Introducing Khojdeal : Bringing Visibility to Hyperlocal MSMEs With Affiliate Marketing

In conversation with Vaibhav Lall, Founder of Khojdeal for the #VoLocal initiative.

In tandem to the Make in India and Atma Nirbhar Bharat initiative, Khojdeal offers it’s platform to local vendors to showcase their products offering to the Indian audience. Being Vocal for Local has been a part of the organization’s ethos since it’s conception in 2016. A spectrum of players from the Indian startup ecosystem are offered visibility and a platform to share their story with our audience in addition to cash-deals. A growing brand in the performance/affiliate marketing space, Khojdeal offers cashback to our users for every purchase by customers. They provide product reviews and comparisons which enables them to take informed decisions. Khojdeal focuses on delivering more value to customers through technology innovation in the online shopping space and wanted to offer Indian customers a go-to portal for the best deals and coupons online.

Q1. What inspired you to start this venture? What gap in the existing ecosystem are you trying to bridge?

After shutting down my first startup in 2012 and working in the corporate sector for 3 years, I never imagined I would be back on the startup bandwagon so soon. However, at that point in time, the digital revolution in India had already started. With the internet penetration increasing, people were turning to the online ecosystem for various things including shopping. 

People in metros were already comfortable shopping online for almost all major categories and those in tier 2 and 3 cities had also started buying fashion apparels and accessories and home accessories online. 

Various studies indicated that this boom in e-commerce was not a temporary thing. In fact, with time it was expected to increase at an even more accelerated pace. We felt that as more and more people start shopping online, they are also going to look for deals and offers to save on their online purchases.

With this sentiment in mind, we started working on Khojdeal in 2015 and took it live in March 2016.

Over the past 5 years, from a coupon and cashback website, we’ve evolved into an online deal discovery platform that’s not only helping customers in finding the best deals and offers but also assisting them in making informed buying decisions through well researched articles.     

Q2. Tell us about your journey before starting your entrepreneurial venture?

I am an engineer and a business graduate by education. Before being bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, I have worked with companies like Mindtree and Cognizant as a Digital Marketing Consultant. From consulting Fortune 500 companies on digital transformation to launching a startup, I have seen how digital strategies impact organizations at various stages.

Q3. How does your platform work?

Khojdeal works on an affiliate marketing model which is a performance-based marketing tactic. We have partnered various leading affiliate networks who provide us with the best deals and offers from a plethora of domestic and international stores. Our experts handpick the best ones and curate them on the website. When a user shops online through Khojdeal, we earn a commission from the store in question. A certain percentage of this commission is passed on to the user in the form of cashback.   

Q4. How many vendors/partnerships do you have?

We currently have 1500+ domestic and international online stores on our platform. Deals across various categories like fashion, food, travel, electronics, movie and entertainment, hosting and domain, et al are handpicked everyday and curated on Khojdeal. 

In tandem with the Make in India and Atma Nirbhar Bharat initiative, Khojdeal offers a platform for local vendors to showcase discounts on their products online. Being Vocal for Local has been a part of the organization’s ethos since it’s inception and a spectrum of players from the Indian startup ecosystem are offered a voice and visibility on our platform.

Q5. What are your future plans?

As a company, we focus on providing maximum value to our customers. We provide them with detailed information about products and bargaining the best cashback for them is our growth strategy.

We are also constantly striving to improve the user experience. According to Amazon Web Services study, 88% of online shoppers say they wouldn’t return to a website after having a bad user experience. People not only remember bad online experiences, but they talk about them with their friends. According to Neil Patel’s infographic, 44% of shoppers will tell their friends about a bad online experience. These statistics clearly indicate how important user experience is. A robust and agile customer service team is, therefore, the need of the hour. 

We also aim to engage in inbound knowledge monetization and leverage the power of social to build new customer acquisition funnels.   

Q6. How has the pandemic affected your business and how have you innovated to overcome the same?

Covid-19 has caused an inflection in e-commerce penetration globally driven by consumers’ need for safety and convenience and even in India, online is gaining prominence. Self-imposed social distancing to avoid contagion, together with the strict confinement measures implemented in India in March, April, May and June encouraged a majority of people to shop online. A Bain and Company-PRICE survey of 3000 households across income groups and geographies, conducted between April and June, revealed approx. 40% of respondents were buying more online. 

Initially, as people were trying to process the uncertainty of the pandemic and lockdown, traffic on Khojdeal decreased. Logistics were affected and a majority of e-commerce stores had to pause deliveries. Many affiliate campaigns were paused and this had a direct impact on us. 

Gradually, as the government stepped up to streamline e-com deliveries and formulated various SOPs for the safe and timely distributions of the same, things were back on track. We saw an increase in categories like groceries, home improvement products, books and entertainment, artistic supplies, home appliances, large appliances and DIY tools. However, we also saw a devastating crash in categories related to travel like flights and hotel bookings.

Now that things have settled a bit, we are witnessing a slow, yet steady growth.

About Vaibhav Lall

An engineer by education and an entrepreneur by choice, Vaibhav Lall is the founder of India’s largest online deal discovery platform – Khojdeal. Prior to jumping on the entrepreneurial bandwagon, Vaibhav has experience working with corporate giants like Mindtree and Cognizant as a Digital Marketing Consultant. From consulting Fortune 500 companies on digital transformation to launching a startup, he has deployed astute digital strategies that can impact an organization’s growth curve in various stages.

Owing to his sharp business acumen, the majority of his time is invested in navigating creative solutions for problems in his niche. Being a keen follower of the works of Simon Sinek, Subroto Bagchi and Ben Horowitz,  he imbibes the learnings both in his professional as well as personal life. Motivated with the zeal and deeply seated desire to change the world, he joined the startup universe as his first job. Soon to become a serial entrepreneur, Vaibhav launched his first startup which  develops web apps and helps brands get on to social media.