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Last updated: 18 Jun, 2015  

jain.thumb.jpg A simplified taxation like GST will help e-commerce sector more: Gagan Jain

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Vaneeta Punchvedi | 18 Jun, 2015

Theoretically government has taken lot of initiatives, however, to see any tangible results it requires to improve the delivery mechanism for government schemes. A simplified taxation like goods and services tax (GST) will help e-commerce sectors more, Founder of RangRage, Gagan Jain said in an Exclusive interview to SME Times.

"Currently, Indian entrepreneur spend lot of time in understanding the taxation and legal issues. While country will get benefits, if he focuses on his core business," he added.

Excerpts of the interview...

Please tell us something about "RangRage".
Gagan Jain: Founded by Gagan Jain and his wife Neeti Jain, RangRage.in caters to the fashion needs of men, women and kids across apparel, accessories , and home décor while also supporting a whole community of artists. Each of the Rang Rage products- apparels, cushions, tissue box, alarm clocks, bags, clutches, belts are the canvases of their artists. In a way, the products of RangRage is a signature that cannot be forged.
The company has a team of 50+ talented artists. Along with a team of core artists and designers who work on product development, the company is associated with large number of freelance painters who work on project basis. The Rang Rage team comprises housewives, art students, teachers and even film poster painters. The company is happily creating a social impact through a business enterprise that is guaranteed to serve only exclusivity to its customers.
RangRage through its unique business endeavor is supporting artists all across India and strives to achieve the highest level of "Customer Satisfaction". It's cutting edge E-commerce platform, highly experienced buying team, agile warehouse systems and state of the art customer care centre provides customer with broader selection of product, superior buying experience, on-time delivery of products and quick resolution of any concerns.
Going forward, the company plans to expand in multiple directions. The primary focus is to further broaden its product portfolio by increasing the number and also augment the product coverage.

Rang Rage includes house wives and student painters and many more different kinds of artistes.

From where did you get this idea and what kind of response you are getting?
Gagan Jain: We struck the hand painted merchandize idea purely by chance. We used to live in Oman having a comfortable and cushy job. My wife Neeti used to paint to pass her time but she got bored with painting on canvas and hanging it in house, so she decided to paint on apparels. As a hobby she painted denim for me. I wore that denim at Eiffel Tower, Paris. There was huge crowd but every head turned to look at denim.  I wondered that there is some pull in painted denim that most fashionable people can't miss it.
When I came back to Muscat, we decided to take this idea a step further. We bought plain t-shirts and identified few designs to be painted. Neeti belongs from Jaipur and knew few painters there, so we exported the t-shirts there.  After a month we received our first consignment of painted t-shirts.  The response for hand painted t-shirts was very encouraging; we sold all of them within a few months.
We were amazed at discovery of such a cool and simple business idea. Send stuff to India, get it painted and sell it in gulf, nothing could be better. But a good idea may not be always easy to implement. When we approached the artists again with second lot three months later, most of them had left painting. They said 'Artist has no value in India; we can't run our home through this profession.' This was a very affecting statement and something really pulled us to pack our bags and shift back to India. Though there was no business plan in place, but we decided to put our savings in our dream for next two years at least.

How does "Rang Rage" work? What is the USP of "Rang Rage".
Gagan Jain: At Rang Rage, We create products which have touch of art with supreme utility value for the customers. We believe this journey will not only promote painters but also help customers discover and buy artistic products which they are not able to do otherwise.
We make products like Cushion Covers, Clocks, Coasters, Trays and other Home Décor products. We also enable our customers to make style statements by adding colors to their wardrobe through our T-Shirts, Denims, Bags and other fashion accessories. So, we have very large market ready for the categories we deal in.
Our differentiation is every product is exclusively Hand-Painted by our local artist. Our artist expresses his vision through his painting. Every painting tells a story, every product tells a story. Sometimes it will tell us the importance of team work through a Warli painting, Sometimes it will be an expression of rebel on the current state of affairs through graffiti.
We do lot of customization and our team of artists is willing to paint individual"s vision on choice of his merchandise. 

How do you see the growth and development of e-commerce in today's world?
Gagan Jain: India has around 250mn Internet connected users which make it the third largest Internet market in the world. Indian ecommerce space offers huge opportunity. To put in relative context, Internet penetration in US is just 1.15 times of India but e-commerce market is 32 times bigger. This gap is not only due to larger base of e-commerce audience in US (190mn Vs 49mn in India) but the per capita spend is also 9 times of Indian e-commerce buyer.
Till now most Indian Ecommerce companies were focusing on acquiring new customers. But very soon their priority will change. Since it's easier & cost effective to farm existing customers rather than hunting for new customers, e-commerce companies will need to focus on retention and milk the life time value of the customer. Hence, experience of ecommerce shopping will be the key differentiator.
We will also see niche businesses adopting ecommerce with more force. The regional ecommerce will also be an area where we will see new startups disrupting the space. This basically indicates very interesting times for multiple e-commerce allied businesses apart from new e-commerce & e-retail start-ups.

You must be having a cut throat competition with other online shopping portals. How Rang Rage is different from others?
Gagan Jain: Our major differentiation is our products. Actually, we are not an ecommerce company like a Flipkart or Snapdeal. We are Product Company using ecommerce as sales channel.  We know that we do not have same amount of money as the big ecommerce players to indulge in expensive marketing activities.  So the truth is we cannot compete with them, so we do the next best, WE COLLABARTE WITH THEM. We use their sales strength and sell our product through them.
Ecommerce lacks one thing, i.e. personal touch to your shopping. We try addressing that by sending hand written letters, speaking to customers and sharing the story of the artists who has painted their product. This gives an edge over other ecommerce brands.

How do you see the success of Rang Rage?
Gagan Jain: We have defined that we will happy if achieve breakthrough on two counts.
We want to be source of regular income for 1000 freelance artists.
Hand-painting has global appeal; this creates a very exciting opportunity for Rang Rage to become a international lifestyle and fashion brand. We would like to play our part in "make in India" and infuse Indian art as integral part of lifestyle across globe.

What kind of challenges is facing you? And what are your expectations from a government in this regard?
Gagan Jain: Lots of time, we have realized that most of government offices are busy in doing and no focus on achieving things. Theoretically government has taken lot of initiatives, however, to see any tangible results; we need to improve the delivery mechanism for government schemes.  A simplified taxation like GST will help. Currently, in India an entrepreneur spend lot of time in understanding the taxation and legal issues. While country will get benefits, if he focuses on the core, his business.

 
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