Badhai.in, refining the art of gifting

Often when we consider gifting a dear one, a worry that occupies our central mind is whether the gift will be liked by the individual to whom it is given or what would be his reaction? To take care of this worry, Badhai.in which is not just another e-comm portal on gifts has come up with a novel solution. It now  gifting of cash via email that gift recipients can use for shopping at various leading brands. Badhai.in thereby removes the worry that the recipient may not like the gift.

Users can then come to Badhai.in and send Badhai to their loved ones. Recipient can use this Badhai to shop for gift of their choice at leading stores. For this the portal has partnered with leading retail stores and online brands like Croma, Pantaloon, Lifestyle, Flipkart etc, where recipient can shop, giving them ample choice to select what gift they want.

Badhai.in is socially enabled and integrated with Facebook. This makes tracking of events very easy and gifting can be done with a breeze. Also user can create a gift pool, which is very prominent in corporate and everyone contribute online to gift a person and recipient end up getting a bigger/better gift.

Speaking to Adgully about launching Badhai.in, Sourabh Verma, co-founder said, “If you go back to a recent experience when you had to pick a gift, you will perhaps recall that deciding what to gift is tough. And this is quite common. We have tried to address this problem in the best possible manner. Simply gift cash and let the recipients choose, from over two lakhs product options, what they like.”

A start-up journey is always very interesting and tough. “Luckily, for some of us this was our second stint so we were better prepared. We didn’t have a cash pool to start with so we managed on a month to month basis. In order to keep costs low, some of us worked part-time and some from outside,” Verma added.

“There was a period when we were left with hardly any reserves. Our employees, and we thank them, stood by us in those difficult times. Slowly, we started getting some traction. We also raised some funds from friends which helped us pull through the initial phases. Now we are scouting for funds to grow the business. Overall it has been an exciting and exhilarating experience,” he pointed further.

The team is quite confident of what it has created – whether it’s the mobile App or interesting viral features as Facebook Apps. They believe and are hopeful of serving more customers and giving them a great gifting experience.

Well, looking at the growing popularity of e-commerce it is being observed that the space is quite robust and competitive. Expressing his views on this point he opined that gifting in India is quite fragmented and online gifting is an upcoming space. There are just a handful of organized players and all of them very new to this space. Gifting in India is several billions of dollars in size; therefore, it is not competition but seeding the market is the key.

When asked, how do you think Badhai.in stands apart from the competition, Verma stressed upon the fact that their concept is unique. Badhai is the easiest way to gift a splendid array of choices. So on Badhai, one doesn’t gift a product. It is a platform for gifting cash that recipients can choose where to spend. “Our process for gifting and usage of gift amount is very simple; users like the experience,”  he added.

Badhai, recently launched a mobile app called ‘Mobile Badhai’. It is a free app for gifting to friends and family members. This app will be available to smart phone, tablet and iPhone users only in India. On this Verma said, “There are 44 million smart phone users in India and this number is expected to grow at a whopping rate of 50 per cent annually, as people are always looking for ways to increase their mobile utility.”

“We started Badhai online in 2011 and we already have 10,000 customers using this service and we have more than two lakhs products from both online and retail. The amount is limited up to Rs.50,000 for individuals, without any service charges,” Verma adds.

In order to stay different and unique, in their go to market approach, the team is focused on looking for new and interesting ways to reach out to their customers. For example, they developed a fun App – Nudge for a Gift on Valentine’s Day. Using this, users could ask their friends for a gift. Recently they launched free gifts using which users can gift for free.

“Also, we have a very high focus on corporate gifting. We realize that corporates face a lot of issues when dealing with gifting products – firstly, it is to do with selection and secondly, logistics. Badhai helps them gift a large number of people anywhere in India with just one click. It is extremely convenient to administer,” he adds.

No convenience fee is charged. If you pay Rs 1,000, recipient will receive Rs 1,000. “From time to time, we keep passing on discounts to our customers that we negotiate with our affiliate brands,”  he concluded.

Badhai also helps corporate in rewards, incentives and gifts. It enables bulk rewards in the most convenient way - take out the entire hassle of decision making and logistics. It's perfectly suited for any events, sales incentives, etc.