O Womaniya ! - Loot Bazaar, the neighbourhood... online jewellery hub : )

Hey my lovelies.... 

Hope all of you are having a good time. The weather has started changing, but it is slowly becoming so unpredictable. This is what happens when earthlings mess around with mother Earth :-( 

From this Wednesday, am starting off with a new series titled

'O Womaniya'.... 

Ever since this song came out, I somehow love this word. It is no way demeaning, but reflects a woman with an attitude and oodles of confidence, who knows what she wants in life. 

This series will be introducing such women, who, using social networking, are not just promoting handicrafts, handlooms, jewellery etc., but also becoming those small entrepreneurs whose initiatives are being appreciated. 

So here is the first on "O Womaniya" : 

an initiative by my dear Agnirupa Acharyya and Devpurna Talapatra, called 

'Loot Bazaar'. 

Devpurna and Agnirupa <3

From Agnirupa's pen : 

The beginning-

"Loot Bazaar started off with saved pocket money of Rs 2650 between me and my childhood school friend Devpurna Talapatra on 9th dec 2012. Both of us are junk jewellery freaks, who love snooping out new stuff together and haunting quaint n unexplored shops. We hated paying a lot for easy peasy in-fashion trinkets and wanted all the colors of most stuff we liked :P.  We disliked seeing others dishing out 1k minimum for easily available lesser priced stuff on hyped online shopping sites. We talked one day, sat down together, created a FB group..bam!!! Loot Bazaar was started!" 

First order-

"Lol! It was of 50 bucks for a pair of studs but OMG ! it was our biggest moment of celebration and we were sooo happy!"

First milestone-

"In our 2nd month, one fine morning people went berserk over our anklets and we were flooded with orders of over Rs 1.5 k in one single morning"  :D

The duo behind Loot Bazaar

The obstacles-

"Aahh..this has to be there..the bad guy of every *kahaani*.. meeting with dealers, keeping our side of the deal, travelling far and near and keeping a keen eye out for every new piece, every new trend or maybe a small something one of our customers have asked us to look out for .. was definitely not easy!

And then of course..there were sales dips..after Diwali, after wedding seasons..which did not leave us hopeless but did make us worry…

There have been postal problems, late deliveries, illogical customers..none of which was our fault but hey! We kept calm, dealt with these all and learnt to take a lot in our stride."

The famous Ramleela earrings that are hotsellers .. pic from Loot Bazaar collection

6 months gone, a retrospective :) -

"We started our handmade small section after around 6 months and started giving sales ‘coz we realized the boost- selling and restocking matters a teeny bit more to us than just money or profit...  thoda kam profit ho koi baat nahi but we need the things to movveeee <3 and yes we never went backfoot to refund/adjust about the rare few complaints about settings defects or bad handling. Our customer goodwill and expectations definitely amounts to more than the amount transferred to our account *yeahh sounds cheesy but true :P "

Earrings that scream "spring" pic from Loot Bazaar collection

Plans ahead -

We have learnt not to give up hope, to treat each and every customer equally, whether they buy stuff worth 50 or 500, to try and pack their stuff in innovative ways to ensure they receive their things with a smile lighting up their faces or with a handwritten small note inside or sometimes a gift…not as an indication to buy more but just a small token of our appreciation.  We dream BIG and plan BIGGER  :D We are planning to give more exposure to our affordable in-vogue stuff, especially to ladies who do not have easy access near them. We are planning franchisees, fair stalls, birthday discounts *our customer s will love shopping on their respective birthdays with customized discounts for them :D* hopefully these will debut soon <3 stay with us, help us grow!

My favourite so far, soon to be mine :-) pic from Loot Bazaar collection

P.S- we would like to thank Tarannum or our dearest Tarry *hugs* who has been a loyal and voracious customer and has forever wanted to post an article about our humble initiative! We love you *_*

PEL SPEAKS : Hugs to you and Devpurna too Agni ... :-)  Seriously guys, you must check out the awesome stuff which is available at Loot Bazaar... Wishing Agni and Devpurna all the best for this awesome initiative and hoping it grows much bigger in size in not years, but days to come... 

Like the stuff and want to shop? Connect to Loot Bazaar at 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/349734621790340/

... Do mention you came through PEL.. :) 

How did you like this new feature? Are you also involved in any such initiatives or know anyone and would like them to feature? Do write in the comments box below with your mail id or connect at panchtatva.essenceoflife@gmail.com...