Ritesh Arora

CEO

LetsShop.in

Short Description

Mistakes are inevitable and to be honest, there are some mistakes that I am proud to make, since I learned a lot from them. As a leader, I don’t tell my team not to make mistakes. Instead, I give them the freedom to be creative and take risks.

Brief about company, offerings and foundation of the company

We founded LetsShop.in in October 2010, however, the website was launched in January 2011 and within no time received our first order, we knew we were in business. Once you open LetsShop.in you will notice simplified categories, easy user interface and navigation which help you to get to that one perfect product which matches your requirement and not to forget about unbeatable prices and supreme service.We believe in pure customer delight and happiness. Probably that is what has led us to fine tune our fulfillment. Majority of our orders are delivered within flat 72 hours from the time of it being placed.

Risks involved in business and way of addressing

E-Tailing in consumer electronics segment has lot of challenges and risks, which include but are not limited to competition, rapid price fluctuation, transaction risks such as fraud transactions, returns, in transit damage etc. To overcome price fluctuation, we take live feedback from market every day and keep our prices updated; this has helped us to provide up to date pricing to customers. We manually check and verify each and every order, which has helped us minimize transaction risks, incorrect deliveries and returns. Also, all our products are insured against, in transit damage, theft or lost, which gives complete peace of mind to our customers.

Way of choosing my people

I have never formally interviewed any of my team members. I have never had an interview lasting less than an hour and never without a cup of coffee. For me, most important thing is to know how easily they connect with me. Weather we will be able to work together for next 3-5 years? If we share same passion for doing something which has already been done in past, but differently and most importantly, if the person is open to learning something new or not? I personally feel, zeal to learn something new is more important than what someone prints on their resume.

As a leader how I make sure that I am connecting the right dots

Motivation and Drives factor

Thank you notes from our customers & smiling team mates.

Unique about my way of motivating troops

We have a team, which eats together, smiles together, plays together, dreams together and achieve together. We keep smiling, laughing, cracking jokes and at the end of day deliver our 100%.

Most critical decision

When we started, we were on a SaaS model, though it was economical at that time to start with SaaS based solution, however, there were lot of limitations to that; and we realized we need a solution which doesn’t expose us to such limitations. There were lot of options, asp,net, customized php, OS Commerce, Magento, X Cart etc. We shortlisted Custom PHP and Magento and finally went on with Magento. Today when we see the volume of sales and visitors, we feel glad we made the right decision at the right time.

The challenges and lessons learnt to get first customer

Since our pricing was competitive, getting customers was not difficult. However, fulfillment was a totally different ball game. Over a period of time, I have learnt that fulfillment is equally important to pricing and customer acquisition.

Experience of reaching out to potential investors

I haven’t approached any investors as yet. I think it is too early. Currently it’s being boot strapped, the site is in green and we are managing everything quite comfortably.

My role at different dimensions as the company evolved

Initially when we started, I used to take care of almost everything. Now I concentrate more on customer support. Guess that’s what I loved, keeping customer happy.

Some of the difficulties faced while building product/ solution

As mentioned earlier, when we started the site, we were on SaaS based model, there were lot of technical, transactional, Content, Navigation and User Interface related issues. However, once we moved on to Magento, most of our issues were resolved. Also, another issue was to find a reliable and trust worthy programmer for Magento, We were fortunate to get Sweety on board, she had that zeal and passion to learn and take risk, and she also matched the team temperament. Another issue, we faced was fulfillment. Being a new company, we didn’t have that volume of deliveries required by courier companies. We faced lot of problem finding the right courier company which can match our pace. Rahul played an important role in finding a perfect match for us; he also made sure that orders are processed same day when received.

My thoughts related to entrepreneurship/ leadership and management

Leader ship is not all about leading a bunch of guys, it’s also about being part of that team. A leader should not only trust him/her self, but should also be confident about his/her team members. He should be well aware of their strengths and weaknesses.

Best company I admire globally

Amazon, because of their high standards of customer service and customer satisfaction.

Advice for fellow entrepreneurs

Doing something and failing is better than not doing it at all.A great product/project/company, doesn’t guarantee a great team, but a great team can surely create a great product.Don’t worry about money, just excel in whatever you do and money will follow.

Different actions if I rebuild my company from scratch all over again

Will definitely get my team quicker this time.

Three big lessons/ mistakes encountered while building company

It’s never too early or too late to start.Don’t hire anyone just on the basis of their knowledge or experience.Everybody deserves a second chance. Think twice before hiring and thrice before firing.