Fabmall to re-enter certain key markets

After having to encounter failures in Mumbai and other markets, Fabmall, the Bangalore-based online retailer, plans to enter these markets once again, afresh. This after realising that e-commerce does not succeeded without the support of well-established backend infrastructure.

It will expand one city at a time and after setting up the right infrastructure. After some bitter experiences in cities like Mumbai during its earlier innings, Fabmall had decided to concentrate on Bangalore.

"The availability of a warehouse and proper infrastructure was the main reason that helped us succeed and now, grow, in this high volume and low margin business," says Vaitheeswaran, chief operating officer, FabMall. Fabmall saw revenues of between Rs 1.2 crore and Rs 1.3 crore and has broken even, he adds.

Fabmall with its online venture is going places where Peapod.com did not manage to do well in Britain, and Homegrocer.com and Webvan.com did not succeeded as expected in the US in selling groceries online.

Commenting on the secret of Fabmall's success, he said: "The ability to meet the orders on time and the ability to supply the products customers need is the key. This has helped us expand and we have 25,000 active customers," he adds.

The advantage of this model, he says, is that people often end up spending more than they spend at the store.