Former Ibibo Execs' E-com Start-up Ladyblush.com Goes Live

Rahul Sethi, the former president of Ibibo's e-commerce division, has joined hands with former colleague Suneet Manchanda who was the business head of Tradus.in at Ibibo and Nagarjun Shrivastava who headed the India operations of  UK-based online train tickets retailer The Trainline.com, to launch what they call an 'exclusive' marketplace for women. The new shopping portal called Ladyblush.com went live this week.

The website offers a huge range of products including cosmetics, jewellery, watches, fragrances, lingerie, ethnic wear and more from various brands.

Currently, the site is only offering cash-on-delivery (CoD), cheque payments and gift vouchers, which is interesting as one would expect an e-tailer to begin with an online payment solution. The online payments will be enabled soon on the website, it says. It adds that the maximum order value for cash transactions is currently limited to Rs 10,000.

Given the hassle of sending cheques and then waiting for a product to be shipped only adds to a consumer's pain points, we can only guess the firm is pretty bullish on CoD as a payment mode.

The website is offering free shipping on orders above Rs 250 and charges Rs 30 for orders below that. It has tied up with Aramex for logistics.

In the market where many online portals are already there to cash in on the love for shopping of women, this one seems to be trying to create a women-only space. Ladyblush.com will face competition from various other players such as futurebazaar, fashion and you, Pepperfry, SnapDeal, 99labels and many more.

The focus on women seems to be emerging as a new theme for e-com firms. Earlier in an interview with Techcircle.in Aambareesh Murty, former eBay India chief who floated his own e-com site Pepperfry.com had said women will drive growth of e-com in India.

We will tell you more on ladyblush.com and other e-Commerce players, as it happens. Keep watching this space.