Startups

IKIRU | India’s first Theme-based Online Home Decor Store

• ByStartupStory     |    April 13, 2022

“We have narrowed it down to as many category as possible, to enhance the user experience part of our product. If we talk about home decor and furnishing, we make it really easy for the end users as well as the businesses. We ensure to make the buyer aware of their purchase, as what they are selecting as a product. Even the themes for that matter, we have made the segregation of themes with the help of expert architects and interior designers.” said Alisha Chouhan, founder of IKIRU by handpicked life.

Before launching this startup, Alisha Chouhan had been working with MSG91 feeding the global business team as Chief of Global Business. She has been in the IT industry since 8 years. She has been into sales, marketing, communication but Alisha always had it in her mind that she has to start her own e-commerce startup and that is how IKIRU came in. 

IKIRU is India’s first theme-based online home decor store with a fine influence of minimal and functional decor. They wanted everyone to have access to minimal and uncluttered home decor and therefore they are present with their collection of carefully curated home decor products , crafted by various brands and artisans of India. IKIRU has 500+ products to offer in different categories like kitchen and dining, furniture, lighting, soft furnishings, and decor. They focus on products that are unique, multifunctional, built with high- quality craftsmanship, add value to your home and inspire minimalism. 

Journey Towards the Startup- IKIRU by Handpicked Life

Alisha has always been wanting to creating something more sorted, curated and valuable in the ecommerce industry. During the lockdown she got a chance to shape her idea of a curated platform and turn it into reality. Her creativity was just flowing during covid and she launched a curated platform for all the needs out there and named it Handpickedlife in Dec 2020. “We decided to dig deeper in the home decor industry and as a result we have launched Ikiru in Nov 2021” -said Alisha.

“I have been in New York for my higher studies, and same as India I was disappointed with the constant cluttered shopping experience, that is when I thought there should be a solution for the same. There should be more curated options available in the market and that is how handpicked life, our parent company was born, with the vision of upgrading people’s lifestyle and giving them an uncluttered and amazing shopping experience. IKIRU is a baby of handpicked life and this is for the niche market for home decor and furnishing, with the same vision and thought.” said Alisha Chouhan, co-founder of IKIRU by handpicked life.

Uniqueness of the Venture

The overall content of the product is very unique and the USP of the brands is that it’s “India’s first theme based curated store”, they offer bohemian, Indian, Japandi, and multiple other themes. So they thought of segregating the different home decor and furnishing products based on the different themes. There is no such product available in the market as of now. This helped the B2C market as well as the B2B market (like the interiors, architecturals etc), they can come directly to the platform, choose the product from different themes and directly purchase it for their client. 

Business during Pandemic

“Our creativity actually came up during the pandemic, and we were not able to start it before the pandemic. So pandemic became a thing for us, that it is making us more productive in this manner and somehow it just turned out to be positive for our business. Since it’s a very new project, it really didn’t hamper the growth or anything. We are even able to find the right team members online, who all were putting mutual efforts to make iKIRU the best in class platform”, said Alisha Chouhan, founder of IKIRU by handpicked life.

Team behind Success

“It’s a young and likeminded, creative bunch of people. The them is very energetic, enthusiastic, and curious. So it’s quite fun to work with them all.”  -said Alisha. They have 8 people in the team at present and a few experts who are specifically into interiors and are well skilled. There is a sales team, partnership team, then content writing team, businesses development team, and marketing team. 

Future Plans with this Venture

They are coming up with more and more themes which are possible. Currently, they have 8 themes available on the website. Apart from this, they are growing their interior and architect community as well as the B2B part of the business. They are connecting with several businesses at the moment. They have already launched two government stores in Indore, India. They are also planning to go to other cities as well and scale up there too. 

At the end of the conversation Alisha gave a message:

“Evolution is something that I and my whole team believes in, keep learning, keep brushing up your skills, keep learning new skills… If you are in a phase that doesn’t mean that you can’t learn any marketing or you don’t want to learn any marketing… One should be able to do each and everything if you are planning to launch a startup or you are already in that journey, you should know it all at least some part of it. Apart from this, you should always know and keep your first hundred customers in your head.. Be it anyone, your mother, neighbor, friend or anyone.” said Alisha Chouhan, founder of IKIRU by handpicked life.

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