AllSchoolStuff.com Ropes In Former Reliance Retail Exec To Head Merchandising

AllSchoolStuff, a two month-old online retail store for education needs catering to demand from the K-12 school segment has appointed Sushma Katyar, as director - merchandising.

Till recently, Katyar was with Office Depot Reliance Pvt Ltd (a joint venture company of Office Depot of US and Reliance Retail Ltd) as a category head-general office supplies.

With almost 15 years experience in managing buying, merchandising and production planning, Katyar has worked with various companies including Reliance Retail, Valdel Retail Pvt Ltd, Sarup Tanneries Pvt Ltd, Toys Kemp Pvt Ltd, before joining AllSchoolStuff.

Manoj Chandra, co-founder and chief executive officer, AllSchoolStuff.com said, "As a member of the senior management team, Katyar will play a key role in helping to lead the company through merchandising, right set of product offerings, supply chain and anticipate future challenges as we move ahead to create a dominant brand in India's $10 billion educational supplies market."

Chandra, a senior retail professional who was last heading the marketing portfolio for Bata India teamed up with Ankur Garg, an IIT graduate with over a decade of experience in ecommerce technologies, to launch AllSchoolStuff last November.

The site targets the fast growing market for educational supplies (growing at 20 percent per annum) which is estimated to be over $5 billion in value. It hasmore than 15,000 items that include school text books, stationery, note books, art and craft materials, school bags, water bottles, school uniform, school shoes, sports items, music instruments, science projects, exam guides, fancy dress costumes and science kits.

Pre-School products such as educational toys, activity sets, flash cards and picture books, puzzles, shapes and abacus are also available. It also features movie merchandise targeted at children. The products are categorized as per age, class, subject or activity and the company offers free home delivery for all the purchased products.

The firm operates its own warehouse and supply chain system and has also joined hands with logistics partners for deliveries.