Working with 10,000, several forms Rs 27 crore turnover online business from Gwalior

In 2011, Nitin Pamnani got back to his old neighborhood Gwalior alongside his better half Jia, subsequent to spending over 10 years in Delhi, where he had done his graduation and afterward functioned as a narrative movie producer. Nitin had made around 20 movies for different NGOs and corporates with one of them in any event, winning an honor at the Mumbai Global Film Celebration (Scuffle).

In 2011, Nitin Pamnani returned to his hometown Gwalior along with his wife Jia, after spending more than a decade in Delhi, where he had done his graduation and then worked as a documentary filmmaker. In Gwalior, the young couple, who had gotten married only about four years ago, began to research business opportunities and eventually decided to start an online store to sell handicraft items that they would source from artisans all over India.

The couple launched iTokri in 2012 with just four people from a portion of a rice mill owned by Nitin’s father. “I borrowed from my friends and my father too invested some amount in the business,” he says. iTokri offers a wide range of products made by artisans working with the vegetable dyed block printed fabric of Ajarkh from Gujarat, kalamkari from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, bagh block print and chanderi from Madhya Pradesh, and sanganeri and bagru block print from Rajasthan.

Other products include hand-painted toys from Banaras, dhokra metal work and ikat weave from Odisha, hand-painted toys and saris from Banaras, chikankari bags and kurtis from Lucknow, bhujodi weaving dupattas from Kutch, Bengal patachitra paintings, and suits and dupattas of phulkari embroidery from Punjab. One of the main reasons to start iTokri was the opportunity it offered artisans to sell their products and generate income, and that goal has now been achieved.

“We are able to help the artisans better than other platforms because there is no middle man involved in our business,” explains Nitin. According to Nitin, they have been able to improve the revenue of the artisans by two to even three times over the years. He informs that iTokri employees train the artisans in various business-related practices like creating invoices and filing GST return to the government.

Nitin explains that theirs is a 100% procurement-based business model, which means that all the products displayed on their website have already been procured and kept in their warehouse. “It makes the process lengthier and stretches delivery time,” says Nitin. iTokri has 80,000 products listed on its website. “Since craft work is handmade, no two products would be the same. iTokri has 150 regular employees in Gwalior, who look after the entire operations, right from packaging, sorting, maintaining the inventory, getting photo shoots done, uploading on the website, and finally getting the product dispatched.

Apart from India, we have customers in the US, the UK, Middle East, and Europe,” says Nitin, who still remembers the challenges they faced during the early days of their business. When the couple shared their business idea, not many welcomed it. He said, ‘you were into filmmaking, and now you say you want to work on craft and artisans.’

However, 2012 being the early days of e-commerce in India, and Gwalior lacking the facilities of major cities, the challenges were enormous for the couple. “There was no infrastructure for e-commerce in Gwalior at that time,” says Nitin. “There were other challenges as well, like getting to know the products, identifying the artisans, getting photo shoots done, arranging dispatch, and so on. We followed the cash after delivery method, says Nitin.

Nitin and Jia share the responsibilities in the company. Jia handles the operations, HR, and production, while Nitin handles artisans, technology, marketing, growth, and communications. The couple says that they may have differences on issues in business, but leverage each other’s strengths for the company’s growth. “After all, when a couple is working together, they become an army of 1+1=11,” says Nitin, who wants to connect his brand with every Indian household.

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