Online shopping has been there for almost 2 decades in India, but it has picked up a fast pace in the last 5 years like never before. Even people from the farthest places of the country have started ordering almost everything online. The market that was ruled by a few major players has now given space to very small merchants including the grocery store next to our household. But as online purchasing picked up so does the people’s search for finding means of discounts on their purchases through coupons that sometimes are available on the e-commerce site selling the items itself or sometimes consumers try to find them on other sites that provide discount coupons.
Until recently discount coupon providers were only popular in western countries but Gujrat-based entrepreneur Bhavin Swadas has brought the facility to Indian consumers with his entrepreneurial ventures couponsaturn.com and couponstroller.com. The website where consumers can get discount coupons for almost every brand or e-commerce site they can think about. Bhavin wanted to help Indian online buyers to get the best deals on their purchases without having to switch from one site to other to find the best price for their choice of product.
Bhavin comes from a middle-class Gujarati family where business is assumed as the only option of earning. He says “ In our family, no one does a 9-5 job, that’s not in the farthest thought for earning in anyone’s mind, so I have subconsciously adopted that mindset.” He is an Engineering graduate who joined a leading software firm as an Embedded Design Engineer in 2008 and started his blog as well in the same year. Blogging was a nascent concept at that time, but he gained knowledge about various subjects because of his interest in blogging including online shopping. That was the time when only a few e-commerce sites were selling and they were relatively expensive. That is how Bhavish started thinking about finding alternatives to get the products ata lesser cost and provide the consumers the power to bargain.
In 2009 he started selling printable coupons for leading stores like Walmart, Kroger, Walgreens, CVD, Jcpenny, Rite Aids, etc. But as the focus shifted to online shopping, he launched Coupon Saturn and Coupon Stroller. Coupon Saturn works with the stores mainly on online services, digital products, memberships, educational courses, and SaaS businesses. Whereas the Coupon stroller deals with all the other stores including eCommerce, and physical items.
With time many websites have emerged providing similar services but most of them provide coupons for only big brands in e-commerce selling Bhavin’s ventures are working on the medium to lessknown stores so that shoppers get the perfect benefit of his skill and website. Now he is also planning to enter the e-commerce business. He says “ I am planning to enter this segment because this is how consumers are going to buy for the long term in future. I have planned to become a seller with a leading e-commerce site, and later start my e-commerce venture.”