New Delhi

As children, Nikita Shankar and Saira Hassan had played in the streets and parks of Sharjah, UAE, where their families lived as Indian expatriates. Both went to the same school.

After a brief interlude in which they separated for pursuing their studies in different corners of the world and fields, the childhood friends are back together doing business and taking their bond to the next level.

Nikita Shankar studied engineering and data analytics in India, Saira Hassan graduated from American University in Sharjah in architecture.

While growing up in the Middle East, Nikita and Saira had seen how the local Indians faced difficulties in sourcing Indian goods. They both hit upon an idea for a business and in 2017 set up an online store shoppre.com that caters to Indian’s living abroad in getting the “Indian stuff.” 

The poud enterpreneurs: Saira Hassan and Nikita Shankar

Today their store is listed as an online international shipping and package consolidation company that offers access to thousands of Indian shopping sites.

In an interview, Nikita said that e-commerce in India is growing rapidly with the best technology and infrastructure, but major e-commerce platforms still do not ship abroad.

So both Nikita and Saira feel their business is a bridge between Indian expatriates and their homeland and to make them feel at home while they work and live in different parts of the world.

Nikita said that initially after the initial hiccups, within a year of the launch of their business, they started receiving orders from small businesses that couldn’t sources the goods from India because of the elaborate rules of regulations, customs, and export management.

Thus their business took off with their association with smaller businesses. This created an opportunity for the smaller businesses to store their orders for free for 20 days with Shoppre. That saved them up to Rs one lakh per month.

Nikita says their company is providing services across 140 countries.

Of the 140 countries, most demand comes from the United States (38%), the United Arab Emirates (10.5%), and Australia (6.8%).

Despite the challenges of lockdowns and border restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, shoppere.com claims that in this period their business expanded and their net revenue increased by 150% in the fiscal year 2020-21.

Saira Hassan speaking at a public function as Nikita Shankar looks at her

The pandemic, she says made people who used to travel to pick up goods or ask friends and relatives to send these contacted their platform.

Although there were logistics issues, proper communication with customers regarding any delays has worked well for them.

Nikita and Saira said that there is less competition in India.

She says that Shoppre team is constantly monitoring the changing rules and regulations at the international level to boost and expand their business. 

Nikita adds that the next step is to look at how to connect buyers and sellers and bring them together on a single platform.

Keep in mind that companies like China's Alibaba and the recently formed San Francisco-based company Faire are currently working on a wholesale e-commerce platform.

One piece of advice she always gives: Never underestimate the power of the Minimum Viable Product, break down the basic problem you are trying to solve and work with the existing infrastructure as a pilot and move step by step. Create constructive trends inside.

Nikita and Saira have one more piece of advice for the budding entrepreneurs: Start with a positive mindset from day one.