ShopClues.com is an E-Commerce Online Shopping Market Place, headquartered in Gurgaon, India. It was founded in 2011 in Silicon Valley and its main purpose was to provide Indians with the best online shopping experience. Shopclues provides its users with a wide range selection of products at a low price; and most importantly, it is easy to use. In addition, it provides super-fast delivery and offers one of the best customers services available online in the region.

While ShopClues only operates in India, they ship products to more than 25 thousand cities in India and they operate thousands of online stores throughout the country. The company has a large and energetic team of more than 850 members who work to make ShopClues the best shopping destination. ShopClues is backed by leading institutional investors and is the Indian subordinate of Clues Network Inc.

 

ShopClues Founders:

ShopClues was founded by the joint efforts of Sandeep Agarwal, Radhika Aggarwal, and Sanjay Sethi. Each member of this Trio is based in India.

Sandeep Agarwal is one of the leading internet analysts and experts. He was born in India and completed his Bachelor in Commerce from Kurukshetra University. After that he went to St. Louis and got a degree of Masters in Business Administration from Washington University. Prior to founding ShopClues.com, he worked as an internet analyst and was regarded as one of the best in the US. He regularly appeared on CNBC, Fox, and ABC News. He used his experience gained from these engagements to turn ShopClues into a successful online marketplace.

Sanjay Sethi the co-founder of ShopClues wasn’t interested in entrepreneurship from the beginning. He graduated from Banaras Hindu University in the field of engineering. He worked for a steel plant as a mechanical engineer for a period of 3 years. After that, he worked at eBay as Global Products Head. He learned a lot from firms like eBay and then with the help of his experience he founded ShopClues in 2011. He is currently holding the position of company’s CEO.

Radhika Aggarwal hails from India. She had worked for major e-commerce companies in the US and had a great amount of experience in this field. She used this experience, along with her creative thinking, and made the dream of ShopClues a reality.

 

ShopClues climbed the mountain of success pretty fast and quickly transformed from a promising new marketplace to one of the best online marketplaces in all of India. This was made possible because of the quality features they were offering to their customers and because of their flawless customer service.

 

ShopClues Challenges:

It’s very challenging for companies like ShopClues to stamp their authority in India. The main reason behind this is that India consists of many different subcultures whose demands and expectations are quite different. If companies like ShopClues want to succeed across India, and gain market dominance, they have to pander to the needs of each sub-culture within the region. Given the complexity of India’s multi-cultural make-up, such a challenge is actually quite difficult to navigate. So far, Shopclues has fared well, navigating the variety of needs within their market. For example, ShopClues now provides discounts and offers for the festivals of all the major Indian Cultures comprising of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, etc.

 

ShopClues Categories:

ShopClues offers a wide range of categories for their customers to choose from. They have everything from electronic appliances to Home and Kitchen accessories. Following is the list of categories their customers can choose from: Home And Kitchen, Mobiles And Tablets, Mobile And Laptop Accessories, Computer, Appliances, TV, Audio And Large Appliances, Fashion, Footwear, Jewelry And Watches, Travel And Luggage, etc.. This wide range of stuff attracts a large number of people to their site and ShopClues has become one stop shop for every need of the people of India.

In Addition to the wide range of services they are offering, ShopClues had got a spectacular amount of promo offers for their customers uch as Daily offers, Holi Offers, Independence Day offers, and many more for special occasions. These offers usually provide large discounts on sale along with some bonus deals as well.

There are separate tags for wedding and summer shopping in their Super Saver Bazaar.

• Wedding Store:

ShopClues Wedding store is offering a different kind of cosmetics. Footwear, and the dresses which are specifically made for wedding ceremonies and related events or parties. They have also got a huge collection of Jewelry for Bride and their friends. Along with all this they also provide special offers on many of these items.

• Summer Store:

ShopClues summer store is providing its users with products that are in high demand in summer seasons. They provide special offers on things like Air Conditioner, Inverters, Stabilizers, Refrigerators, Juicers, and Water Purifiers. They have a wide range of brands the users can select from and select the one that suits them the best by going through the products rating.

 

ShopClues has recently introduced the new concept of Intra-Zonal shipping, through which, with the help of local couriers they speed up the process of delivery. According to the founders of ShopClues, their Intra-Zonal idea would save up to 25% of their cost. This would be really favorable for their customers as well, as ShopClues could use this savings to provide additional discounts and offers for their users.

 

SHOPCLUES ANDROID APP:

ShopClues has an android App for their users which allows their users to shop online anywhere, anytime at a wholesale rate with just a tap of a finger. The users can search for their desired product from the list of more than 9 million products across 3000 categories. With the help of this App, users can track their order and save their address details. And also, check the product rating and product reviews.

SHOPCLUES CUSTOMER SERVICE:

ShopClues also offers 24X7 Customer Service. Which provides its users with information regarding product replacement, late delivery, and all other queries users have in the back of their mind. This has played an important role in the growth of Shopclues as people learn to trust the service and have a place to turn to if they need support.

 

SHOPCLUES PAYMENT METHOD:

ShopClues provides its users with various kinds of payment methods. Users can select the most appropriate method for each purchase.  ShopClues payment methods comprise of Cash on Delivery, Credit/Debit Cards, EMI, and Net Banking. These various kinds of payment method make it much easier for users to order from their website or App. In addition, the payment options increase the trust factor among customers and ShopClues as they don’t have to face any kind of restriction in paying for their desired goods.

SHOPCLUES FUNDINGS:

Investors didn’t take a lot of interest in ShopClues, initially- as seen from their meager investments in the first two years. At the end of 2011, they got two investments of $2M and $4M from unnamed investors. But, things took a turn for the better and on March 14, 2013, they received an investment of $10M from Nexus Ventures Partners Helium Ventures. In 2015 they received their largest investment to date when Helium Ventures Partners Nexus Ventures Partners invested $100M. Following that successful funding round, In 2016, they received another $100M investment from GIV Private Limited Nexus Ventures Partners. To date, ShopClues had received a total amount of $216M investments.

 

ShopClues And Momoe:

Recently, ShopClues has expressed an interest in acquiring the mobile payment company,  Momoe. This Acquisition would be a major step in their evolution as this would strengthen their payment options for customers. Beside this, the Momoe payment method would decrease the challenges faced by their customers in small towns and villages throughout India.

 

SHOPCLUES COMPETITORS:

India currently has many promising online marketplaces and all of these are competing to be the best. Snapdeal, Myntra, Jabong, Flipkart, and Amazon are a few of the companies which are currently on top of the list of the online marketplace in India.

 

Controversy:

Sandeep Agarwal, who is one of the co-founders of ShopClues, was arrested on insider trading charges. Sandeep Agarwal was charged with conspiracies to commit security fraud and wire fraud. According to the U.S Attorney release:  

                                       “Sandeep Agarwal perceived confidential information from one of his friends at Microsoft about the recommencement of a partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft. He provided this information to his partner Lee, who bought several hundred thousand shares at Yahoo Stocks and also 25,000 shares of Yahoo in his personal account.”

This information was confidential and because of this Lee was also pleaded guilty to Insider Trading Charges.

 

ShopClues had faced quite a few ups and down in their journey so far. In India, many successful online marketplaces are currently operating and this means that level of competition is really high. ShopClues had faced some controversy and challenges regarding the quality of their products. However, each time the company has shown the ability to bounce back from bad press and is still are considered among the most successful online marketplaces in India.