By Anil solanki

During the last decade, there has been an increasing trend of Indian startups expanding internationally. Earlier unheard of, global expansion is now on the cards even during initial rounds of funding as founders consider India as a launching pad for experimentation and testing product-market fit. Access to liquidity and efficient knowledge transfer are catalysts to expansion within the eCommerce and consumer-tech domain primarily – FirstCry, MakeMyTrip, Byju’s, OYO, the list goes on.

As part of our leadership series, we at APN News got in touch with Khalid Raza Khan, CEO & Founder of Indian eCommerce company YourLibaas which recently expanded into the UAE. The key learnings and insights from the excerpts shall be a model to consider during an expansion.

Khalid founded YourLibaas in 2014 and pioneered designer lawn apparel within India. The homegrown startup features International designers such as Sana Safinaz, Maria B, Gul Ahmed, Khaadi and so on. Post establishing a firm ground within the Indian market, they expanded to the UAE eyeing the customers within the MENA region.

What made you decide to expand internationally? Why UAE?

We have been operating YourLibaas in India since founding it in 2014. Primarily, the designers we feature at our platform are based in the UAE. During the last 7 years, we established a strong solid presence in the domestic market within the pakistani suits segment. The next logical step was backward integration which meant moving closer to the origin within the supply chain.

To top that, UAE also has a sizable diaspora from the Indian subcontinent that is familiar with the product we sell. Even prior to making the move, most of the international customers were from the MENA region. Specifically UAE because of the ease of doing business, friendly regulatory frameworks, higher consumer buying power, and a market ripe for disruption.

What are the key challenges and roadblocks during a global expansion?

The challenges for each individual are naturally going to be different, but there would be a common overarching scheme. From my experience, one key aspect is cross cultural management. The consumer behaviour, cultural differences, buying patterns, awareness about the tech environment, and expectations that drive customer satisfaction metrics were unexpected.

For instance, we learnt how express delivery was the bare minimum expectation when we initiated operations into the UAE. Consumers were habituated to deliveries within a matter of hours. It would only be possible with an efficient hyperlocal model, one which is only possible for grocery startups within India. We had to rethink our delivery model and initiate partnerships with hyperlocal logistics and warehousing companies. The key is sequencing the priorities and taking swift action to adopt the right strategy.

Another critical success factor is defining the goals of the expansion, both across strategic and financial terms and closely monitoring the KPIs to measure success towards achieving the slated goals. An oft-ignored step would be training – The domestic team we brought in had to be upskilled through collaborations with external agencies within the country. Execution is a different ball game within a new market. What worked well in India may not necessarily do so in the UAE. There are differences in regulation, cultures, consumer behaviour and the eCommerce landscape – all of which requires rethinking and revamp the approach.

What is your advice to entrepreneurs and founders planning to make the key move?

I would like to warn about where one could essentially go wrong. First and foremost, a successful product within the domestic market does not necessarily translate into success within the target market. That’s a myopic view one should take away – remember how consumer patterns are different.

We lost a sizable chunk of our initial investment learning it the hard way – the logistics and warehousing cost trying to replicate the Indian model here. External consultants or hiring from the host country would have saved us increasing the probability of success. If possible, local partnerships also go a long way establishing trust and credibility and a shorter time to market.

Starting small and scaling once an initial set of loyal customers are onboarded is another lesson. Focus on favorable demographics you clearly understand for those initial set of customers. The Indian diaspora is your best bet – they are literally in significant numbers round the globe.  Repeat the cycle and then scale up opening to the larger market. More likely than not, Indian founders shall have done that earlier given the amount of diversity within India itself. What works for you in Delhi might not in Tamil Nadu.

One can keep abreast with the latest updates from the company through @yourlibaas at Instagram.

By Anil Solanki

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Hospitality firm Oyo on Wednesday rolled out a slew of initiatives for its employees to alleviate their stress levels amid the coronavirus pandemic. The startup has announced four-day working in a week and flexible infinite paid leaves.

Ritesh Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer of OYO Rooms, wrote about the company’s new initiatives on Twitter, “Starting today we are moving to a 4 day work week but implementing it slightly differently, making Wednesdays off to let OYO preneurs have a mid-week breather”. He also said that Oyo will be launching, “No Questions Asked Flexible Infinite Paid Leaves”.

Google Pay users in the US will now be able to send money to users in India and Singapore, the company announced on Tuesday. Google has partnered with Western Union and Wise to enable the new service via the Google Pay app.

“By the end of the year, we expect that US Google Pay users will be able to send money to people in more than 200 countries and territories through Western Union and to more than 80 countries through Wise,” the company said in a blogpost.

YouTube has announced it will launch a $100 million fund to pay content creators whose videos receive the most engagement from viewers on its new short-form video feature, named Shorts. The fund would be launched in the coming months and thousands of creators would be paid this year and in 2022, YouTube said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced Delhi government is starting an oxygen concentrator bank (OCB) service, which will help those Covid patients who are dying due to lack of oxygen. Addressing a virtual press conference, Delhi CM said his government has created OCB’s in every district in Delhi, with the availability of 200 oxygen concentrators. He said any Covid patients who are home isolated and need oxygen, Delhi government will send oxygen concentrator directly at the doorstep within 2 hours, along with a person with knowledge of machine so that he can teach proper use of a machine to family, Kejriwal said.

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The boy was a resident of Dwarka Sector 16, while the girl was from Delhi’sRohini area

In a case of suspected double suicide, a 17-year-old schoolboy and an 18-year-old girl pursuing an MBBS degree were found hanging on Friday evening from a ceiling fan in a hotel room in Dwarka, south-west Delhi, that they had booked on the OYO app.

“They visited the guest house and introduced themselves as boyfriend and girlfriend. The boy was a resident of Dwarka Sector 16, while the girl was from Rohini in Delhi. They were in a relationship. We are trying to ascertain the reason behind this extreme step,” a senior police officer said.

The police received a call about the incident from the hotel at around 5.30pm on Friday. “Finding something amiss, the staff rang the bell multiple times, but got no response. He even banged on the door several times, after which the manager was alerted. The staff then called the police and broke open the door and found them hanging,” DCP (southwest) Surender Kumar said.

According to a report, the documents that the couple had submitted to the hotel have been seized and their families have been contacted to ascertain their relationship. The police have initiated a proceeding under CrPC Sec. 174, as per protocol in such cases.

Investigations revealed that the boy had left home in Janakpuri saying he was going for tuitions and had met the girl at a Metro station near Sector 17. Police said that the boy’s father owns a grocery shop in west Delhi and that the boy was studying in Class 12 at a private school in west Delhi.

The girl, the police said, was a resident of Rohini. She was a first-year MBBS student at a medical college. Police used the girl’s identity card, recovered from the hotel, to track down her parents.

“No suicide note was found. We have also seized the DVR of the CCTV,” added Kumar.

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