Ultimate Guide to start Online Rakhi Business in 2023
In this Blog, we’ll provide Foundation Information required for a complete understanding of How to start a Rakhi Online Business, including a deep analysis of, How market trends have changed over time? Important factors that affect the business & How to plan out the business Strategy? We have also included a Free Business Investment Template to Approximate Expense Analysis to start Online Rakhi Business.
Rohan Joshi
Published at: Aug 15, 2022 12:19 PM
Co-Author: Navanshu Rastogi
Rakhi business is a lucrative market for small and large businesses. Every year people celebrate Raksha Bandhan everywhere in India and in some foreign countries. Based on the estimations it can grow by a CAGR of 7% and reachUS$ 43.3 Billion by 2027.Businesses are expanding their presence online to sell Rakhis and Hampers. Online selling is much more effective and creates a long relationship with customers. You need to understand this market and plan for it if you want to ensure your place here. That is what we are covering in this blog. It is helpful for starters and pros already in this business. Running an online business today is a challenge and will be even more complex in 2023. Rakhi is not an expensive item, which makes it a relatively easy market for online brands to enter. New brands also enter the market and try to sell their products. But without knowing the roadblocks of selling online, it is impossible to sway consumers in buying your products.
Technology and convenience in the market have overpowered the importance of location. Being online is more crucial, and according to Deloitte more than70% of the customersare willing to pay a higher price. Today we have many convenient options likeUPI,Instant delivery and Google Shopping. Services like these are now a part of our life. The convenience offered by them overpowers the extra price. One another change is that change is how celebrations have changed. A Festival used to be a big event that would take all the time. Now it is changing, people want to be able to enjoy more but the time available to people is less. People want multiple small occasions, they try new smaller alternatives to large ones.
The market has more diversified Rakhi options like Bestie Rakhi, Eco-friendly Rakhi, Gamer Rakhi, Personalised Rakhi, matching outfits, and home decor for Rakhi. Brands are now more customer centric and use AI systems for it. Artificial intelligence is vital as many customers are unaware of the products on a website. Now to address the upcoming and existing demand you have to understand what consumers want.
Before launching a product, it is crucial to understand the demand of the people. While general use items are easy to make, they have low emotional value. Rakhi has high emotional value, so it changes the market demand. Here are the things that customers and market demand from brands today.
- To build a connection with them on social media platforms by being more humane and interactive on social media.
- To show them exciting content and the work they do.More than 80% of people purchase based on the content they see on social media.
- To make products that resonate with them. Like we told you about Bestie Rakhi, Gamer Rakhi and Rakhi hampers are examples of the same.
- Products specifically tailored for their needs and the ability to customise it directly on the website.
- To make new things and not just stick to old products.
- They want brands to have fast and accessible websites.
- They want brands to take feedback from them.
- To be more transparent about their offerings and empower customers through it.
To make your space in such a market you need to know your customers. For that, you will have to listen to your customers. Making targeted products for consumers and appealing to their emotions is essential, or they won't feel interested in your products. Once you know what the market and your customers are, serve them. To complete this cycle, again and again, you need to build a well-structured strategy for your business.
A good business plan reduces the stress on the way. Having a solid business plan is vital for the growth of a business in the long term. A business plan can help you identify potential hiccups and overcome resistance in the way.
There are two phases to Rakhi Business Plan:
In order to have a business plan, you need to understand how you will sell and profit from Rakhis on your online platform. To ensure a successful Rakhi business strategy, you must answer the following questions:
1. Global-View of the Business
- How do you envision your Rakhi brand?
- The mission of your Rakhi brand: what does it stand for?
- In terms of products and services, what will you be offering?
- How will your Rakhi Business grow over time?
2. Business Profile
- Where will you start your Rakhi Business?
- What type of people will you sell your rakhis to?
- Who will be in charge of the business's key positions?
- What will be the job roles of each person in management?
3. Business Goals
- What will your Business Accomplish in the Short Term (3 Yrs)?
- What will your Business Accomplish in the Long Term (5 yrs +)?
- What are your long-term and short-term goals for using the capital you have?
4. Product and service
- How Will Your Rakhi Selling Work?
- What will be the pricing model for your Rakhi?
- Who are your typical Rakhi customers?
- What is the supply chain and order fulfilment strategy?
- What is your strategy for selling Rakhis?
- What is your strategy for distributing Rakhis?
5. What is your market research?
6. Existing Cash Flow and Financial Statements.
7. What are the Financial Projections for the Coming Rakhi Season?
The roadmap illustrates where your business is heading and how it will get there. Consider it an advanced business plan in which each point is examined closely. While creating a Roadmap, you are also figuring out the process involved and all the small milestones that need to be converted to reach the final goal.
- Business Roadmap: A business roadmap is a visual representation of the major objectives and strategies of your Rakhi Brand. Like a business plan, a roadmap gives a long view of where your organisation is going and how it will get there. Business roadmaps Reduce Friction in various types of departments and provide a clear vision of the future.
- Strategic Roadmap: Business strategies are communicated through a strategic roadmap. Your business roadmap defines the long-term goals and deadlines you need to reach your mission. The key to success is to take a long-term perspective. It does not include short-term wins and product features; it focuses on long-term goals such as fundraising rounds and MRRs.
Rakhiis a Hindu Festival celebrated across the world. All the brothers & sisters around The World celebrate this festival that signifies the bond of Unconditional love. Rakhi has also grown as a big business in the last few years. Consumers in the market crave small joyful moments to celebrate the rakhi festival. Every business needs to adapt to these changing demands.
For a successful business strategy, remember these points while planning your Rakhi Business.
Seasonal Business
In India, Rakhi is a seasonal business. It is important to make vital decisions at the right time in a seasonal business. What is the best time to start planning?; what is the best time to buy raw materials?; what is the best time to manufacture? & what is the best time to market? At the end of the season, every business move affects overall sales. Keep track of market trends and make the right decisions at the right time.
Manufacturing
Just like any manufacturing business, in the Rakhi business, it is vital to understand the manufacturing process and requirements for the raw material. The primary aim of this step is to have a clear idea of yourProduction Capacity,Amount of Raw Material and Labour required to serve market demand. It will help you estimate the cost to manufacture or Cost price and will help you set your Selling Price to sell your Rakhis and make a significant profit at the end of the season. Selling Region
Once you understand the production capacity and the cost price of your manufactured Rakhi, you will be able to understand which market will be suitable to pitch your product to make the right amount of profit.
If your Cost Price is above average and your quality is also Good, you can target a luxury segment of Customers. If your product has a Lower Manufacturing Cost and Quality is average, you may target a mass market. Understanding Demand & Supply is very vital in choosing the right Selling region.
Quality & Supply
Feedback from your customers is crucial after choosing the right Selling Market. Understanding the equality demands of your Selling Region is a vital metric in the success and growth of any business. If customers buy a particular design, you need to adjust yourdemand-supply cycle.The more customer-centric your brand will be and will focus on satisfying customer demand, the more you will create a Buying Cycle in which your customers will revisit you next year. Important Features to Look Out for:
- Responsive design - Websites with responsive designs change their appearance according to the device on which they are being viewed. As more and more people use their phones and tablets to browse the internet, shop, and socialise, it is imperative that a website is easy to switch between devices.
- Helpful Navigation - Visitors to your website should be able to access what they are looking for within seconds once they arrive. An easy way to organise your website's pages and links is to use a drop-down navigation bar at the top.
- Strong brand identity - You should carefully consider how your brand should be portrayed before you begin a website design. It is important to consider the colour scheme, fonts, graphics, and photos. These things contribute to creating a cohesive identity that will subtly convey your identity to your visitors.
- High-quality content - Content should be well-written and keyword-rich on every page of your website. Whenever search engines crawl a site, they look for readable, valuable, and often updated content, and those sites tend to rank higher than those that aren't.
- A blog - Having regular updates to high-quality content is paramount to search engine optimization. Start a blog for your business so that you can have this vital feature on your site.
- Clear calls-to-action - Communicating clearly what you want your site visitors to do helps save time and eliminate confusion.
- Contact information- Make sure your company's address, phone number, and email appear in the footer of every page
- Social media buttons - Without social media buttons, a website misses out on connecting with potential customers.
- Security features - These are vital for websites that make use of credit cards and other sensitive information.
In order to prosper in the digital realm, media production is an essential component. It is necessary to produce media in order to satisfy the Requirements of various digital components of your business to reachout to the consumers. Let's see them
1. Website Media Content
Think of your website as an online store. As part of its marketing strategy, the store offers various deals to its customers and makes them aware of them by using a banner, which lets buyers know what is available and what their latest offerings are. Similarly, a website should also have banners that show clear offers and what products the online store sells.
The special offerings and events of the website should also include a landing page which is a point of attraction for all customers. On the landing page, you can introduce your service, and your product, explain its features, its benefits, what it can do to help them achieve their goals, and how it will add value to them. You now have a beautiful landing page that explains a product, what it offers, and why it is a good choice for the new customer.
To make beautiful banners and landing pages having good images and videos is very important. Today, a landing page is incomplete without testimonies or Brand Video showing the product and ensuring your brand message is delivered clearly.
Having a brand video is one of the most important things a business can do nowadays is to have a brand video. By creating a brand video, you showcase your company culture and business ethics. You can tell your brand story and make your brand more relatable to your audience. Today consumers are looking for information on what they are buying - what is the story behind it, and how they are associated with the brand and its cause. Today' businesses are driven by telling people about themselves, and their brand, and how your services can change the world.
To do that, great images and videos are the best way to communicate that information.
2. Social Media Content
Customers interact with brands through social media after visiting their websites. Growth tends to be faster for companies with an active social media presence. It plays a role in helping the brand understand what its customers want but in engaging with them and improving their products and services by engaging with them on social media.
A primary step in initiating that conversation is to create value for the consumer. By value, we mean content that engages, entertains, or enlightens them. Share day-to-day activities at your business on social media using the stories feature. Educating and entertaining customers with Instagram reels and short video formats is a good way to increase brand loyalty. By creating long-form content for IGTv and YouTube, I can help you better understand what your customers are concerned about and further guide you to improve your services and products.
Social media platforms offer brands a valuable opportunity to interact with their customers live.
Having a one-to-one conversation with the customer is the best way to show your authentic side of your band and your personality and will eventually result in even higher conversions. A good media production solution makes it possible to post engaging social media content, tell engaging stories and make long-format videos.
3. Digital Marketing Content
As part of an online business, digital marketing is also a key component. Through social media ads on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Google, and a variety of other platforms, you can reach out to new customers and build your presence in potential markets across India and the world.
Creating an environment that reflects your brand values and persona through an advertisement is a nice way to introduce your Service. The use of advertising also increases traffic to a website, generates leads, and generates conversions. Aside from running ads on social media platforms and Google searches, you may also run them as television commercials or YouTube ads.
It is only through the use of good media production that you can create an advertisement that connects with the consumer's emotions and helps them understand the value of your product and Service. This could include creating stunning editorial images for print catalogues, banners for websites, AD campaigns, or video ads.
Any media you create should include the following features:
- Engage with the audience
- The viewer will receive value from it
- Give them an overview of your business practices and culture.
- There is useful and authoritative information in this post.
- It shows that you are passionate about your Rakhi business.
- Triggers meaningful conversations with your audience.
Managing your various social media platforms efficiently is just as important as creating good content. A social media manager is the best way to ensure that social media serves its purpose and is heading in the right direction.
To improve your social media strategy, a social media manager audits your existing social media strategy. Furthermore, they research your target audience and their interests to optimise your advertising campaigns and content production efforts. Right social media management also allows you to decide which social media platform suits your brand best.
By understanding what the market wants from your brand, you can work on developing a balanced social media strategy and optimising your social media profiles to look more aesthetic.
Creating an environment that resonates with your target audience through social media ads is another way to reach out to your target audience. Taking this approach will reduce your marketing efforts and result in better results in a shorter period.
A social media manager's job is to understand social media platforms such as Linkedin, Facebook, and Instagram. A social media manager aims for putting together a platform-specific posting content calendar, responding to followers, and growing your reach on social media. They also keep a close eye on your social media performance and make small tweaks and adjustments to maximise your results.
Managing social media accounts is one of the most important aspects of creating your online presence. It is crucial to have a good social media manager who understands the brand and knows how to communicate the message effectively to potential customers.
Managing social media with the following targets is crucial:
- Achieve greater brand recognition
- Increase the number of visitors to your site
- Increase sales by generating new leads
- Increase sales and signups to grow revenue
- Improve your brand's engagement
- Get your business to stand out by creating a community
- Socially effective Customer service
- Incorporate press mentions into your marketing strategy
- By listening to social media, you will never miss a mention
An influencer marketing strategy blends traditional and contemporary marketing tactics. This strategy incorporates celebrity endorsements into our content-driven marketing approach. Partnerships between businesses and influencers lead to the campaign's outcomes, which is the primary differentiation in influencer marketing.
Understanding who influencers are is crucial to understanding the value of influencer marketing.
A social media influencer is a person that is known for a certain type of content, and they share a common interest with their audience.
It is possible to reduce your marketing efforts, improve your brand presence, and grow your business faster if you find the right influencer, with the right audience, share a common interest, and align their interests with your product or service. In addition to this, influencers offer several other benefits as well.
The influencers that have a particular type of audience have a much higher rate of building trust in a product than any traditional advertising. The audience also takes them seriously, which results in increased brand awareness right from the start. Additionally, influencers produce engaging content that helps you plan your content strategy and post regularly.
Also, it is essential to understand that influences understand their audience and what they want. So, a product or service solves a problem for a particular target audience, the Influencer of the same niche can generate higher conversions by promoting it within her followers.
Business partnerships with influencers open your brand's prospects to a broader audience and even larger opportunities.
When choosing Influencers to improve your brand's market position, keep the following things in mind:
- Brand Awareness
- Traffic on the website
- Sales and Lead Generation
- Social Media Followers and Engagement
- Reputation
Among the results of data analytics, social media insights are the simplest and most interacted with. Under your account's insides option, you can see what kind of post, image, or video has more likes or interactions.
Also, you can see which city your majority audience is from and whether they are male or female.
Whenever a person browses through your products and services on your website, they leave a trail of data, which can be analysed and used to learn what they prefer and what interests them on your website.
In computer science,data analyticsrefers to collecting data and analysing it to understand the world around us. The process of analysing data by companies to make relevant business decisions is what is known asbusiness analytics. Analytics tools can help online website owners collect data, analyse it, and make better decisions on optimising the website to meet user needs.
It helps you track what your customers buy. It also lets you know From where they are accessing your website.
How long are they spending on your website?
How many times do they scroll on a page?
What category or item interests them?
And lots of vital information that can be used by any website owner to make better business decisions.
As a result of social media insights and Google Analytics, the admins of accounts and websites can access real-world data that helps them better understand their customers and audiences so they can engage with them more effectively and solve customer problems.
Today a business's daily decisions are determined by the data collected from user behaviour. By comprehending the facts gathered, Businesses make crucial judgments that aid in achieving their objectives.
Let's suppose you have a budget of 10 lac Rupees and want to start a Website that sells Rakhi and other gifting Items.
We will breakdown the costs in two major sections
- One time Cost - The cost which is incurred to come up with the Online Store for the first time and to make sure it's functional.
- Monthly Running Cost - This is the recurring cost for your business.
Let's see the Various Aspects that will demand your Investments:
Everyone wants to launch an internet business, but knowing where to begin and how to proceed can be confusing. Although there is a wealth of knowledge available online, dealing with diverse issues like branding, business strategy, and business registration can usually make the process chaotic and unmanageable.
Business Strategy
As discussed before starting any business it's very important to plan out the journey and have a global view of all the aspects of your venture. Never Clear View of how you can come up with profits to run your business in the long run.
Branding
As previously mentioned, it's crucial to map out your route and have a comprehensive understanding of every facet of your organisation before you begin. It's crucial to have a clear understanding of how to generate earnings for your company's long-term operations.
Business Registration
It can be demanding to complete all the paperwork and regulations accurately to meet regulatory bodies like MCA & GST. Getting professional assistance and advice can streamline the process, cut down on overall time, and raise the quality of the business development process.
An office or base from which to conduct all of your operations is necessary for operating an online business. Depending on the size of your company, you might run an office out of a backyard, a small room, a rented location, or your own office.
However, there are some ongoing expenses related to the facilities that you must take into account when managing your money.
Rental Cost
First, figure out your rental costs, which are related to the cost of the space where your firm is located. If you operate in a commercial location, you might also be responsible for the space's maintenance.
Electricity Cost
Now let's talk about electricity costs, which you can determine with ease using the quantity of electricity you use each hour at your office.
Office Supplies
If you manage an office, you may also require office supplies such as stationary, hot coffee, and other refreshments.
Equipment Cost
The equipment needed to run the business, such as computers, barcode scanners, printers, and other amenities, makes up the majority of an Office Cost and is a one-time expenditure.
Services
Cleaning services and internet connections are also included in your office's operating expenses.
For a business that relies on products, you need to make sure that all of your products are safe, secure, and tracked in your system, it is imperative to maintain track of every item in the inventory. A business must have reliable financial records that are coordinated with its inventory.
Warehousing
Your warehousing cost is the expense incurred for properly and safely storing the goods and units.
Equipment
Storage Units, Stock Handling Equipments and Vehicles, barcode scanners, computers, and softwares, are all included in the equipment cost of the inventory.
Employee salaries
Managing inventory is an important component of having a well-organised inventory system. It's crucial to select the proper individual with relevant experience to ensure that the supply and demand are balanced. Employees are at the centre of every inventory to ensure that the system operates effectively and in a highly systematic way.
Insurance and Damages
A large inventory necessitates insurance in case of any catastrophe or loss incurred under any conditions.
For an internet business, a website and social media are both expectations that must be met in order to flourish.
Website Development & AMC
For the website we can understand the price distribution and two ways: one is where you make the store for the first time and the second is a phase where you maintain that store in order to keep selling a product. does there are two costs associated one the upfront and another is the annual maintenance cost.
Upfront cost
The first investment covers domain hosting, design, and the addition of numerous functionalities needed for your online store.
Annual maintenance
Annual maintenance includes all of the responsibilities for keeping your website up and running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The pricing also includes domain name renewal, hosting expenses, security software upgrades, app updates, and plugin updates.
Copywriting
A solid text that is SEO friendly and raises your website's ranking on Google is crucial for a website. People's perceptions of our website and products are greatly influenced by the relevance of the information and the calibre of the language.
Both blogging and adding text to different web pages on a website involve copywriting.
Blogging
Blogging is a good way to rank your website and demonstrate to Google that the content on it is pertinent to the products you sell. Copywriters who specialise in blogging conduct keywords, audience, and topic research, develop blocks that can be brief introductions to longer blocks, and they can also write authoritative blogs that are best wishes and will boost your Google search rankings.
Web Pages
SEO keywords for web pages can be found with the help of copywriters specialising in writing web pages. Your most successful landing pages are those that have relevance to the topic and generate most of your sales. Content Writers also help in making SEO Specific Landing Pages.
Graphics Design
A website also requires interesting visuals in its banners and landing pages to ensure that the pages are not monotonous and that information is presented in a beautiful manner that is legible and comprehensible, keeping the user interested and wanting to learn more about the product. With fantastic graphics, you can make sure that your website is never dull and keeps users interested.
Photography & Videography
It's always crucial to have some top-notch real-world photographs backing the text for better graphic design. Photography needs are crucial for marketing products, especially Rakhi.
Rakhi Photographs on a white background for an online store, as well as spectacular banner images with lovely graphic design and text adverts, improves the overall attractiveness of your website.
Today, customer testimonials and behind-the-scenes access to your business's operations aid in generating excitement among your audience and customers for your approaching new product. Videos are the ideal format for accomplishing and showcasing Brand Presence. Even Google favours media-rich web pages and landing pages.
Social Media Management
After having a good website that is feature, text and graphics rich, the next thing is social media management.
Social media management helps in Creating your social accounts, optimising your content strategy and meeting up with the content demands to attract more customers to your website and helps you to generate customer trust.
Good social media manager helps to do the same.
Marketing Cost
For business it's important to target various marketing methods to get leads for the business and visitors on the website. The best way is to go digital with your marketing efforts.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing which uses various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google to run your ads and to bring your customers to your website and help them buy the right product. It also includes all the inbound marketing that includes:
- Content marketing
- Blogs
- Events
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Social media
And Outbound marketing that Includes:
- Cold Outreach: Cold Calls and Emails
- Direct Mail
- Search and Social Media Ads
- Trade Shows, Conferences, and Networking
Note : One rule of thumb is to take 12-20% of gross revenue if you're a new company and 6-12% if you're an established company in your Digital Marketing initiatives.
Social Media and Influencer Marketing
Social media marketing helps you in creating the influence of your product in the audience with beautiful content on social media and Influencers.
Copywriting
In addition to copywriting for social media, you also need copywriting for email marketing, which helps you create emails for the purpose of email marketing. Additionally, they help you create conversion copywriting for sales pages
As far as lead magnets are concerned, copywriting can also help you write short ebooks, white papers, PPT slides and product descriptions that are easy to understand.
The photography and Video Production aspect is very important in marketing because creating beautiful Ads always goes hand-in-hand with creating beautiful imagery. An ad with which people can associate and relate to your product helps to drive more sales. Media Production is also important in creating short video format content on social media.
Business Finances help you track all your expenses across all the departments. This helps you optimise your efforts and make better and more profitable decisions. A good accountant manages taxes and all the tax implications for the company.
Taking into account all the factors we have discussed. In the following graph, we have estimated your business expenses for the start-up period and the first few months. This estimation is based on a Starter that sells rakhi on their own website and promotes via Digital Marketing Methods and Social Media Management.
In order to approximate the numbers, we used 10 different types of Rakhis with a total inventory of 3600 Rakhis. However, the situation varies from market to market. You can download our Excel Template to estimate based on your own market rates,click here. The client's sentiments are of utmost importance to Rakhi Business. For any Rakhi business to succeed in 2023, understanding what customers want is essential. With intriguing offers appearing on internet platforms on a daily basis, businesses must adapt and understand these trends quickly. With Febnik, the process of selling Rakhi on a website is simple, fast, convenient and dependable with complete transparency. We assist you in establishing your brand, setting up your website and payment gateways, creating media content that adds aesthetics to your website and Social Media. Further, using the Power of Digital Marketing to produce leads and conversions for your online business.
Febnik ensures that the entire journey is trouble-free and that you receive best assistance & help at every step. We believe in the potential of all Businesses across India that are working to make the vision of “Make In India” and “Digital India” a reality. We are devoted to supporting every Company on this path with our B2B Services.