99labels.com gets $3.5 m shot in the arm

From its very inception 16 months ago, 99labels.com has been a success story. India’s first online private sales portal, 99labels.com partners premium brands across fashion and lifestyle products, jewelry, fragrances, home décor and more.

It holds limited time, members-only flash sale events for these brands. The USP of the portal has been 24x7 shopping for the sale duration, a secure and private shopping environment, ready doorstep delivery, discounts up to 90 per cent on branded merchandise, an array of international brands as well as complete reliability on each promise made. Recently, Info Edge, owner of India’s leading online brands, that include Naukri.com, NaukriGulf.com, Jeevansathi.com, Shiksha.com, amongst others, announced an investment of $3.5 million to further grow the phenomenal success of 99labels.com.

This investment will go towards increasing the company’s international brand offerings and creating awareness amongst the target audience more aggressively. Delivery and customer care have always been the prime focus of the company and investing in advanced ERP and CRM systems would further strengthen this. Out of the $3.5 million invested, a small portion will go towards buying out stake from some current shareholders and the balance would be used towards funding future growth initiatives.

Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Info Edge India, is a man who has been making rather sound strategic investments on many online brands including policybazar.com, meritnation.com amongst others. Talking about the investment, he said, “The e-commerce market is poised for take-off in India and this is the right time to enter. The space in which 99labels operate holds tremendous potential as a vastly scalable business.”

Ishita Swarup, CEO, 99labels.com is equally excited about the formal alliance between Info Edge India and 99labels.com. She said, “We’re really excited about forming this strategic alliance with Info Edge, and are sure that it will be a great step in taking the 99labels dream to new dimensions. 99labels has quickly risen to be one of the top e-commerce portals in India, and we look forward to a productive, innovative and supportive partnership with a company that shares our ideals and our ethos”.

The year 2010 has been an exceptional year for 99labels.com. According to Swarup, the response of the masses to the website has been overwhelming as membership of over 400,000 and a 40 per cent MoM growth indicated. 99labels.com focus has always been on both national and international brands backed by continuous efforts on customer care support and delivery network.

A major plus while shopping on 99labels.com is discounts varying from product to product. And at times it goes up to 80-90 per cent. The minimum discount one gets is 20-30 per cent. The portal gives a detailed size measurement chart, shooting products in a way that customers see a 360 degree view of the product. All product shots are exactly how the product looks in design and colour.