Can Shopflo become a $100M revenue company? Ep21: The India Opportunity Show | Ishan Rakshit, Shopflo ft Shrishti Sahu

Shopflo works with 600+ consumer brands to help solve for conversions at the checkout to enable more sales

Hello everyone, welcome to The India Opportunity Show where you get a front-row seat to people building India’s future. We talk about unlocking the potential of the country with founders, investors, creators, and successful leaders from different fields to bring you real-life stories and behind-the-scenes of what it takes to be at the forefront of building the India Story.

The 21st episode of The India Opportunity Show is out now! You can watch it on YouTube or listen to it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Our guest today is Ishan, co-founder of Shopflo, a widely used checkout infrastructure platform for D2C brands, trusted by over 600+ consumer brands. If you’ve bought something from a consumer brand recently, there’s a high chance that you’ve used Shopflo to complete your purchase, they’re that deeply embedded in the consumer landscape. Shopflo came into the limelight when it announced a seed round in May 2022 led by Tiger Global and has been rapidly scaling globally ever since. Previously, Ishan was working on the investment team of Elevation Capital investing in the fintech sector and before that at EY. He also co-founded an impact initiative called Project Awaaz to empower visually impaired Indians. He’s an IIT Bombay graduate and is building a phenomenal business with Shopflo, so much so that it’s become one of the most loved checkout platforms for consumer brands. We talk about all things fintech, building for India & the US markets, evolution of digital commerce and a lot more! Excited to share this deep dive on the fintech infrastructure space with all of you today. Hope you enjoy watching!

Takeaways

• Shopflo saw an opportunity in the e-commerce space to solve pain points for consumer brands by providing a high-quality checkout experience.

• The rise of direct-to-consumer brands and the ease of starting a brand in e-commerce created a need for better tools and solutions.

• Shopflo expanded its offerings beyond checkout to include features like an offer engine, shipping engine, rewards, and upsell/cross-sell.

• The buying behavior of Indian consumers is predictable, and brands can leverage this knowledge to optimize their conversion rates.

• Competition in the space has quieted down, with serious players focusing on building quietly. The Indian market for consumer brands is divided into players with different focuses, such as consumer-centric, merchant-centric, payment-centric, and SaaS upstream conversion-centric.

• The maturity of the market will determine how these players evolve and build significant businesses.

• Shopflo's approach to customer success is product and tech-driven, with a small team focused on providing value, introducing product offerings, and offering support.

• A good product can solve most customer success problems, reducing the need for additional personnel.

• Hiring is focused on cultural fit and people who believe in the mission.

• Shopflo aims to capture a significantly big market and achieve $100 million in revenue in the short to midterm.

• The founder's experience as a VC has helped in understanding the why behind building a startup and taking a leap of faith.

• The emotional maturity of a founder plays a role in deciding whether to be an operator or an investor.

• The title of the founder's book about his life would be 'Going with the Flo.'

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

02:52 The Opportunity in the E-commerce Space

08:07 Discovering Pain Points for Consumer Brands

12:59 Working with Consumer Brands and Expanding Offerings

16:51 Building for India and the Global Market

22:57 Partnering with Brands and Expanding Revenue Offerings

28:13 Impactful Stories and Insights

34:19 Business Model and Unit Economics

36:25 Competition in the E-commerce Space

38:30 Product and Tech-Driven Approach to Customer Success

44:29 Building a Product to Solve Customer Needs

50:43 Working with Tiger Global and Fundraising

53:35 Focus on Building for the US Market

58:46 Choosing Between Operator and Investor Roles

01:02:03 Ambition for Shopflo

Follow Ishan here: LinkedIn

Follow Shrishti here: LinkedIn Twitter

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Disclaimer: The content presented in this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Viewers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.