Arvind Sharma turns Enterpreneur; forays into E-commerce

The former advertising honcho sets up indiasarihouse.com, an e-commerce platform for sarees.

Arvind Sharma, former chairman and CEO of India subcontinent, Leo Burnett, has ventured into e-commerce with the launch of an e-commerce platform for sarees called indiasarihouse.com

This is Sharma's first enterpreneurial venture where he has partnered with one of the founding members of Yepme, Amit Gaur. This is a self funded company.

The website was launched yesterday and is being promoted mostly to NRI women in the US market. The plans are to promote it even in the UK market.

Sharma, who has been in the advertising business for over three decades, says that advertising has been fantastic but he wanted to do something in the area of innovation and internet.

"In my view there are many categories which are under-branded. Saree is a $15 billion market and probably one of the top seven brand categories in terms of size. At this point, if we are able to create a big global brand in this category, it will be great. Also, we don't have foreign competition in those markets and hence will enjoy our own space."

The idea is not just to sell sarees to women sitting across borders but also help the weavers community. As mentioned on the website, it offers various fabrics like silks and cotton and even different variety including Lucknow Chikan, Kanjivarams, Coimbatores, Dharmavarams, Pochampallies, Gadwals, Uppadas, Banarasis, Bangalores, Mysores and Narayanpets. The list also includes sarees made from a combination of pure silk and pure cotton fibers from Chanderi and Gadwal.

Traditional weavers across the country are working with Indiasarihouse.com and the company plans to cover 35 major weaving centres in India in another six months.