Filigree from Orissa, tussar from Jharkhand, or pashmina from Kashmir, this estore takes you places

Investment banker Zuhaib Khan travels frequently. And each time, his friends and family ask him to bring back local specialties. When he visited Kashmir on work, he had to scout for good pashmina shawls and in Jaipur, he hunted for bandhej suits.

His shopping experiences proved to him that though ecommerce is blooming in India, authentic local products of assured quality were not available online. And at offline retail stores, such products were exorbitantly priced because there are too many middlemen involved.

Khan’s collegemate Sherfur Rehman too had similar experiences. Rehman was working with the procurement department of Cadbury then. The two friends exchanged notes, and in September 2011, quit their jobs to launch ShopAtPlaces. This online store sells products sourced from different places which are famous for it. For example, filigree jewelry from Orissa, brass jewelry from Uttar Pradesh, tussar silk stoles from Jharkhand, hand-block-printed apparel from Rajasthan, Chikankari clothes from Lucknow, and so on.

ShopAtPlaces claims to have 3,500 products across categories like apparel, accessories, jewelry, bags, shoes, home decor, and fragrances.

Today, Khan revealed that his startup has secured seed funding from investors from Indian Angel Network.

Handicraft and more

Khan and Rehman had traveled all across India for almost a year to procure the products which are now being sold on ShopAtPlaces. Setting up supply chain was another tough task, but Rehman’s experience in procurement helped here.

Now, with fresh funding, the company will enter into personal care category and have products from all 29 states of India on its portfolio by next month. After that, it will also source products from other countries. For example, leather goods from Italy and batik-printed apparel from Indonesia.

The startup has a 4,000-square-feet-large warehouse in Delhi where it stores products and checks for quality before shipping. Some artisans on its platform are now accustomed to using the dashboard to check if their products are in stock or not. Many others are not very tech savvy and so ShopAtPlaces reach out to them manually through calls, WhatsApp, and Viber when their products go out of stock.

The company claims that the products on its site are cheaper than those available at offline stores in cities. “We are reimagining the way traders operated on the famed silk route once upon a time,” says Khan, adding that his startup is already profitable.

ShopAtPlaces also sells its products at marketplaces like Flipkart and Amazon. However, vendors have to get into a three-year exclusive agreement with ShopAtPlaces to be on it.