The Great Online Shopping Experience ! As the internet grew, online marketplace portals have also thrived, be it Ebay or Amazon or Flipkart or any other platform.
A decade ago, Indians would have laughed off about buying anything online, as we are accustomed to buying after feeling the touch of products. Another major thing we Indians are accustomed to is bargaining for the best price. Be it with local vegetable vendors or hassling in markets for any kind of discounts we can get.
Buzztro, an online marketplace startup is trying to solve this pain point, and offer at-will discounting to consumers, instead of always waiting for any festivals or some big sales. What they are trying to achieve here is basically trying to bring the Direct Manufacturer to the consumer, but in bulk orders. This way, the manufacturer can do the sale as a B2B transaction, and the consumer can also get a real discount on the retail price as the product is directly coming from the manufacturer, instead of a shop or a mall along with their additional overheads. Their motto is – Collective we Buy, Together we Grow!
We sat down with the Co-Founders: Rohit Kurmi, Sourav Choudhary and Sourabh Agarwal for an one on one interview, in helping us understand their startup better, and learn their goals and vision. Do go through their interview conducted by Desi Founder Team.
Also check them out on their socials:
Website | LinkedIn | Instagram
What inspired you to start Buzztro? How did the idea of a community buying platform come about?
The idea for Buzztro came to me during my third year of college in a Business Law class. Our teacher faced a challenge: the required textbook was unavailable in nearby stores.
Instead of waiting for a restock, she contacted the publisher directly, explaining our collective need for 450+ copies. The publisher agreed to fulfill our request and offered the books at a 30% discount off the market price. This experience stuck with me.
I realized that by leveraging collective demand, consumers could benefit from significant discounts, and wholesalers or manufacturers could move bulk stock quickly. This formed the basis for Buzztro, where people buy together to get better deals.
How does Buzztro bring people together to create a unique shopping experience?
Currently, we have partnerships with Telegram groups that share live price drops with their members. Additionally, we have our own internal community. We plan to expand our reach across various other channels in the future.
What strategies do you use to foster a sense of community among your users?
Right now, we’re still figuring things out and trying different approaches. You can check out our sense of community on the product page of our website. where you can see how many users are dropping the price together. Every new user who joins in helps lower the price in real-time, so you can see the impact instantly.
How do you partner with local manufacturers, and what has been the impact on the local market?
We usually do cold calling to approach the local manufacturers. Also we are still at a very early stage to calculate the impact on the local market
Can you share any success stories of local businesses that have benefited from Buzztro?
We helped a copper product manufacturer clear his surplus stock of 136 copper bottles in just 12 minutes, generating an estimated revenue of ₹40,800/-
Typically, he would sell surplus stock at cost or by the weight of the copper.
What are the key benefits for users who shop through Buzztro compared to traditional online shopping?
At-will discounting where users do not have to wait for months for big sale to go up, If we see that there is a collective demand for a particular product among our users we will list it within the shortest span possible.
Can you explain Buzztro’s business model? How do you generate revenue while offering significant discounts to users?
We keep a margin at our selling price. For now we are only listing products that have high perceived value with high gross margins. (For eg. Leather products, copper products etc.)
What challenges have you faced in establishing and maintaining this business model?
In terms of the business model, it is very vanilla & easy, but the main challenge we face is to bring a group of users at the same time on the product page to do the price drop activity.
What are your short-term and long-term goals for Buzztro?
We are still very early for setting the long-term goals but for now, our main focus is to do the basics right. For example – Educating users about this concept is the biggest part, finding the right kind of products, which users to target, etc.
How do you plan to expand Buzztro’s reach and user base in the future?
I’m still figuring it out, but I’m sure it won’t be through traditional channels such as Facebook or Instagram.
How do you stay ahead of the competition and ensure Buzztro remains innovative?
Distribution will be the main factor and our USP. Also what we are providing is a very unique formula.
What trends in e-commerce do you think will shape the future of community buying?
Personalized product listing for specific community.
How do you gather and incorporate feedback from your users to improve Buzztro?
Directly calling the users & if the order is from a nearby location, directly delivering the product. I am not a big fan of feedback forms.
Can you share any recent updates or features added to the platform based on user feedback?
In the last version, users often called to ask:
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How many more people do we need for the price to drop?
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How many users are already in on the price drop?
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How many more folks do we need to hit the final price?
Now we have added all of the above things on the product page.
How do you balance running a startup with your personal life? Any tips for aspiring entrepreneurs?
I am probably too young & still an aspiring entrepreneur. Ask me again when I have matured both as an Entreprenuer and as a family person.
That will be a wrap of the interview. Hope you enjoyed reading it, as much as we enjoyed creating it. If you too have an interesting Founder Story to share it with the world, please feel free to submit a request here.