Amidst coronavirus, amidst the various industries that have grown exponentially in the e-commerce category. With the world under lockdown, people have increasingly relied on online stores to get the goods delivered to their homes. That also means, that we’ll be seeing more and more offline players coming online to reach out to the larger audience. Shopify for example, has seen its revenue doubled last year. But it’s not the only e-commerce software provider. We recently got in touch with Mr Rajiv Kumar, Founder and CEO at StoreHippo to ask about the company’s evolution and how it’s growing during the pandemic.
PS: The interview has been edited for the sake of brevity.
Table of Contents
1) Before we begin talking about StoreHippo, our readers would love to know your journey into the world of SaaS?
Before StoreHippo, we had already been working on several international IT projects for various clients like GDGT, ClassPass, and RCRDLBL, etc. While working with them, we realized that except for some customizations, the entire process was just repetition. This realization further made me think and leverage the advantages of SaaS, and thus building a turnkey e-commerce solution that could be customized easily for businesses of any scale and size.
2) What insights led you to launch StoreHippo?
When the idea of StoreHippo ignited, we were at the cusp of two revolutions. One was the smartphones and e-commerce being the second one. However, none of the existing e-commerce platforms were equipped to tap the potential of Mobile Commerce. The existing solutions were either too complex or weren’t agile enough to meet the requirements of the new age business models. This is when the idea of launching StoreHippo was born.
With StoreHippo, we offered agile solutions with a mobile-first approach that could easily cater to diverse B2B and B2C business models.
3) Could you share the evolution of StoreHippo since its launch in 2014?
The growth of StoreHippo since its launch has been quite interesting and motivating. We have grown strength and strength in the past years. When we began, we majorly catered to SMEs and solopreneurs. However, at present, we are powering some of the biggest enterprise brands across the globe.
4) How many businesses are using StoreHippo? Which are your biggest geographies?
Currently, we are serving more than 2,000 businesses across 25+ geographies. Our user base is spread across various geographies around the globe with India and Middle East being two of our biggest markets.
5) Considering the space you’re operating in is quite competitive, how do you stand out from the competition?
StoreHippo has been launched with an objective to offer built-in turnkey solutions to B2B, B2C, multi-vendor marketplaces, multi-store e-commerce along with the brands looking for D2C solutions and businesses planning to foray into the international markets.
Furthermore, StoreHippo is a well-rounded platform that is mobile-ready and does not require any additional apps or plug-ins which accounts to be one of the differentiating factors.
Additionally, with headless commerce as our core design principle, we easily offer Omni-channel selling solutions to our clients.
6) Could you shed a light on your marketing strategy to reach out to potential users?
We at StoreHippo do not believe in crafting complex marketing strategies but rather follow simple schemes to amplify our customer base. We use both organic and paid media to reach out to potential clientele.
Apart from this, we also leverage social media platforms to connect and target our customers.
7) How has the ongoing pandemic affected StoreHippo – both in terms of business and number of users?
The pandemic has definitely affected our business. Just like others, it was an unforeseen dilemma for us as well. However, we have been fortunate enough to be amongst the few who saw positive momentum during the pandemic.
Luckily, we recorded a significant growth within the range of 50 to 70 percent during that phase. In fact, we also managed to add some of the most renowned names from different industry verticals to our bouquet of clients.
8) On that note, how do you think e-commerce will evolve? What trends would we see emerge out of our experiences during this crisis?
The e-commerce industry has been experiencing unprecedented growth over the past few years which has just accelerated during the pandemic. Rather, the increasing numbers of online shoppers present a huge growth opportunity for e-commerce companies to explore and utilize as a key component for business growth.
With e-commerce at its peak, mobile commerce is also uniquely positioned to help industry players of all sizes manage their business more efficiently. Additionally, Headless commerce and technological integrations including Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are likely to drive the new wave of ecommerce with high focus on improved and exceptionally personalized UX.
9) What’s next from StoreHippo? Any new features that users should be looking out for?
We keep adding new features as per the business requirements of our customers on a regular basis. For the future, there are a bunch of features in our pipeline too.
We are expanding on our Enterprise Integrations with ERP systems and advanced OMS (Order Management Systems) features for high volume merchants. We are also adding to our list of advanced reports and adding more channels to make the process flow seamless for our merchants.
10) What are your favorite SaaS products out there?
Well, there are many of my favorite SaaS products. I like Zoho and even use different products from the Zoho suite of apps. We have also integrated our operations with multiple SaaS products that span across ERP, POS, Payments, Logistics, and marketing.
