"We Plan To Have At Least 50 Operational Stores Across The Country By 2020": Vaibhav Jain

Tynimo, a part of Hansum India group, is headed by Vaibhav Jain, a 24 year old serial entrepreneur who has previously founded TeamRoll Inc. Started as a response to other international lifestyle brands from Japan and China, Tynimo offers 17 categories of products ranging from home décor to Indian handicrafts that are sourced globally and locally. In an exclusive Jain talks about what inspires him to launch Tynimo.

Tell us about your entrepreneurial journey. What inspires you to launch Tynimo? 

We wanted to revolutionize the lifestyle retail segment. Our main idea was to provide high quality, well-designed daily lifestyle products at affordable prices. We started Tynimo with an intention to capitalize on the concept of Impulse buying, where people never plan to buy these products but end up buying it on the basis of what they see. 

The idea to start Tynimo originated during a couple of business and leisure trips to South East Asian countries. The whole concept of fast fashion shopping is a popular concept in South East Asian markets. During our trips to these countries, I would always enjoy visits to these concept stores that offer unique, cute and offbeat products. All these products were of good quality and were reasonably priced.  We found that in India there weren’t any other Indian brands catering to this segment. We decided to apply the same concept here in India. Finally we decided to build India’s own answer to all foreign brands and hence Tynimo was formed. We were always passionate about building something worthy in consumer retail and this segment was just the right opportunity. 

What is your assessment about homegrown retail market in India. According to you what are the factors propelling growth in this market?

There is a huge market here. Being a developing country, India’s retail market is pegged to be at $1.3 trillion by 2020 and we being a lifestyle brand having 16 categories of daily needs, the opportunity is huge. Moreover, since we are an economical brand, there is a huge demand for an offering like this in  Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns. There is scope for more than one brand to exist and have healthy competition. This is visible with reputed foreign brands entering India and they are followed by many lookalikes of their own. 

What are the major challenges for home grown brands?

Some of the major challenges include offline rentals, product liquidity, rapidly changing products, damages and government regulation with reference to licensing. There are multiple departments to deal with for opening a single retail store and this results in delay in starting the operations.Apart from this, the competition from foreign brands is also a challenge as well as a boon. The customers have better options to choose from and the best will attract most customers.

Kindly shed light on your current distribution in the online as well as offline channels.

As of now, we are completely operating offline. There is a different plan for online presence but it is at a very nascent stage and will take some time to become reality. Our model is very simple. We directly source products under our brand from manufacturers and sell them at our exclusive brand stores. There is no other intermediaries involved.To manage the distribution efficiently, we have a state-of-the-art 15000 sq.ft centralized warehouse in Bengaluru.

Going forward, what are the plans to improve the distribution?

As we expand, we will decentralize the warehousing system by opening multiple warehouses across the country to serve specific zones.

Are you bootstrap or have raised any sorts of funds so far?

We are currently bootstrapped.

Tell us about best selling categories and average bill size?

The best selling categories are Digital and Electronics, Jewellery, Footwear, Soft Toys, Gifting, Home Décor, Travel Series and Indian Handicrafts. The average bill size is currently Rs. 800 and we aim to take it to above Rs. 1000 in next 6 months.

At last, kindly highlight your growth plans? 

We plan to expand through routes as below:

Open company owned stores in major towns, cities and metros.We have opened applications for Franchise. We are offering lucrative margins with faster payback period with amazing deals for franchise partners. Average investment required is 60 Lakhs for a 1000sq.ft store in TIER-1 city and 50 Lakhs in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns and it is a good opportunity for entrepreneurs and businessmen interested in starting a new business

We are coming up at Bengaluru International Airport on a 1200 sq.ft space in January. We won this deal after a tender process where all the major competitor brands had pitched in and we were selected because of our store design and product range. We have planned an approx. investment of 3-5cr only for this project. This alone is going to boost brand visibility by 10X and give us international recognition.

By 2020 financial year-end, we plan to have at least 50 operational stores across the country with 40-50% being in Tier 2 and Tier 03 towns and have a minimum of another 50 in the pipeline.