Failed Venture Pushed This Entrepreneur To Start A Handbag Brand; Now He Makes INR 1.5 Cr Per Month!

With the operations of many big companies curtailed due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the last two years have been a blessing for new and small brands who have taken advantage of the situation to achieve unprecedented levels of growth. 

Mohit Jain, the owner of a Gurgaon-based women's handbag brand Miraggio is one such name. After starting in 2019, the brand has witnessed 50% month-on-month growth since September 2021 and is now trying to achieve INR 30 Crore in revenue by the next fiscal. 

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But how does it compete with so many established brands in this segment? 

The answer lies in a failed business venture which planted the seeds of entrepreneurship in Mohit and gave him a great business idea.  

The Story Of Mohit Jain

Incredible as it may sound, Mohit Jain started his entrepreneurial journey when he was only 20 years old. Before that, he was a Marketing student in Canada with no thought of starting his own business. The idea dawned on him when he came back to India, but there was a lot of uncertainty about which sector to enter.

After borrowing money from his father, Mohit initially started a small e-commerce business and traded products between India and China. However, that business did not really take off and Mohit had to close it down within 2 years.

In spite of the failure that he had to face with his first business, Jain believes that he learned a lot about entrepreneurship and found the inspiration to start his first full-time business venture from there. 

But what made him choose fashion? “Fashion has always been my forte, but never had I thought of doing a business,” Mohit told an online news portal. 

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The decision to make premium handbags for women in the age group 18-35 came after a lot of market and consumer research on the Indian fashion industry. In fact, he had to focus entirely on market and customer research for almost one and half years after starting the business in 2019. 

His USP was pricing, which was quite low even though it was a premium handbag brand. 

Usually, premium handbags from established brands are priced near INR 10,000, but Jain decided to sell similar designs in the INR 3000 to INR 6000 price range. 

“Within this price range premium handbags were missing in the market. We wanted to bridge this gap,” Mohit said. According to reports, Mohit succesfully utilized the networks he built in his failed e-commerce venture to design the bags in-house and manufacture them via third-party factories in China. 

This supply chain allows Mohit Jain to keep manufacturing costs low and sell the product at affordable prices. The benefits of this strategy are clearly visible as the brand was earning INR 1.5 Crore per month by March 2022.

Overcoming Challenges & Winning The Race

Having conducted extensive market research before starting the business, Mohit Jain knew that there was a lot of competition here. However, at the same time, he was aware that there was enough demand and women are willing to spend money on fashionable and quality handbags. 

“The idea is to celebrate the individuality which is achieved very well and in the process it makes no compromises on contemporary, romantic fashion,” Mohit said. 

With this motto and the determination to market products in the affordable price range, Mohit started taking on established brands in the market.

“There are brands that operate in the price point between Rs 2,000 and Rs 4,000, and Caprese, Lavie, Baggit, and others also go up. I wanted to introduce a brand in between these price ranges, bridging the gap between fashion and price,” Mohit was quoted saying. 

With so much competition, Mohit knew that building and retaining customers’ trust is a difficult job. However, Mohit claims that the company is seeing 20% repeat customers on the website, which is quite an achievement for a new brand like Rohit’s. 

What’s Next For Mohit?

Even though the brand has seen remarkable growth in the last one year, the fact that the pandemic proved to be a conducive situation cannot be discounted. “We are born out of the pandemic,” Mohit said in an interview. 

As retail outlets open up and the competition becomes steeper, the challenge would be to survive in these changed market conditions. The key to success here is to come up with new and innovative products that are unique in their segment. 

Reports claim that in the next six to eight months, Mohit plans on adding products like cases, wallets, travel accessories, and small leather goods to their portfolio. Besides, Mohit also wants to take on the sustainability question by creating a range of eco-friendly products. 

The details of the latter will be revealed later, he said.

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