The Confluence of Art & E-Commerce - Three artist-led brands making it big online

Living in a world improved by E-Commerce, even the most unique products are now only a few clicks away! E-Commerce as a platform, provides the opportunity to artists all around the world to showcase their work and gives consumers a vast range of selections to pick from. Powerhouse91 celebrates the innovators and game-changers in different fields of E-Commerce for their unparalleled tenacity and their unique approach to business that changed lives. Here are three brands that made us think -Now, that’s genius!

1. CLAPBOX

Clapbox is the perfect example of a brand that found its niche and played it to their strength-music instrument manufacturing, that also happens to be the largest distributor of Cajons (a box-shaped percussion instrument) in India. Launched in early 2017 by Vaibhav Kanwar, Clapbox was born from his love for two things -music and entrepreneurship. Vaibhav has been a percussionist for 13 years now and discovered his love for entrepreneurship during his time in high school with the persistent motivation to introduce and create easy accessibility to the not-so-easily-available-products in the Indian market. This unwavering motivation is the reason why Clapbox had a market share of 84% of the Indian online & offline market for Cajons in 2020.

Although Clapbox focused solely on the Cajon for the first 2 years, it has now expanded into more remarkable products in the past 4 years by inventing and manufacturing world’s first Cajone x Bongo hybrid instrument and venturing into the Darbuka -an instrument popularly used for belly dancing concerts and many other live shows. In addition to the release of these creative products,

Clapbox has doubled their revenue in 2020 and is projected to grow at least 30 - 40% in the next year. The young entrepreneur shares his two cents with us, “The reason we’ve been so successful here at Clapbox is that if you have a product you connect with - even if you have a lot of ups and downs in your journey - it keeps you motivated because you know you've got it in you and you love it anyhow.”

2. ORCHID ENGINEERS

Orchid Engineers is a Karnataka based company that specializes in welded products -Pen Stands, Remote Stands and Key Hangers. At the heart of this brand is Mr. Praveen, the awe-inspiring founder of Orchid Engineers who’s journey began in his hometown of Chikmagalur. After 8 years of working in a car manufacturing company, Mr Praveen felt a strong desire to break free of the mundane nuances of life and started searching everywhere for a glimpse of inspiration. Like most things in life, his big break came when he least expected it and for Mr Praveen -he found his new passion after overhearing a conversation between a welding shop owner and a college student who could not afford welding work he required for a project. Serendipitously, Mr Praveen offered to do the same work for only 100 rupees only and this news of his welding work spread like wildfire in the nearby college, and nearly 150-200 students began coming to his small workshop weekly. He realised, at this point, that if the demand of these products is so high locally, it might be a booming marketing pan India. He knew instantly that e-Commerce would prove to be the right platform for him to increase his outreach.

Orchid Engineers started off with about 10 products in the Office Products category on Amazon and currently have 100 listings across 3-4 different categories. They try to ensure that they add at least 10-15 listings per month and hope to one day have over 1000. But his success story was not a walk in the park, Mr Praveen was hardly receiving orders in the beginning and had to do a lot of intensive research on YouTube and other platforms to start focusing on bettering his inventory-keeping and marketing strategies.

Mr Praveen has found a way to navigate through all these obstacles today and his main aspiration is “Every household should own one of our items”. The pandemic has been a productive time for Orchid Engineers because it gave them time to reflect on their strategies and add up to 45 listings. Their demand at the moment is so high that they can grow up to three times their current size.

3. PUNAM FLUTES

Punam Flutes is a flute store started by Subhash Thakur and officially owned by his wife, Mrs Punam Priyadarshini. Mr Thakur recently reminded us of such a time, when one had to go to great lengths for a satisfactory product, while reminiscing about his journey with Punam Flutes. It’s one of the most unique brands in India in which each baansuri is customised taking into account various factors that are specific to the customer. It all began when he came to Delhi in 1999, shocked to find that the standard of baansuris in Delhi could not compare to the ones back in Bihar. Feeling held back from giving his best during recording sessions and performances and after much struggle of not being able to find the right flute for himself he decided to make it himself. Thus began his journey with Punam Flutes.

It started off small, with his friends and fellow musicians asking him to make customised flutes for them. Through only word of mouth and the quality of his work, started receiving international orders and decided to take his business one step further and onto the e-Commerce platform. This was in 2004, at which point Shubhash Ji hardly even knew how to use e-mail. With the growth of his business came a growth in challenges. The biggest difficulty he faced was the realisation that consumers are more concerned with the beauty of the product rather than its quality. However, he persisted on with the help of his friends and his own determination

Now, Shubhash Ji is beyond content with where he is today. He started from scratch and converted his passion into a successful e-Commerce business which will only grow with time. Shubhash Ji shares some inspiring words of wisdom with us “You don’t just need to learn music, you have to take a journey with it. In music, the more you’re insulted and scolded, the more you learn”.

Powerhouse91 applauds the perseverance and determination of the three steadfast companies that started at humble beginnings with a small idea and now dominate the E-commerce world. We are moved and inspired by each one of their stories and can’t wait to see what they do next!