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Yes!poho platform provides for direct interaction and engagement with customers and increases direct market access to our artisans.
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Shopping needs to be an immersive experience that brings joy to the shoppers. Offline shopping brings a lot of hassle due to the limited choices a shop holds, skyrocketing prices, quality and mismanaged crowds. In an attempt to rectify the same, Yes!poho has established itself as a platform that connects artisans and weavers with their customers directly removing any mediator in the shopping process. Amalgamating technology in their approaches, Yes!poho is a platform headquartered in Visakhapatnam. It strives to improve the livelihood of artisans in the industry all the while revamping the way shopping is done. It delivers the fashion needs of women online and offers a rich collection of designer sarees to party wear to Uppada Sarees to Darmavaram Sarees to Pochampalli Ikkat Sarees, to Designer Paithani Sarees and many more varieties of sarees. Not just this, Yes!poho also offers a huge collection of ethnic suits, kurta sets, and dress material to its patrons. The eminent Founder, CEO and spokesperson of Yes!poho, Raghuram Kuchibhatla shares his insights and objectives behind introducing such an exquisite concept.
1. When was Yes!poho launched and how did you get the idea to start the brand?
Yes!poho was launched in October 2017. After completing my bachelors in Engineering from Dindigul, I went to the US for my Masters in EE. During my working tenure, I had initiated several startups and one such is commodity/contract trading platform. This is around 2011, While presenting this product to several small to midsize companies, farmers and traders in US, South America, I happened to give a demo to my Engineering college friend who hails from a weaving community. My intent was to onboard him for his raw material (silk) purchases. After the product presentation, he asked me to visit him in Walajapet, near Kanchipuram. During my subsequent trip to India, after meeting him, I happened to visit all the weaving villages in and around Kanchipuram, walajapet, Salem, Dindigul. I learnt that there is a much deeper and common problem going on in the artisan community. At the same time, on my way back, I decided to shop for a saree for my family members, and that shopping experience was not great - we spent several hours in traffic going from the store.
Both these incidents opened up an entire new perspective where on one end customers are not satisfied, and at the same time artisan community on the other end is on the verge of extinction.
The real question is why are customers not satisfied and why is the artisan community on the verge of extinction in spite of all government programs, hundreds of retail stores and e-commerce companies! This is when I started to work on addressing the current problem and founded Yes!poho.
Yes!poho is derived from Spanish word “Espojo”, which means mirror. The word is transformed for easy pronunciation and it means “Yes! I look good in front of the mirror”
2. What are the problems you are trying to solve through your platform?
We all have heard of the old adage, "Goods once sold cannot be returned" and "Caveat Emptor" every time we go out shopping with our family. I vividly remember my mom, sister and my wife looking at different combinations of color, design and fabric for their saree apparel which the stores don’t carry and as a result we spend hours going from store to store.
It is the lack of choices, lack of authenticity and quality, lack of social validation, customisation and personalisation and unsatisfied customers that has become the norm. On the contrary, India's (in fact, world’s) one of the oldest industries, handloom and handicrafts, is on the verge of extinction. It is due to a highly fragmented market, poor infrastructure, obsolete technology, lack of exposure to direct market access, and disconnect between current generation and the artisan community. This is not just a local problem, but a global problem.
3. How did you connect with the weavers across regions and what challenges did you face while signing up with them?
We believe in working with artisans at the grass root level. Unlike any other e-commerce or social communities. We believe that working at the grass root level helps us understand artisan’s pain points. While it helps build trust and relationship in the long run, the short term gains are even higher when we interact with them at the grass roots. Typical challenges in signing them up include technical skills in the usage of apps and in creating the trust-factor when it comes to payments. Once we resolve these, onboarding and transacting with them is easier.
4. How is the journey of Yes!poho so far from the launch year till now? What are the key milestones in your journey?
Since Inception, we have over 10,000 artisans on the platform. Our brand’s key milestones include our relationship with WAMA, Antaran and now with fair trade India. Other achievements that serve as a feather in our hat are our platform’s engagement with over 5 million users, breaking into 150,000 customers on the platform and 250,000 active indulgence on the social platforms.
5. How technology is playing an important role in your business? How many artisans are under your platform now? How many products?
Technology plays a significant role in shaping Yes!poho’s purpose. Our TechnoExperience based digital social platform connects artisans with customers using technological mediums such as AR/VR and social commerce. Our patented technology TryMe and CreateMyDesign are used to create active and direct engagement between customers, their friends and family, and with artisans. This allows customers to customize their product based on their taste and preferences and simultaneously create an interactive to and fro with the help of artisans. It further aids in raising awareness on authenticity of handloom and handicraft products.
Our technological tools also allow artisans to maintain inventory, manage orders and chat with customers in their native language.
6. How is your platform trying to improve the lives of artisans/ weavers?
Yes!poho (www.yespoho.com) platform provides for direct interaction and engagement with customers and increases direct market access to our artisans. The average primary income of artisans have increased over 20% month over month and their global market access has increased over 30% ever since they have signed up on the platform.
7. How were the sales in the past one year during the pandemic?
What kind of impact did you see? Yes!poho (www.yespoho.com) is a social engagement platform and during the past one year, our engagement between customers and artisans have grown 30% month over month. As a result of our increased engagement, more artisans have since onboarded on to the platform and sales have been growing due to increased product base.
8. What expansion plans do you have for the next 1-2 years?
We plan to expand into other categories such as jewelry, bags, shoes, and beltsetc. which complement the existing product line. We are also planning to enter into men’s fashion as well. In the next 1-2 years, we plan to have over 1.5 Lakh artisans and over 10Million + user base actively engaging on the platform.
Having introduced such an innovative concept, Yes!poho promises to deliver brilliance at the comfort of your doorstep. With the best artisans and weavers, it is no doubt that the firm will be making ground-breaking progress and touch the horizons in the coming years.