Consumers are excited that there is finally a website that sells ONLY organic products where the authenticity of the same can be verified, says Mallesh Tigali, CEO and Founder, Purna Organics, during a candid conversation with Retailer Media...
Tell us about the inception of Purna Organics?
Research has shown that there is a direct co-relation between poor health and diminishing levels of nutrition in the food we eat that are chemically laden. In fact, there are enough studies showing consistent increase of harmful chemical residue and decrease in nutrition content in our fruits and vegetables by nearly 80% over the past two decades.
Back in 2008, Purna Organics started with a worthy objective of helping people take control of what they eat by using pure, organic methods and practices. It slowly revolutionised the organic gardening space through its innovating gardening techniques and solution offering to convert thousands of families across India to adopt an organic way of living.
We have expanded our capabilities in the organic sector and are the first sophisticated market place in India to offer certified organic products to our customers. Today, there is a need for genuine organic products in the market. Our new venture - TheOrganic.Life (www.theorganic.life), eliminates fakes and provides an assurance to our customers, with access to thousands of 100% genuinely organic certified products carefully sourced from purely organic growers and suppliers at competitive prices.
Talking about the organic retail industry, how has been the response so far from consumers and other sellers at your marketplace?
The response has been great. Consumers are excited that there is finally a website that sells ONLY organic products where the authenticity of the same can be verified. Producers are highly enthusiastic because they have an opportunity where they can sell products where they have the power to fix the price unlike a typical retail market, where they would have sold their product to the wholesaler and see that he makes more money than the producer.
How are the products priced at your portal?
The products are quite competitive and the producers are fixing the price of the products. We are also offering logistics services at rock bottom prices to our sellers. This essentially means, when a consumer buys a product from The Organic Life (www.theorganic.life), they end up spending less logistics cost compared to other market place and e-commerce players.
Who do you think are your competitors in this segment?
Any e-commerce player selling organic products and even a retailer selling organic product is our competitor. We differentiate ourselves with over 2000+ products spread across 100+ categories ranging from baby care to baby toys, personal care to home care, gardening to pet care.
Tell us about your marketing / promotional strategies?
Our marketing strategy is based on creating a trust factor with our customers. We have a large customer base, who are repeat customers, who come back as they cannot get the same combination of product and service from others. We promote more based on content marketing where we educate our consumers about the need for organic products and how they get benefitted and how it is well justified to pay little more to organic products compared to chemical based products.
Where do you see your brand five years down the line?
We will be the industry leader where our customers would buy from us as our products would be more competitive, trustable and more importantly, traceable to the producer. Our producers would love to sell through us as they get all required peripheral support to grow/process/pack/market their products while retaining the power to fix the selling price.
Are you planning to raise funds for your portal?
Yes, we are in early stages of discussion with couple of VC firms as we need funds to accelerate our growth and increase the speed of penetration across India.