LimeRoad – Everything You Need To Know

Online marketplaces of various specialties are developing and overtaking the Indian market, which was formerly known for its mom-and-pop shops. LimeRoad, one of the initial women’s online shopping sites, is today one of India’s most well-known shopping locations. The e-commerce business is quickly becoming one of India’s most popular. So, let’s dive into the success story of limeroad.

LimeRoad

LimeRoad, which mostly deals in apparel and accessories for men, women, and children, claimed to have scaled 150% in terms of income, traffic, and more at the end of 2017, and had also successfully grabbed the second spot in the online fashion vertical, as revealed by Suchi Mukherjee. Suchi Mukherjee is an Indian entrepreneur and the face behind LimeRoad, a popular online retail platform. 

It was launched in 2012 by Suchi Mukherjee, who co-founded the company alongside Ankush Mehra and Prashant Malik. While Malik has left the company, Mehra is still the Co-Founder and Director of A.M Marketplaces Pvt. Ltd., Its parent company, and Mukherjee is the CEO. The company is headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana. The name of the corporation is derived from Grand Trunk Road.

Key people   Suchi Mukherjee ( CEO )

                     Neha Dhupia ( Art Director )

                     Ahti Heinla & Michael V Swaaji ( Board Advisors )

She aspired to build South East Asia’s largest women-only marketplace. She has received numerous honors for her services to company advancement and consumer technology understanding. In 2011, the World Women’s Forum named her Number one out of 15 “Rising Talent- worldwide leaders under 40.”

Entrepreneurial beginnings – Suchi Mukherjee

Suchi Mukherjee established her firm centered on fashion and apparel for women after achieving exceptionally well in her career and serving at multiple companies in over 5+ job capacities. Suchi is presently the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LimeRoad, an e-commerce platform founded in 2012. However, what inspired her to pursue a career as an entrepreneur is rather intriguing.

The Startup’s Concept, LimeRoad

Its startup story began in a moment of sheer frustration for Suchi Mukherjee. This occurred shortly after the birth of her second kid. Suchi was 39 years old at the time and on maternity leave. Suchi was flipping through a magazine one day when she noticed an extremely gorgeous piece of jewelry. 

However, the jewelry was at a small boutique in Mumbai and couldn’t have arrived any time soon. This made her realize two critical points that were important to its launch:

• No app/website/portal made it simple to find beautiful and fascinating items.

• No platform allowed users to search through listings of accessories created to be sold outside India.

Thus, the major idea that prompted Suchi Mukherjee to develop LimeRoad, which is today recognized among the top female-founded fashion firms in India, was to build a unique platform where one can find attractive and cheap accessories and lifestyle products in a simple interface. 

The notion was flawless to the core because she was aware that India was the manufacturing location for over 21% of the lifestyle products marketed globally. This made her realize that bringing all of the sellers in the lifestyle product area under one roof would be both enjoyable and profitable.

“This is an industry that is our strength.” “All she wanted to do is use technology to help manufacturers, designers, and dealers thrive, and users find beautiful items that they couldn’t find before,” Suchi explained.

Launch of LimeRoad

Suchi identified a critical need for a dedicated girls’ gateway where they can find low-cost accessories and products without any inconveniences. This is when she discovered a chance to swiftly grow in the market.

She considered the demands of women and was aware that women prefer to consider other possibilities before becoming a product. Her mastery of the company enabled her to get to the bottom of the fundamental issue of service and product.

Furthermore, numerous unidentified vendors were not permitted to offer their items to maintain their quality. She worked on finding the perfect balance between demand and supply. After making all of the necessary arrangements, Suchi returned to India in 2011 to establish a global brand in the country.

Suchi recounted that she got together with her co-founders to construct something transformational with a passion for driving change and creativity, which is also a major feature of its ethos.

When Suchi Mukherjee was evaluating the market opportunity a year before launching LimeRoad, her common acquaintances led her to Prashant Malik, who worked at Facebook and returned to India to start something new, and Ankush Mehra, who ran the supply chain of Reliance Hypermarkets.

Suchi Mukherjee and the other founders envisioned the company as the digital equivalent of the 16th-century Grand Trunk Road, which transformed the face of trade in the Indian subcontinent.

Challenges – LimeRoad

This like every other business, faced numerous hurdles when it first launched. One of the startup’s biggest challenges was finding the proper people to form a robust team that could assist the company gets a mix of skill and a can-do mentality. Although LimeRoad may overcome the given difficulty, it does spring up and test the company on occasion.

It was also challenging to obtain the necessary infrastructure, including a high-speed and dependable internet connection. Suchi Mukherjee also had to deal with several legal formalities to register a corporation, of which she had no prior expertise, particularly in India.

Another problem was achieving the ideal work-life balance. Suchi believed that being a woman made it difficult to be an entrepreneur because she had significant familial obligations at the time. One thing is certain: Suchi was well-supported by her family, including her husband.

LimeRoad’s Marketing and Brand strategy

The brand has prioritized organic community building via scrapbooks, vendors, and social media.

The team created the Scrapbook feature to help build the concept of social involvement.

• The home page greets you with a tempting magazine spread. The first page of the LimeRoad scrapbook collection – Affordable Intelligent Living. 

• A click👆 on the rupee symbols displayed on the items shows the brand and price for that item along with a link to view more details.

• The item pinned as ‘hot picks’ is the most recommended one by LimeRoad.

• The pink icons serve to flaunt your style and share. Click the heart-shaped icon❤️to show you love this collection.

• Click the book 📖with the clip icon to create your scrapbook. Click the people icon to share it with your Facebook friends.

• You can flip through the page to see the next collection “Summertime Blues’ just as you would flip through a fashion magazine.

• In addition, the green flaps on the edge of the magazine allow you to shop by cities or brands or your scrapbook.

• Creating a scrapbook is easy – every item you browse through has a scrapbook icon.

• Just click the icon and you have an open scrapbook beside it.

• Drag everything you like and describe your collection under ‘Let’s Party, ‘Work Wear Wardrobe’, ‘Flirty me’, ‘Bollywood Dazzle’, etc.

• You can then share this scrapbook with your friends or add it to your shopping cart.

• But you need to sign in with your account to be able to share. There is also a sign-up form for a new account.

• You need to be logged in if you plan to go shopping on this road. And if someone buys your style, you will get LR points in your account.

Under the LimeRoad #ShopByCity banner, LimeRoad introduced its one-of-a-kind platform for Indian makers and craftsmen. Under the LimeRoad #ShopByCity umbrella, a carefully curated and refined range of ‘Made in India’ products will be available on the platform to online customers, making their shopping experience tremendously enjoyable and promoting indigenous sellers.

Product Range

The menu bar lists categories from clothing and accessories to bags to beauty, home decor, and fitness products. Whatever you browse through, there are many filters to make your search easy, just as most e-commerce portals do. LimeRoad deals with more than 350 brands and thousands of items.

LimeRoad enables you to discover the best lifestyle products across categories like accessories, footwear, apparel, home accessories, footwear, beauty, and personal care from various brands such as;

• Women ( W, Karigari, Aurelia, Alcis, Shaily, Cottinfab, Ksut, Oxolloxo, Trendif, Pluss )

• Men ( Arrow, US Polo Assn, Aeropostale, Campus Sutra, Ruggers, Canary London, Hang Up,  Alcis )

• Kids ( Giny & Jony, US Polo Assn, Monte Carlo, Cherokee, Li’l Tomatoes, NeuVin, Under Fourteen Only, Tales & Stories, Beebay )

• Home ( Bella Casa, Cortina, Bianca, Jeby, Saral Home )

Payment mode

Available modes of payment for the product while shopping is:

• COD
• Credit card
• Debit card
• Net banking
• Paytm
• Payumoney
• Mobikwik

Fundings

• In March 2018, limeRoad raised a $ 30 million series C led by Tiger Global, with other participants from Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Matrix Partner.

• Earlier, in May 2014, LimeRoad received funding of US$ 15 million, led by Tiger Global, with participation from returning investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Matrix Partners India.

• In October 2012, the company secured a $ 5 million Series A funding round, led by the same investors.

Partnership

1. In October 2016, LimeRoad partnered with Goonj ( NGO ) and Facebook to launch an initiative called Mission: One Crore: Pledge a saree, Pledge a smile. The initiative was started with the purpose to collect one crore of sarees, which were donated to underprivileged women in the country.

2. In December 2016, LimeRoad partnered with the Madhya Pradesh Laghu Udyog Nigam, Government of Madhya Pradesh to retail handloom and handicraft range of products on its e-commerce platform.

LimeRoad Achievements

To Conclude with

LimeRoad is regarded as one of India’s fastest-growing digital commerce platforms. It now has a community of over 50,000 women. Suchi Mukherjee’s efforts are undeniably significant, from being a startup to the LimeRoad we see today, which competes with companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Snapdeal, and others. LimeRoad presently claims to have over 50 million visits under the leadership of  Suchi Mukherjee.

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