Heartbeat; Venom Moto
Abhishek Joshi is shifting Venom from a market place brand to an independent brand
Abhishek Joshi is shifting Venom from a market place brand to an independent brand
Abhishek Joshi left information technology job to pursue his passion. He loves biking. He worked at an accessory businesses in Karol Bagh, Delhi. Karol Bagh is one of India’s biggest two wheeler markets for accessories and biking gear. He understood the market before he launched Venom, a biking apparel brand.
Ride gear market will be about INR 150cr by 2023, with a growth rate of 12%. The entry level biking jackets cost INR 3000. The mid level jackets cost INR 5000. The premium level jackets cost more than INR 10000. College students and millennials splurge on the jackets. They are passionate about the biking culture.
Abhishek Joshi found a gap, which market leaders did not address. They did not incorporate biking international safety features such as level 1 and level 2 protection in the gears. As a biker he had know about it. His jackets offer level 2 protection to the riders. It keeps them safe during a fall or accidents.
At first Abhishek supplied jackets to Amazon marketplace. Within three years Venom’s revenue reached about INR 1 cr per year. He realised tjLater he built his own website to sell directly to the customers. Abhishek has worked with a digital marketing agency to increase sales. Venom is present on Facebook and Instagram. It runs online ads and ties up with the influencers on YouTube.
Lockdown applied brakes on biking. For the first two months the sales had died down. It is picking up again. Abhishek says, “ After the lockdown I want to focus on building my brand. With time market place squeezes the margins, which is not helpful. I would like to understand how does the marketing work, so that I can scale up the business.”
For a small business like Venom availing working capital and money for capital expenditure are difficult. It stops them from scaling up. Also, digital marketing does not offer much return unless they spend big sums on online advertising. Abhishek would like to meet a marketing expert, who can share the right way to use digital platforms.