Ideas|Products|Startups|VCs

Forget GroupOn, GroupOff has emerged in India. As the name suggests GroupOff is another Indian Groupon clone which aims to become leader in group buying space in one year time frame. At present GroupOff deals are available in Bangalore, soon they are launching services in other Indian metros.

To save the deal from getting canceled by not meeting the minimum numbers, GroupOff is giving incentive in form of free t-shirts to users to meet the requirement of making a deal live, smart move carrot generally works in India.

GroupOff negotiates with the merchants and come up with the coupons offering 50-90% discount and the deal is typically available for 1 week. Customer needs to decide and buy the coupon within that period. Customers can buy coupons online, coupons will be emailed or delivered at your doorstep and finally customer can redeem the voucher at the merchants place, user can also gift the coupon to their dear ones.

GroupOff makes money from merchants in form of advertising fees and also small cut from each deal sold.

Ultimately customer is getting benefited by the companies entering in deals and group discount space.

Caution: Do read the fine print of each deal before buying.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Dealivore, at first glance will come across as another Groupon Indian clone, but it isn’t. Its purely a deep discount deal provider and it works without needing minimum number of customers buying coupons to make the deal live.

Dealivore negotiate with the merchants and come up with the coupons offering 50-90% discount and the deal is typically available for 24-72 hours. Customer needs to decide and buy the coupon within that period. Customers can buy coupons either online or over the phone, coupons will be emailed or delivered at your doorstep and finally customer can redeem the voucher at the merchants place.

Dealiivore is founded by Satish Madhira, a serial entrepreneur and has also worked as VP of SAP Labs. Dealivore trying to divert merchant’s from branding exercises on paper and radio in which determining ROI is highly diffcult. Dealivore guarantee the minimum sales to the merchant, and in return merchants get advertising mileage, exclusive promotion on website for 1-3 days and getting upfront money from customers as well.

Dealivore is currently offering its deals in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, soon it plans to launch in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune.

Ultimately customer is getting benefited by the companies entering in deals and group discount space.

Caution: Do read the fine print of each deal before buying, for instance some deals won’t be applicable on weekend. Put your thinking hat before buying coupon, go through the details carefully, coupon may be applicable on food but not on drinks.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Exclusively.in, a periodic sale portal offering high end products – designer wear, home decor, fashion accessories has raised $2.8 million in funding from Accel Partners and Helion Venture Partners.

Exclusively.in caters to NRI audience in US which doesn’t mind shelling premium for the right product not available in US. Their working model is quite simple, products are source from India mainly around NCR region and then products are shipped to users based out of US. Soon they plan to start shipments to countries like UK and Canada.

Exclusively.in deals in desginer products and accessories like jewelry, handbags, shawls, desginer sarees, handicrafts, paintings and is planning to expand to verticals like travel. Sunjay Guleria is CEO and co-founder and Sonny Caberwal is COO and cofounder of this startup which was launched in june. Exclusively.in operates from two offices – New Delhi and New York.

At a first glance i felt product pricing is quite steep but may be for an NRI it isn’t much, user has to pay an additional charge of around $40 for the shipment.

Accel India has been bullish on e-commerce players and this strategy has paid off well, their investments in Flipkart and Myntra are sure to give them hefty returns, Helion has been backing internet ventures and with recent listing of MMT and their investments in Redbus they doesn’t want to miss emerging opportunities in Internet space.

It will be interesting to see if Fashionandyou plans to cater to NRI audience in near future and pose a competition for Exclusively.in

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com