Urban ladder: Understanding the supply chain and marketing strategy

Abstract

Founded by IIM Bangalore alums- Rajeev Srivatsa and Ashish Goel, Urban ladder is currently one of the leading furniture e-retailers in India. It was started in 2012, with the aim of getting a share of growing furniture market. According to industry estimates , the overall domestic furniture market is around Rs.140000 cr., and is expected to grow at around 20-30 per cent. Around 85% of the total industry is unorganized and highly fragmented. Out of the 15% organized industry, online retailing accounts for only about Rs.1000 cr. Hence, online retail accounts for just over 5% of organized retail and app. 1% of the total furniture industry. However, online segment has a massive growth potential and is expected to grow to Rs. 15000 cr. in next 3 years. Within Online furniture segment, Urban Ladder competes with the likes of PepperFry and FabFurnish to capture market share. All the 3 competitors expect to at least double their revenue in 2015. While PepperFry aims to capture market of around Rs.800cr, both FabFurnish and Urban Ladder aspire to reach 600 cr. level. When Urban Ladder began its operations, it had primarily 50 products with most of them designed and manufactured in Rajasthan. Today it is present across more than 35 categories like sofas, wardrobes, bed, dining tables, home décor and has more than 4000 products to choose from. It has a vision of “making a million Indian homes beautiful”. Its market is pre-dominantly metro and tier-1 cities of Northern India (Chandigarh, Delhi), Western Indian (Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra) and Southern India (Karnataka, Bangalore). Since its inception in 2012, Urban Ladder has raised more than $ 77mn in 5 rounds of funding from more than 4 different investors.