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ShellWala – How Aditya Abrol started his online ecommerce platform selling handicrafts

ShellWala Founder - Aditya Abrol
ShellWala Founder – Aditya Abrol

The Founder

The brain behind ShellWala is a young entrepreneur, Aditya Abrol, who hails from the capital city of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. His family has always been operating numerous trades from the islands.

After completing his Civil Engineering from the Vellore Institute of Technology, he is now pursuing an MBA from SIBM, Pune.

He and his family witnessed the growth of the Andaman and Nicobar islands from an extremely close perspective. Consequently, he decided to bring about a positive and impactful change in the trade and, with the same intention, started ShellWala during his first year of college.

ShellWala

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The startup deals with the sale of handicraft goods, primarily seashells products. The startup is based in Port Blair and processes the assets accessible on the island itself.

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ShellWala chose the online method of selling as the founder believes that it is a neverending market of customers. Interested people can check out your inventory anytime, from anywhere, and even at odd hours. All they need to do is choose their favorite product, select the mode of payment, and place their order. Shellwala takes care of the rest. They, just like other online brands, deliver the products at the doorsteps of the customers. Hence, also acting as an intermediate between the clients and the startup’s handicrafts. ShellWala also serves as a source of promotion for Andaman Tourism.

Visit ShellWala’s website here.

The Vision, Idea, and Inspiration behind ShellWala

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Being a native of the island, Aditya Abrol knew in-depth details of the area. Also, Andaman is a popular tourist destination among the tourists. Subsequently, he noticed that the tourists like to take back something with them as a memory, mostly souvenirs. These souvenirs are of great importance for the residents as they depict victory over obstacles during the time of Independence.

It gave him the idea to start a company that provides the tourists with whatever they liked without any restrictions.

In Simple words, if you want anything from the Islands at your doorsteps, then ShellWala is the perfect place for you.

The vision of the Company is to provide a balanced and competitive market for handicraft manufacturers and enthusiasts who are keen on buying these products efficiently and effectively.

Challenges faced on the outset!

There is a neck to neck competition in the handicraft industry in modern times. Therefore there was a multitude of challenges that the Company faced during its initial days. To precisely point out, some of them are:

  • The handicraft industry is considerably unorganized. The Company was needed to make efforts to streamline the processes and carry out tasks efficiently.
  • The products that are up for sale have never been bifurcated according to criteria like size, material, color, and its uses & applications.
  • The sellers often trick the tourists and make them pay more for the souvenirs.
  • People are not aware of the various varieties of gifts that can easily replace the redundant presents.
  • Stakeholders often promote the tourist destination and handicrafts separately, but little do they realize that these items must be advertised as one single entity.

Besides these problems, they also faced the challenges involved in the smooth functioning of any industry.

Collaborations and Partnerships

When asked about partnerships, Aditya Abrol stated,

“Yes, like any other E-Commerce platform, we do have collaborations with others, but that is a part of our business model and the way we function. It is a mixed sort of experience, depending on the knowledge and awareness of the individual.”

He further added that they also made efforts to explain the concept of startups to those who were new to this term. Though it was tough, they managed to establish several collaborations.

First Milestone and the Current Success Growth

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The Handicraft industry in India needs a substantial boost to cope up with the flourishing Tourism Industry. Though the market and scope are incredibly vast, yet it is a real struggle to create a marketing platform and put up the traditional handicrafts for sale.

It is challenging to generate leads and views. Amidst this struggle, the first milestone that the Company achieved was B2B sales. Their customers were happy and satisfied.

As of now, ShellWala is at an embryonic stage. They are trying all the possible ways to establish a strong market presence, currently focusing on the smooth functioning of the startup and the expansion of their professional boundaries. They are leaving no stone unturned to get a bigger and better hold in the industry.

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