Madurai, Kovai on Pepperfry’s radar for expansion plans

The business of furniture is a $30 billion industry in India today. And it’s large enough for multiple players to build and operate great businesses. However, the nature of the market is fragmented as almost 90 per cent comprises the unorganised space. 

Within 10 per cent of the organised market, the top five brands contribute to only 5 per cent of the overall market. These are the conditions that spurred fourand-a-half-yearold furniture e-tailer Pepperfry.com to train its focus on south India, one of the biggest markets for furniture. Ambareesh Murty, CEO and Co-founder of Pepperfry.com, who was recently in Chennai, says, “South India is a larger market than the rest of India, for us and Tamil Nadu is among our top five markets. This is firstly because the nature of early adoption is higher in South India. 

There are a large number of tech savvy people who are open to online shopping, especially for furniture. The overall wealth is also higher leading to higher consumption. Most of all, they have larger homes in South India.” Talking about how the firm has marketed itself in the region, Murty says, “We have two customer experience centres, called Pepperfry Studios, in Chennai – at Khadar Nawaz Khan Road in Nungambakkam and at Phoenix Market City in Velachery. They were opened in the past few months and have offered great traction. A lot of customers who walked in really appreciated the Studios. Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in TN are part of its game plan for the next year. Madurai and Coimbatore are the cities that are on Pepperfry. com’s radar.” 

He adds, “We have been setting up customer experience centres across India for a couple of years. Our first such centre went live in 2014. And we have been using these to provide customers with appropriate consultancy and advice. We have about 12 such centres and by the end of 2017, we are hoping to have 25-30 experience centres across India.” Pepperfry. com’s goal through next year is to expand these Studios to non-metro towns including Kochi, Ahmedabad, and Chandigarh. Interestingly, the company does not sell from these Studios. 

The Studios help the company reinforce its specialist proposition vis-à-vis the 1 lakh plus items available for sale on its portal.  Murty says the company at present works with more than 10,000 merchants across India. “Around 90 per cent of them fall into the unorganised sector. We give them a voice to these merchants and help them sell to customers from all over in India. A big chunk of the wooden furniture we sell is from small manufacturers. And around 80 to 90 per cent of everything we sell on the site is Made in India,” he beams.