After a humble start in 2011 Shopclues has become a big brand in E-commerce market in India. With 100 Million visits every year more than 5 lakh sellers and millions of product Shopclue have come a long way with team size increase from 5 to 1000 plus in last 6 years.
ShopClues has seen a jump of 46% in revenues for financial year 2017-18 at INR 273 crore, while the company also cut down losses significantly by 40% to INR 208 crore during the fiscal. Its total revenue fell 23.3 percent to INR 209.46 crore in 2018-19 from INR 273.30 crore in the previous financial year.
The company had seen a flat growth last fiscal with total revenue rising only by 5% to INR 188 crore in FY17. The company’s losses had declined marginally by 13% to INR 332 crore during FY17.
The company focused on high margin products and cut down costs of operations and advertising significantly, as per a person aware of the developments. It cut its employee benefit expenses to INR 111 crore from INR 120 crore, and advertising and promotional expenses also came down to INR 130 crore from INR 143 crore.
ShopClues - Funding and Investors
ShopClues has raised a total of $257M in funding over 11 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Sep 19, 2019 from a Venture - Series Unknown round. ShopClues is funded by 12 investors. CluesNetwork and Unilazer Ventures are the most recent investors.
Date Round Money Lead Investors
Sep 19, 2019 Venture Round ₹78.6M CluesNetwork
Aug 10, 2018 Venture Round ₹1.1B -
Feb 20, 2018 Venture Round $1M Unilazer Ventures
May 9, 2017 Debt Financing ₹500M InnoVen Capital
Jan 12, 2016 Series E $100M GIC
Jan 19, 2015 Series D $100M Tiger Global Management
May 1, 2014 Series C $15M Helion Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners
Mar 19, 2013 Series B $10M Helion Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners
Jan 1, 2012 Series A $4M -
Jul 1, 2011 Angel Round $2M -
ShopClues - Acquisitions
ShopClues acquired Momoe in 2016 for around $12 million. Momoe is a Bengaluru-based startup focused on mobile payments' system.
ShopClues - Competitors
The top set of competitors in ShopClues' competitive set are Snapdeal, Flipkart, Ajio, Yepme, Amazon, Myntra, Naaptol, FashionAndYou, Koovs, and LimeRoad.
ShopClues - Challenges Faced
A year on, Sandeep was talking about profitability for the startup. “ShopClues has earned gross revenue of Rs 12 crore since its inception. We are targeting Rs 100 crore by December 2012 and a GMV of $1 billion by 2016. We also feel that we would be the first Indian e-commerce company to reach profitability. By Q4 2012, we will be fully profitable,” Sandeep said.
But in 2013, ShopClues suffered a big blow as CEO Sandeep Aggarwal was arrested by the FBI in San Jose in relation to an insider trading case in his previous job. The company’s responsibilities came down to Sanjay Sethi, who took over as CEO.
While Aggarwal returned to India in 2014, over the next few months, he was asked to step away from his duties, and he was allegedly sidelined by the other co-founders.
Despite the healthy funding track record, ShopClues had steadily lost momentum by 2017 and 2018, as orders dried up and dropped to under 30K per day.
Further, in July 2019, the company laid off nearly 150-200 employees. The majority of the lay-offs were said to be in the operations team.
ShopClues - Future Plans
Shopclues is definitely having a tough time sustaining itself every passing day. The company's daily orders have shrunk down from 60,000 during the good old days to around 30,000.
In the last couple of years the company has cut costs and stayed away from heavy discounting of products on their platform. The strategy has worked with losses dropping by a sharp 88 percent to INR 613 crore during the financial year 2018, compared to a loss of INR 4,647 crore in the previous fiscal. The company is learnt to be shipping around 1.8-2 lakh orders on a daily basis. There were also rumours about ebay.in looking to acquire Shopclues. Shopclues also laid off about 200 employees to cut costs. Then came the news of its final sale to Singapore-based Qoo10 in an all stock deal, but with a massive fall in valuation.
ShopClues - FAQs
Is ShopClues an Indian company?
Yes, ShopClues is an India-based company that provides a managed marketplace connecting buyers and sellers online.
Where is ShopClues head office?
Gurugram, India.
Who is the CEO of ShopClues?
Sanjay Sethi is the current CEO of ShopClues.
How does ShopClues earn money?
ShopClues is a business to consumer shopping platform. They charge 12% selling service fee on every successful transaction.
ShopClues - Conclusion
ShopClues is India’s Real Bazaar that brings the essence of local markets across the country, to an online platform at pocket-friendly prices. ShopClues was established in the year 2011, as a fully managed marketplace that allows buyers & sellers to interact in an organized manner. To cater to the Masses of India, ShopClues has also introduced Indian themed Bazaars such as Super Saver Bazaar, Sunday Flea Market, and IndiMarket which offers exciting deals with unique products, making it India’s favourite online Bazaar.
