Myntra, an online marketplace for personalized merchandise (covered previously here) has been around for a few months now; recently they had their official launch (actually on Feb 14th, Valentines Day). The website lets users create their own customised product (like T-shirts, Calendars, mugs, watches, gifts etc) using their own photographs, designs, text captions, or by picking from its large database of ready-made designs. It also works like a marketplace for designers, where people can simply upload their designs and earn a royalty every time their design sells. This looks like a fairly novel business model and the site is doing quite well. Revenues are growing at 30% a month and they are targeting $1 million in 2008. The site has content from 1000 designers , with over 10,000 designs published to date. They have raised seed investment from Erasmic Venture Funds and some angel investors.

Their main user segment is young adults, wanting to express their opinions in a creative way. T-shirts with wacky slogans for closely knit groups of people (friends or colleagues working together) seems to be a hot selling item. The website does give the impression of throbbing activity.

As I had mentioned in my earlier post, one HUGE business opportunity in this segment is corporate gifts and marketing collaterals. Most marketing oriented companies spend tons of money on consumer promotions, where branded merchandise and giveaways are the order of the day. This need is typically catered to by local gifting vendors, who procure these items from their respective local wholesalers (or manufacturers), and deliver them to the marketing teams. An online marketplace for marketers where they can buy good quality, customisable merchandise can prove to be a killer proposition.