Spirituality is a flourishing line of work, and many Indian founders understand this. Therefore, they have now started forming a beeline to extract the most out of the Indian religious and spiritual market, which stood at a whopping $58.56 Bn in 2023 and is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 10% until 2032.
Imperative to mention that it is on the back of this growth opportunity that India has witnessed the rise of the spiritual tech ecosystem, which, today, is being spearheaded by the likes of AstroTalk, AppsForBharat, Sri Mandir, TempleConnect, Guruji, and AstroBuddy, just to name a few.
Trying to make ripples in the Indian spiritual realm with its offerings is Japam — a D2C brand that sells spiritual jewellery and ornaments. Founded in 2022 by Ritoban Chakrabarti, the startup also offers unique traditional wearables, home decor items, and puja accessories.
At the outset, the Mohali-based startup would sell a few Rudraksha wearables like bracelets and malas on its website. It has expanded its product portfolio to include gold-plated bracelets, necklaces, idols and wall hangings.
Since its inception, it claims to have served 3 Lakh customers. It serves 35K customers monthly and claims to secure annual revenues of more than INR 30 Cr.
“We started in December 2022. In the first quarter of 2023, we were averaging 200 orders daily. Our average daily orders have grown to 1,200, with an average order value of INR 700,” Chakrabarti said.
Chakrabarti’s Journey To Japam
Notably, Japam is not Chakrabarti’s first venture and is rather the byproduct of multiple performance marketing campaigns, which the founder and CEO has run for different companies for over a decade.
Fresh out of college, Chakrabarti first dawned the entrepreneur’s hat with an internet marketing startup, MarkAce Marketing, in 2009.
While providing digital marketing and SEO services to multiple clients, Chakrabarti’s interest in the then-burgeoning Indian ecommerce space deepened. This triggered him to set up an ecommerce community, Flying Start Online, in 2017. This community helps people start their ecommerce ventures. In the same year, he incorporated an online hair colour brand Common Panda, which was focussed on the US market.
Alongside, Chakrabarti was engaged in running different performance marketing campaigns for an array of products sold online. The idea was to identify white spaces and foray into the uncharted Indian ecommerce space.
“During my research of the Indian ecommerce market while running performance marketing campaigns, I was surprised to find that Rudraksh-based products stood out, which also became the base of my next venture, Japam,” the founder said.
Chakrabarti told Inc42 that Japam’s journey started in December 2022 with selling a few select Rudraksha wearables like bracelets and malas on its website. From there, the founder has expanded the startup’s portfolio to include gold-plated bracelets, necklaces, and idols of gods and wall hangings. With the expansion of its portfolio, Japam’s founder today claims an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of more than INR 30 Cr.
Can Japam Disrupt The Faith Market?
While Japam’s products were a hit with people browsing online, translating this positive sentiment into sales was harder than expected for Chakrabarti and his team.
Explaining how he managed to pick the pulse of the young Indian audience, he said, “We identified that the Rudraksha-based ornaments market was dominated by traditional designs with little innovation. We aimed to change that by focussing on office goers in the age group of 25 to 45 years, and this has worked wonders for us.”
Chakrabarti added that the strategy that has been driving Japam’s business since its inception has been the unique design of its products. Plus, the startup is laser-focussed on providing authentic Rudraksha in a market that is otherwise dominated by unorganised players providing spurious products and mock-ups.
To earn their audience’s trust in the authenticity of their products, Japam has a rigorous lab testing process in place. It has established stringent qualitative requirements for vendors to ensure the originality of their Rudraksha.
What has also worked in Japam’s favour is its network of micro-influencers, who create well-researched educational videos around their product offerings.
Further, the Japam team routinely launches new and unique products around festivals. For instance, for Rakshabandhan in 2023, the startup made ‘Rudraksha Ki Rakhi’, which its micro-influencers promoted extensively, setting the tone and trend for the festival last year.
What’s Next For Japam?
With its website serving as the bedrock of its online business, the company is now looking to deepen its footprint online via listing its products on various ecommerce platforms.
Earlier this year, Japam started selling on Amazon. According to the founder, the search rate of the startup’s products on Amazon has put them in the top 10 most searched brands on the ecommerce platform in India. The company is also in talks with Myntra to list its products.
“What we are noticing is that the brand-building bid that we are doing on our website is also working on Amazon. Hence, we are looking to expand our catalogue offerings on the online marketplace. We have also started the onboarding process with Myntra,” he said.
With its eyes set on bumping up its revenues, the startup has also started listing its products on quick-commerce platforms like Zepto and Blinkit.
According to the founder, Japam’s lineup of products sees a heavy demand during festivals, therefore “it makes more sense to be present there”.
Meanwhile, the company is also in the process of finalising a timeline for its offline foray. However, before venturing into the offline space, it wants to create a strong online presence and brand identity.
Currently, it is in talks with a host of VCs and angel investors to close its seed funding round at INR 12 Cr. The fresh flow of funds will help the startup boost its online presence, enter the offline space and strengthen its product portfolio with new designs and offerings.
While it remains to be seen how Japam performs in the long run, one cannot ignore the tailwinds the startup is poised to receive from people’s unending quest for spirituality.
[Edited by Shishir Parasher]
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