June 28, 2022
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Pepperfry on expansion spree
After all, by some estimates India is the third-largest furniture market in the world
.
Pepperfry India’s leading ecommerce furniture and home goods company was launched in 2012 by Ambareesh Murty and Ashish Shah. With a vision to ‘Spark a feeling called home’ across the world, the company since inception has built special competencies to serve the Indian market and bridge
existing gaps in the home and furniture goods segment. Through the marketplace led ecommerce
business model, consumers can discover, collect information, select and purchase furniture and home
goods products.
The past 10 years have been an amazing journey, like a tempest trapped in a whirlwind,
wrapped in a tsunami of diverse experiences. India was just beginning to wake up to its
potential when Ashish and Ambareesh started Pepperfry as an e-commerce marketplace. A year into its journey, it pivoted to focus on selling furniture and furnishings.
We Indians like to touch the wood, knock on it, and even feel the texture before we bought furniture. Both the founders often felt crazy for trying to convince people to buy furniture differently, by making people purchase furniture off their screens, by relying on a picture on a screen, and by trusting people behind those pictures. Urban Ladder, FabFurnish, and many others played their part.
Today, the company stands on the threshold of a landmark year in the history of Pepperfry, and, as its
team pulls out all the stops to propel the company ahead, it’s time to take stock and learn from
the year gone by.
What happened during the pandemic?
It hit Pepperfry, just like everyone else, like a ton of bricks. Everything shut down for almost three
months and then again from time to time through 2020-21. Customers visited its website, put
items in their wishlist, and then logged off. These were the tiny beacons of hope that lit up
those dark days, an affirmation that its customers still loved it.
In the past, it is often mentioned that Pepperfry stands for profitable growth. Therefore, it
should come as no surprise that Pepperfry was EBITDA profitable in August and November
2020. The profitability is but a milestone for any good business.
80%+ of India’s home & living market is unorganized. The founding members have taken unparalleled steps to organize the highly unorganized furniture and home segment. The company has enhanced consumer experience manifold by building a curated marketplace, ensuring highest levels of quality control, and providing a robust post-transaction experience through last mile delivery and installation services. Through its own last mile delivery of a network of 370+ delivery trucks and a team of 200+ carpenters, Pepperfry operates in 20700 locations in 500+ cities across the country and garners 70+
NPS in a tough category. It has the largest warehouse network (04 state-of-art warehouses), 34
fulfilment centres and 100+mn online visitors.
Pepperfry offers an infinite catalogue of furniture, home décor and mattress products that includes their own range of Direct to Consumer (D2C) private labels (House Brands). The catalogue comprises of [120,000+] SKUs across furniture (basic, mass prestige (“Masstige”) and home goods (home décor products, mattresses) catering to a diverse demographicprofile of consumers at a wide range of price points. The company has 60k+ products to choose from across categories – furniture, décor, wall art, curios and showpieces, lamps & lightings, mattresses & bedding, carpets & furnishing, dining & bar.
Pepperfry’s omnichannel model is incomplete without ’Studio Pepperfry’, a one-of-a-kind concept
store that showcases a curated range of furniture from the online portfolio. Pepperfry Studios have
transformed India’s furniture retail landscape in the past decade. The omnichannel consumer
engagement platform Pepperfry’s omnichannel strategy captures India’s lifestyle aspirations and
offers a seamless experience across online and offline sales channels. Currently, the company has
175+ studios across 90+ cities in India. The company has leveraged mass media towards building a
differented brand, roped in Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan as brand ambassadors in 2021. It
has India’s largest big box supply chain that connects buyers and sellers in 500+cities and delivers
best-in-class services.
The stellar model of this marketplace is backed by capital which was raised in 6 rounds of funding. In
total Pepperfry has raised $240 million since its inception – the highest amount of capital raised by an
e-commerce furniture and home products company in India. They have secured $5 million in Series A
funding in Nov 2011 and a subsequent Series B funding- $8 Million, April 2013 both from NVP.
Pepperfry then continued to raise $15 Million in May 2014 from NVP and Bertelsmann India
Investments in Series C funding and $100 million & $30 million in Series D& E funding respectively. Pepperfry raised INR 35 crore of debt funding from InnoVen Capital in February 2021.
