AHVAN, an online handicraft shop that delivers traditional and contemporary hand made Indian crafts

This is the interview of Nishant Patar, an Indian startup and co-founder of AHVAN, an online handicraft shop.

About Nishant Patar (AHVAN):

In 2017, Nishant Patar capitalized on his 8 years of corporate marketing expertise by launching AHVAN, turning it into an online business of excellence for making and selling high quality indian crafts.

Before founding AHVAN in early 2018, Nishant Patar started two Internet companies before in Mumbai.

He has also worked as a Senior Digital Marketing Expert to the Services industry; Software Engineer; Advertising Marketing Manager for the popular ISO firm; Software Head of an Advertising and PR Agency; and Engineering Intern at the Consultant Firm.

Tell us a little about your startup:

AHVAN offer Indian Handicraft Products. We are providing indigenous handcrafted products which are produced by very skilled traditional craftspeople from Kutch, Gujarat – India.

How did you get your idea or concept for the business?

My family is making and selling handicraft stuff for generations. So, I was raised with that environment where it became natural to know the stuff.  After working for others I got some new skills and I decided to use that for my idea. So now I am trying to solve family and rural people’s problems with AHVAN.

What service(s) or product(s) do you offer?

Currently we have our $3000 and partner’s $20000 worth inventories. We are currently selling 118+ handicraft products on our e-commerce website. 

What is unique about your business?

Our target audience is India’s rural untouched population, who are still using just smartphones and speaking only native language. 

So, we speak with them in their local languages and sell traditional rural goods to them. Yes, we have urban customers too, who love our unique handcrafted goods.

We had created content in Hindi and English, Hindi for 800 millions rural peoples and english for educated 200 million peoples.So not just we are selling local products to masses but also using unique methods.

What made you choose this type of business?

I want to help my family so I decided to use my skill and knowledge for a great cause.

What was your mission at the outset?

Until now Indian craftspeople have no platform to support them and they are not educated to use the current system. 

For that, we do the simple thing, go to them, pay them and sell it in the market. This method is best for them because now they can focus on creating the crafts rather than marketing.

How many employees in your organization?

We currently have a team of 3 people, we do everything from marketing, packing and dispatching.

What’s your company’s goals?

Our goal is to become India’s top Handicraft e-commerce company and empower Indian Craftspeople.

How do you build a successful customer base?

We have sold more than 2000 units so far on offline and online. We had acquired our customers from face to face marketing to online platforms such as quora, olx, facebook, amazon, flipkart and club factory etc.

Currently AHVAN ecommerce site has top ranking in google for many products. We are getting 2000+ monthly user and 3000+ user sessions.

What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?

Burning money on paid marketing to none, bad hosting, worst selection of packaging, not understanding the wind of the market, over cost running business and last burning more cash while having no revenue.After all this is done, we decide to don’t do it again.

Who has been your greatest inspiration?

When one of our customers from South India praised us for quality and price. He inspired us that why we must not giveup early.

What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made?

Burning the cash faster while not finding the proper method to generate revenue.

If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

Never give up early and be the jugadoo as you can ! 

Does your company help the community or society?

Until now Indian craftspeople have no platform to support them and they are not educated to use the current system.  

For that, we do the simple thing, go to them, pay them and sell it in the market. This method is best for them because now they can focus on creating the crafts rather than marketing. We help Indians craftspeople by paying them early as we can.

We hope you find the inspiring interview of Nishant Patar, an entrepreneur and co-founder of AHVAN useful and inspiring through your entrepreneurial journey and will keep you inspired.

NOTE: The images in this article belong to their respective owners. If you feel that any images posted here is a violation of your copyright, please write to us.