The Success Story of Tjori

Branded luxuries put aside, the world still can’t resist the authentic delight that handmade and handcrafted products offer. Interestingly in a world that attributes supreme worth to branded items, handmade accessories continue to hold an undeniable charm and are still widely devoured by the world for the traditional touch they provide and the comfort and familiarity they engulf their consumers with. 

 

With confidence in the everlasting value held by these items, Mansi Gupta surged forward to establish the brand Tjori, setting it up with the resolve of endorsing and rekindling traditional Indian handicrafts, while sprinkling a magical touch of modernism in it, her primary ambition being for the platform to achieve global recognition. 

 

 

About Tjori

 

What kickstarted with the mere personal savings of Rs 10 lakh, is now a popular multi-category, an online-first artisanal ethnic brand that caters to 195 countries across the globe.

 

Established in 2013, Tjori is devoted to the vision of helping its consumers understand the beauty of Indian handicrafts, their exquisite quality, majestic artwork, and the extensive knowledge offered by their nature. 

 

Inspired by the success tales of a leading brand like Zara, Tjori has based its focus on handmade products and the superiority of traditional Indian ingredients. Tjori includes apparel, accessories, bags, footwear, jewelry, Home & Décor, wellness, mother and child products.

 

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When it comes to :

 

Apparels - The brand specializes in kurtas, tops, shirts, blouses, dresses, sarees, skirts, and lehengas.

 

Accessories - The brand offers exclusive dupattas, shawls collection, from pashmina shawls, patola shawls to woolen shawls.

 

Bags - The brand is oriented towards trendy items like clutches, tote bags, vanity bags, sling bags, and bucket bags. 

 

Footwear -  The brand puts forth a range of classic footwear items from mules, Kolhapur, block heels, boots, and gladiators.

 

Jewellery - The brand furnishes earrings, chokers, necklaces, rings as well as silver jewelry.

 

Mother and child - The brand presents baby body care, baby bibs, baby medical care, baby bedding.

 

Wellness - The brand propounds wellness items such as ayurvedic ubtans, face and body moisturization, hair care, cleansers, and scrubs. 

 

TJORI has been conceived on the traditional values of the Indian art and craft while keeping the intricacies and designs of the modern age at the heart of its operations. Motivated by history, fascinated with the beauty of nature, and handcrafted products designed with care and love, TJORI is driven by the notion of creating good for all. 

 

Working towards establishing itself as a lifestyle brand, Tjori has a wide collection of products across multiple categories, striving towards serving everyone. One of the brand’s closest competitors includes Fabindia. 

 

Data science in Tjori

 

• Tjori propagates itself as a data-driven platform by specializing in data-driven collection planners offering top-notch sell through rates. 

 

• The platform also claims to have a JIT (Just in time) approach which is handled by its own ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) sources while simultaneously ensuring that its top sellers never go out of stock. 

 

• By regularly enhancing the level of its popular trends through data-driven fresh launches each week the platform ensures that it keeps the brand fresh and ahead of its peers. 

 

• With its pricing being richly driven by Analytics, the platform ensures a high conversion rate among its target customers. 

 

 

What sets Tjori apart?

 

The primary target of the platform is to project itself as an ‘aspirational brand’ for the mass/ upper-mass market.

 

TJORI’s brand proposition 

 

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Brand proposition of Tjori

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The platform's brand proposition holds the perk of having multi-categories. The brand holds the advantage of being : 

 

Authentic – The brand offers products that are superior in terms of traditional and handmade crafts. 

 

Contemporary – The brand has been culminated to complement the lifestyle of every contemporary urban woman. 

 

Fast and fresh – The brand propagates constant freshness with many new collections streaming in every month. 

 

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What sets Tjori apart from its close competitors is largely its ability to be :

 

Data-driven – With the platform being based online, it holds the advantage of being highly data-driven, from its collection design, inventory planning to price, marketing, and sales 

 

Targeting Mass / Upper Mass – Which is the most active segment of the target audience. 

 

Led by Innovation – The platform’s entire supply chain is managed through its in-house tech with the agenda of making expandable production possible even in the case of delicate items like handicrafts. 

 

 

The Story of Mansi Gupta - Tjori Founder

 

“If we don’t have any battles to fight then the war is lost. A battle will only be won once we stand true to our aims and goals.”

- Mansi Gupta, Tjori Founder

 

 

It all kickstarted when Mansi Gupta, belonging to a modest town in Jammu, endeavored to take the daring resolve of setting up an eCommerce platform to sell Indian handcrafted products targeted towards the American market, alongside her husband Ankit Wadhwa. 

 

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This is how the lifestyle brand Tjori came to be in January 2013 in India. What had once been a plan being cultivated in a Wharton university room on a whiteboard is now a full-fledged known and operational, global e-commerce website, home to an ocean of future plans and ambitions. 

 

Having grown up with a sense of business from the days of her childhood, Tjori’s founder Mansi Gupta holds a degree in MBA from Business School of Cardiff University as well as a specialization in the finance field from the reputed University of Wharton.

 

A born explorer, an elegant and minimalist party dresser she also holds a secret love for riding horses. In her free time, Mansi loves to relax and de-stress herself by practicing yoga and meditation. A firm believer in the simplicity of life, she also pursues Ayurvedic wisdom faithfully. 

 

Mansi is also the proud owner of the award for the Women Entrepreneur 2020 for the lifestyle and Fashion category at the #WESA event 2020.

 

Tjori Business Model

 

“ Tjori works on limited period sales model so that there will be an element of discovery every day and a limited time period for people to buy these items, which creates an urge to buy something before it is gone.”

 

- Mansi Gupta to Your Story

 

Tjori is a discovery platform for exploring and finding the most intriguing and worthy items from across the world. It collaborates directly with manufacturers, suppliers, designers, and craftsmen and exhibits exquisite items from hyper-local markets in different areas of the globe, that can generally be difficult to locate.  These items are hand-picked from the countries they originate from and then sold directly to the customers. 

 

 

Tjori in COVID19 Times

 

Tjori was one of the afflicted platforms hit considerably by the havoc induced amidst the COVID19 times. 

 

With over 70% of the platform’s revenue being generated through apparel, the lockdown resulted in the platform having to halt all its operations. With the resolve of continuing to stay afloat in the market, the brand decided to produce essential items that were desperately required in these times on their website. 

 

Although the brand already possessed soaps and body wash in their category collection, it introduced items like disinfectant soaps, hand wash and sanitizers, furnishing them to their B2B clients. The cofounders also endeavored to make all their products prepaid, and discontinued cash on delivery options. 

 

 

Tjori Funding

 

As per data by Crunchbase, Tjori’s only known funding is when the platform raised $700,000 (around Rs 5 crore) in its pre-Series A funding round from a clutch of Indian and Middle East investors in August 2019. 

 

The funds were leveraged by the platform for expanding existing categories on its platforms such as apparel, footwear, jewelry, and wellness segments. 

 

 

Conclusion

 

Tjori has a wide range of grand plans ahead to mark the handicraft industry and has been focusing on transitioning from an online to an offline platform by emerging as a walk in-store from an eCommerce website and expanding its stores worldwide. It also aims to set up a mobile app for the convenience of its customers. The platform’s ultimate goal is to establish itself as a lifestyle Indian brand on a global platform.