Selling new products

In West Bengal, the Durga Puja time is the peak season for all shop owners. During Durga Puja, I get a lot of customers at my shop. I even get out-of-town customers at my shop during Durga Puja to buy clothing items and cosmetic products. Other than that, I also get customers who come to my shop to buy products like cream when they are out of stock. I get these types of customers at my shop throughout the year. During the Durga Puja season, new products get launched in the market and these products sell a lot in the city, but not here. So, I buy these new products and sell them to customers by telling them that they are trendy. There are some new products that I will only buy during Durga Puja and not otherwise. It is not possible for me to go to Kolkata every month and buy products from there.

Let me give you another example. I keep Lakme aloe vera gel at my shop, and its price is 340 rupees. I have a similar product called Astaberry aloe vera gel, and its price is 110 rupees. So, the question is how can I satisfy the customer and make them buy the Astaberry aloe vera gel instead of the Lakme aloe vera gel? Lakme is a well-known brand, whereas Astaberry is not. Not many people know about the Astaberry brand, so I have to convince the customer. To do that, I will let them try out both products to see which one feels softer on their skin. These types of products often come with a test or trial pack. I will encourage them to use the Astaberry aloe vera gel at least once. If they don't like it, they can always go back to the Lakme aloe vera gel. This way, I can convince most of the customers. However, the issue is that I am affecting my business by selling the Astaberry aloe vera gel, which costs less than the Lakme aloe vera gel.

I decided to sell chargers and headphones because I noticed that many shops in the market were selling accessories and making a profit. I saw this trend in the market, especially on SP Road where there are many wholesale shops. Since everyone buys from there, I decided to purchase my goods from there as well. There is a mobile showroom nearby that also sells accessories like tempered glass and mobile pouches for safety. They focus on maximizing their profit when they have customers, so I thought I could do the same. By selling accessories, I can buy a charger for 100 rupees and sell it for 150 rupees or 130 rupees, making a profit. That's the idea I came up with.

I will have to keep a different variety of clothes to expand my business.

I see my business increasing 4X or 5X more than what it is today. I have to do a lot more than this and want to increase it. I want to add many things regarding the products and want to acquire new clients. The things that I am doing right now, along with that, I will include things that are currently being installed at home, such as lighting and more. People spend a lot on lighting, chandeliers, and new tables, among other things. There is a wide range of products, so I will try to add those things. And then there are the things that I am already selling. I mean, from time to time, I get to know new products and we add them to our inventory. So, these things are not available in tier three cities. For example, if I talk about Bhandara specifically, there is no dedicated store for these items. However, I want to offer these products because I already have customers who are interested in them. For instance, when a house is being constructed, customers typically purchase basic products such as wires, switches, and fans. If I stock these items, they will definitely buy them. There is a lot of range related to it. Pumps are there and after that there are few equipments of power tools. Power tools which are used in the industries. So items for those things and then some items which are used in rice mills. These things are there.

When we started, we had a list from Scholar's Academy, which is a renowned institute that prepares students for the UPSC exams. Following their advice, we gained insight into what items to stock in our shop and what items to sell. They specifically recommended magazines such as Yojana, Kurukshetra, Drishti, Chronicle, Darpan, and Vision IAS. Initially, we started with just 1-2 magazines, but gradually increased the variety to 10, then 20, and now we sell a total of 100 magazines. They informed me about the quality of Laxmikant's work and Ravesh Singh's expertise in economics. They provided me with the entire list and instructed me to retain it. We will inform the children to purchase it. If you retain it, you will be able to sell it. Therefore, we kept it from the beginning. We kept the magazine, as well as the motivational books. We also kept "Agni Ki Udaan" and many other items. Additionally, there is a very famous book called "Dark Horse.”

A lot needs to be done for the customers ma’am, we can provide customers service same as available in the showroom. Once free servicing is done from the showroom, why customers do not go to the showroom after that? What is the psychology of the customers? In showroom they charge more labor payment. GST will be applied. On top of that there are timings from morning till evening; if servicing is not done today then you will get it tomorrow only. In our workshop immediately customer brings the car for servicing, work is done fast here on the car and within no time customer is told to take back his car. Here we give discount to the customers, at the showroom they would charge the same price whatever they would say. In showroom they don’t give discount of 1/- but we give discount of 10/- to the customers. Now we sell only spare parts. Washing of the car should be there but I don’t have that facility. It was done before but now it is stopped. Alignment balancing is done of the car by mechanics but that is also not there with me, it should be there I feel. Ours is mechanical related work then there is electric related work and for that I don’t have many spare parts for that, I feel that should be there with me too. I arrange that for my customers but I have to call up somebody for that at that time. I cannot keep censors also because in single car 50 censors are installed. Like that so many companies’ cars are there so we have to maintain very big range of censors. Sometimes in showroom also they don’t have this material. They come to us then. Maruti showroom people come to us for that. Hyundai showroom people also come to us. Halogen bulbs are not there in Hyundai showroom so they sometimes come to us to take it. Sometimes we don’t have the material so we go to the showroom and get that material. Like that there is vast range of materials in automobiles. Now foreign country vehicles have come up but Maruti, Hyundai, Mahindra are Indian companies only. Kia, Skoda, BMW, Volkswagen has come up. Like this the range becomes vaster day by day. We are not able to do fulfill all the customers. Even showroom cannot satisfy the customers in terms of material.

I started this business only using my computer and printer. Then I expanded my shop. For one year, I had a Xerox machine and cyber services. Then I started selling plastic items, followed by toys and Milton. Gradually, the growth increased.

I added new things for business growth because I noticed that in this area, there was only one toy shop. That's why I started the toys section. Then, there was no shop for plastic items either. We had to go to Durgapur bazaar to buy plastic items, which is 2 km away from here. So, that's why I opened this section. I purchase all items from Kolkata. Thus, my shop grew.

I decided to keep Milton as I see that if I keep Milton items, I would benefit, and if I keep toys, I would also benefit. So, based on that, we started keeping the products. One of my relatives had this kind of shop, and I also took feedback from him. I know someone who lives outside of Durgapur, and I also took feedback from him. I gained some experience from him. Then I started this.

I had ice cream here before, but I experienced a lot of loss with it. The sales were not high. Then I tried Mother Dairy, but it didn't have good demand. On the other hand, Amul has a good demand. I have to keep the fridge always on for the ice cream, so the electric bill is high. The distributor of this area for Cold Drinks knows me, and he told me that he would send me a new fridge. I applied for it, and he sent me the fridge. Now I have the Cold Drinks with me.

We didn't have a toy shop here; we only had one in Shyampur More. There were no shops here. Many people came and asked where they could get toys. I used to say, "Go to the shop at the crossing and you'll find them there." At that time, I had the idea that the toy shop was at the crossing, but we didn't have one here, so I could see how it could work. Then I bought the toys.

That's like when I started this, I had a system and a small printer. After 2 to 3 months, I got a computer. Then I had an old Canon Xerox machine. It was old and bigger, and used to consume a lot of electricity. I didn't have much money at that time. Then slowly, I started doing lamination and spiral binding. That's how I started this shop.

I had this thought at that time. The customers who came to the cyber cafe for internet work used to make photocopies and such. So, I started selling cold drinks in the shop. They would work for 30 minutes to 1 hour and then ask for a cold drink. That's how it worked. Then customers would come and look around, and some would ask for cold drinks. People would also come with kids to buy toys, and they would ask for Frooti or Maza for the kids as well.

I keep Milton products because there is no other shop here that sells Milton. There is one shop at the crossing, but they don't offer much of a discount. Many customers come here for Milton, as they have gone there and seen the prices. I went directly to the wholesaler of Milton in Asansol. I spoke to him and he said he would give me a good discount, which I can pass on to my customers. Now many people know that I have Milton goods, so they don't go there and come to me instead. They get a bigger discount here. I keep the profit margin low and offer more discounts. My goal is to attract more customers and have more foot traffic. It's not about having 2 customers and earning more. I want 200 customers instead of 2. I may have less profit, but if 200 customers come and they tell others that they can get good products at discounted prices here, I will attract more customers. That's my strategy.

I do keep things like a hair dryer or one or two items when there is a customer requirement. I don't know what the customer would ask for. I have also made this sale, so I would keep this if someone has a demand for it. I can get this, but she may not like it and she might ask me to get something better. I would have a better option as well. I would not have anything bad at all; you can use this even 10 years later and it will still work.

I show the color options to customers on WhatsApp. I show them the color options in case I have something new. If the customer asks me to WhatsApp any new goods that come to the shop, they call me and tell me to send it to them on WhatsApp. They want to see photos, so I show them the photos. If I have some new saris, they might ask me to send them the colors. Most of the customers do that. I send it to them when they ask me, not otherwise. I tell them the rates when they come here. If they ask for it, then I tell them. I don't tell them before they ask.

We assume a profit of approximately 5%. We sell at a 5% markup from the purchase price. Our profit depends on the sales. Depending on the amount of sales that occur in a month, we calculate our profit accordingly. For example, if the sales for a month were 3 lakhs, we can calculate our profit based on the 5% markup. In some months, the sales could be 3.5 lakhs, while in others it could be 2.5 lakhs. There are also months where the sales amount to about 2 lakh rupees. I keep track of the daily sales, and on average, I have sales amounting to 3 lakh rupees.

I wanted to concentrate on domestic demand. Domestic is important; many family, kitchen, women are there and I want to do something for them; my father does commercial. I am collecting data for that and getting feedback through social media. I am researching now on a modified version of grinder. I design and upload and watch the number of views. How many people watch it or comment; people invest their time in watching it so it is a good sign to me.

We buy new packs of the stock only when the old packs are sold out. We generally buy only 5 packs. They are usually sold out within a week. Then we restock them again the following week. If they ask for a new product and that product is not there, we ask them to come next day or in the evening. By that time, we buy that item and store it in our shop.