E-com debutant Faltu.com combines flash sales & regular e-tailing; Will it bring more value

Faltu.com, an e-commerce portal run by Pune-based Rocklet Retail Pvt Ltd and offering both regular e-tailing and flash sales models, has gone live on Thursday (August 16). Dealing in a number of categories like fashion, jewellery, fragrances, accessories, electronics and education, this latest entrant in e-commerce space has already tied up with more than 50 brands and houses over 2000 SKUs. The e-tailer also intends to increase the number of brands on a regular basis.

The venture has been set up by Nilesh Patel, a businessman from Kolhapur and a commerce graduate from Shivaji University. Patel hails from a business family with diversified business/industrial interests and prior to this startup, he had looked after his family business. The technology backend has been developed by Ambab Infotech, a tech platform founded by Bhavik Jhaveri who was previously the CTO of Dealsandyou and co-founder & CTO of Craftsvilla.

Talking about being an integrated platform for both regular e-tailing and flash sales, Patel said, "Not everyone who wants to buy things is thinking of discounts. Many of them want value for money and that makes a difference. That is why we are a unique platform with options to sell both discounted goods as well as current-season non-discounted products. And it invariably means a large variety and greater choice for consumers."

Asked about its USP, Patel said, "Faltu is the place for buying great products at rock bottom prices.

"For consumers, the difference that we bring is more relevant and more cost-effective. Plus, our products have a better shelf life. In brief, we sell different products, a bit differently," he commented, speaking exclusively to Techcircle.in.

A self-funded company, Faltu has no plans to raise funding right now. "But we would surely like to hear from like-minded partners who see great value into this as much we do," said Patel. At this stage, the founder has invested around $1 million into the venture.

Currently a team of 15 (well, somewhere around 25 if you count the Ambab team as well), the company plans to scale up in more ways than. "We will not only increase our categories but also enhance our service offerings – exploring areas like corporate gifting and other B2B opportunities," said Patel.

"We have partnered with Ambab for all major backend work including technology, helpdesk and marketing. And that already makes us a decent team. We plan to optimise our resources at this stage while partnering with Ambab gives us better flexibility in terms of resource utilisation," he added.

"I think our current team is capable of taking us to a level where we will definitely break even in the most efficient way. In the next six months, we intend to improvise on our offerings, delivery and customer support as we firmly believe that a satisfied customer is worthier than 100 more acquired," Patel signed off.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)