Disha Singh and The Success Story of Her Vegan and Handicrafts-Focused Accessories Brand Zouk
Disha Singh is the founder of Mumbai-based B2C startup Zouk, a vegan brand for purses, bags, wallets and frills. She started the organization in 2016 by contributing Rs 20 lakh of her reserve funds and has rounded up Rs 5 crore income, turning the startup beneficial in a brief timeframe.
The startup stands apart by melding Indian craftsmanship with current usefulness with its products. Everything started when Disha was traveling to Kutch while studying her MBA degree from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Encircled by plentiful neighborhood handiwork, she understood that however her companions adored the plans and the craftsmanship, they didn’t get them as the products needed usefulness.
The Journey
Disha had chosen to fire up while she was in her second year at IIM-A. Notwithstanding, subsequent to graduating in 2015, she did two brief temporary jobs and later joined medtech startup Practo to acquire insight in the functions of a startup, prior to setting out on her innovative excursion.
In 2016, she began chipping away at making bags with Indian handiworks and textures and dispatched her first item toward the finish of 2017. Prior to moving to online deals, Disha sold the items at 50+ exhibitions throughout the nation.
Nonetheless, starting up accompanied its arrangement of difficulties. It was hard for Disha to persuade her family that she needed to leave her steady work and start up, that too in the assembling and retail space. She got the support from her significant other, who was additionally her IIM-A batchmate, and from IIM-A Professor Sunil Handa. She had the option to persuade her family that entrepreneurship was her purpose in life.
Another test that blocked Disha was the recruiting of craftsmen. She reviews that she confronted a great deal of obstruction when she needed to enroll the previously set of craftsmen from Dharavi.
She adds that being a woman entrepreneur has provided her a certain vantage point. Given that her target audience is generally women, she gets to cater to their needs. This gives her the opportunity to create products that offer functionality.
Vocal for Local
The two principle selling focuses for Zouk are indigenous designs and current usefulness. With Zouk, Disha needed to address the issue of usefulness that accompanied numerous Indian brands working in the space.
“On the off chance that you glance around, most bags are comparative in look and feel; possibly they are the dull blacks and grays, or come in strong splendid tones. They look western and are a modest reproduction of unfamiliar brands. Generally speaking, the market doesn’t have alternatives for bags and wallets that are extraordinary but profoundly practical,” says Disha.
Each of her products, says Disha, has a quintessence of India with Indian themes, prints, and textures. And are worked to serve the present requirements. She gives the case of Zouk’s office bags for ladies which come in Ikat, Jute, and Khadi texture. Which can easily hold a laptop, tiffin and then some.
Diligently using Indian resources, the crude materials are additionally sourced from various parts of India like Gujarat and northern states. Every one of the products are hand tailored by 24 craftsmen from Dharavi at its assembling office in Mumbai.
Why Choose Vegan?
Disha says the plan to utilize cruelty free leather for Zouk was provoked by a video of how leather was made. “That was awful,” she says. Zouk is additionally a PETA-affirmed vegan brand.
The brand has 13 unique classes across bags, wallets, and backpacks. Including Laptop bags, ladies' office bags, rucksacks, handbags, wallets, and eyewear cases. The products can be bought on Zouk’s site. Zouk is additionally available at Amazon’s Launchpad brands.
Impact of the Pandemic
Given that Zouk is an online-only business, Disha Singh says that they have been less influenced by the COVID pandemic. In any case, the lockdown and the spread of the virus have driven them to stop production. All paid marketing campaigns, which profoundly affect general sales numbers.
The lockdown gave Disha Singh an opportunity to pull back from the every day schedule and think all the more deliberately. She interacted with a significant number of her clients to get thoughts and input. Disha additionally updated Zouk’s site and has improved the process, which she feels will receive benefits in the coming months.
She accepts that the post-COVID-19 world will present new opportunities, both regarding distribution and category.
Concerning her future desire, Disha desires to take Zouk’s Indianness worldwide and make a notable worldwide style brand from India. She intends to assemble a solid brand, extend her distribution and add more categories to accomplish her objective.
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Sonal Singh
Hello, I'm Sonal Singh. Hope you liked this article. Do comment below and let me know. Have a great day.
