Bhavya Mehta launched Royal Kurta with an investment of Rs 5 lakh. The online clothing brand has now become a Rs 30 crore turnover business.
Bhavya Mehta, a fitness and gym enthusiast, was barely 21 when he founded ethnic clothing brand ‘Royal Kurta’ on Snapdeal in 2014, starting with Rs 5 lakh borrowed from his father.
Eight years later, Royal Kurta has developed into a Rs 30 crore turnover business with over 21,000 products on its catalogue and selling online via the firm website as well as other ecommerce portals such as Amazon, Myntra, Nykaa, Tata Cliq, and Paytm Mall.
Royal Kurta offers cotton, dupion silk, art silk, and tussar silk kurta pyjamas, sherwanis, pathanis, and bandhgalas.
29-year-old Bhavya worked for his father for a year and a half after graduating from Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College with a Bachelor of Arts degree before beginning his firm.
In 2014, he founded Mehta E-Retail India, a sole proprietorship.
“Royal Kurta was the first ethnic clothing brand to launch on Snapdeal,” Bhavya recalls.
He got the notion to start his own business after he had to borrow money from his father to purchase gym supplements. Royal Kurta has a portfolio with over 21000 goods. Bhavya aspired to be financially self-sufficient, but he recalls that persuading his parents to support his company idea was difficult.
He took the kurtas from his father’s collection and labelled them Royal Kurta. Bhavya has kept his product prices as low as possible.
A kurta set with pyjamas composed of 100 percent pure cotton fabric starts at Rs 300.
Bhavya says, “The starting price is Rs 300 which reaches up to Rs 3000, depending on the style and fabric.”
In reflection, he believes his success stemmed from the scarcity of men’s ethnic wear in the online marketplace when he first started his firm.
According to Bhavya, online trading has more advantages than traditional retailing. He also feels that ecommerce offers advantages over physical selling, because with online trading one is not bound by regional constraints.
“E-commerce allows you to service people from all over the world,” says Bhavya, who listed his wares on Amazon in 2015 and began receiving orders from all over the world.
He subsequently began to sell his wares on other sites, such as eBay. He now has customers throughout the Middle East, Egypt, Turkey, Mexico, Canada, the United States, Sweden, Poland, Singapore, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, and Japan.
Bhavya says, currently, 70 percent of our revenue, almost Rs 15 to 20 crore, comes from export, the majority of which is B2C. “Not only Indians, but many other people buy the Royal Kurta outfits because they wish to put on Indian heritage costumes out of curiosity.”
‘Royal Kurta Customized’ is a service offered by the company to consumers who may have unique wants, and the brand supplies tailored apparel to this audience. As the number of orders increased, Bhavya decided to establish his own production facility to match the demand. In 2017, he established a unit in Mahavir Nagar, where they now employ around 40 people.
They make 500 kurtas on average every day, but during the festival and wedding seasons, output is boosted to fulfil demand. Royal Kurta expanded tremendously during the lockdown. Customers who wished to wear ethnic kurtas during the festival seasons were hesitant to go out and began shopping online, which benefited them.
Royal Kurta had a five-fold surge in Amazon sales over the previous year two years ago. According to Bhavya, Royal Kurta achieved a five-fold increase in Amazon sales over the previous year two years ago.
Bhavya Mehta believes in hard work and hopes to develop his company to at least Rs 40 crore in a year.
