Ecommerce gives a brand a lot of scope for trial & error: Vikas D Nahar

BY Team PITCH

At e4m Programmatic Summit 2023, Vikas D Nahar, Founder & CEO of Happilo, shared thejourney of creating a 100 crore+ digital-first company.

“Happilo was born in 2016, around September-October. When we started, we always took small steps, never thought what we'd become in terms of revenue or brand or valuation. The company was confident enough that it would make itself big, only time was needed,” Nahar shared during a fireside chat with Naziya Alvi Rahman, Editor of exchange4media.

Nahar was a retailer before starting Happilo. “During that time, availability of branded dry fruits and snacks was a challenge and there was a lot of dependency on international brands. So that was the inspiration from which Happilo was born,” he said. Nahar mentioned that his father was into growing coffee and pepper, and that his childhood too was largely about weekends on the farms.

Speaking of initial challenges, Nahar said that in terms of offline, larger brands naturally have a stronger distribution network in place. “For any young brand, to build distribution in say even a lakh stores, is difficult. For them, it is rather easier to launch something online, there you just have to convince the category manager, and you are visible to millions of consumers online. So, for any brand, I think the ecommerce-first approach is always better,” he added.

Ecommerce, according to Nahar, gives a lot of scope for trial and error. “Once you have traction and the product market fit is done, you can go and adopt an omnichannel strategy. We are now present across 15000 stores in India,” he said.

Nahar started Happilo with just Rs 10,000 and was supported by his wife for the venture. He was also a beneficiary of a government programme that provided him with a Rs 75-lakh collateral-free loan. “That was a stepping stone and helped us not to dilute equity at a very early stage,” he said. Nahar also mentioned that creating a category from scratch was difficult, and the initial days were indeed challenging. “I had met around 20 investors and everyone had turned me down saying this will not work,” he said.

Speaking of the difference between building a digital brand versus a non-digital brand, Nahar mentioned that in today’s world, the line is very thin. “For any brand to be of scale, they have to have both online and offline strategies in place. But you can definitely choose what you do first, go digital first and then offline or even vice versa,” he said. However, he believes that starting offline is more difficult.

Whatever money the company made in the initial time, it was reinvested for the brand, Nahar further mentioned. “In the first four years, I personally never drew any salary, because I wanted to invest more in brand visibility, positioning and create the number 1 brand in the category,” he said.

But the major shift in terms of marketing came when the company raised funds in February 2021. “We had raised Rs 100 crores. For an FMCG brand that had not raised funding ever, this was a milestone in itself,” Nahar mentioned.

The next strategy was to tap into the core topics that India loves - cricket and Bollywood. “We invested in both. We became the title partners for Rajasthan Royals. Post such associations, the perception of the brand increased and we became the face of the category,” he shared. IPL had a big ATL impact, in terms of brand visibility, brand recall and top of the mind awareness.

Happilo also onboarded celebrities like Siddharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani before they got married.

The Shark Tank Story 

Nahar shared that Shark Tank wasn’t ever thought of, it just came in as a surprise to them. “They wanted a guest shark for a single episode, they were aware of the brand and wanted to see if that could work. The producing team flew down, had a good chat and that's where they said that they wanted a guest shark. At the end of the day, brands want good TRPs there and people want good content,” he shared.

Nahar feels that possibly there was a good synergy between the two. “I was not keen initially, probably because I was nervous about being on TV. Unlike celebrities and cricketers, we are not exposed enough to be that face of the brand and carry it on national television. I had to ask my friends, family, investors if it would be okay for me to be on national television,” he added.

For Nahar, life changed a lot after the episode. He said, “The recognition and love I got from the Shark Tank audience, family, friends, etc. was very overwhelming for me. It was actually a great opportunity.”

While being on the show might not have impacted Happilo’s revenue aspect significantly, but as per Nahar, it did add to the brand awareness aspect. “Largely, the person behind the brand gets more prominence than the brand,” he added.

Lastly, speaking of venturing into new markets, Nahar shared that for any brand, R&D has to be very important to be able to come up with new ideas and new products, like Happilo did.

Tags : Marketing Happilo Vikas D Nahar Dry Fruits E4m Programmatic Summit 2023