In 2011, Pune-based Bhupendra Jagtap went about scouting intimate gifts. While a reluctant Jagtap eventually mustered up enough courage to ask for some sexy lingerie, he realised the sales girls across the counters were as embarrassed as he was.
The experience lead him to start PrivyPleasures.com, an e-tailing site for edible lingerie, body paints, dice games, lubricants, body jewellery and a range of other stimulating products. It isn't the only one aiming for that presumably lucrative intersection between the lust and prudery of Indian consumers. Sites like ThatsPersonal.com, Bliss-Basket.com and Kaamastra.com are also hoping to cash in — especially on Valentine's Day.
Saying it with flowers is evidently no longer enough. "Customers do not want to gift feel-good items like teddy bears or flowers on V-Day which are also gifted to the sick," says Mayur Masrani bluntly. The IT professionalturned-entrepreneur started Bliss-Basket.com in January 2014 and has seen monthly average sales soar from 50 to 700. And for that crucial first fortnight of February alone, he expects to reach 450 orders. At Privy-Pleasures.com, Jagtap is hoping to ring up 20% of annual sales in the shortest month of the year.
Microsoft ex-executive Samir Saraiya founded ThatsPersonal.com in January 2013, making him one of the first movers in this category. He says his site receives approximately 15,000 daily visitors and records 3% conversion. And two years on, he's expecting edible body paint, adult games, massage candles, X on the lips gloss (a tantalising lip balm with gender-friendly pheromones) and bath bombs costing anywhere between Rs 1,500 and Rs 3,000 to drive sales at his site during V-Day, with an average ticket size of around Rs 2,700.
Not surprisingly, such figures are receiving not so discreet attention from private equity investors. ET has learnt that these personal pleasure product purveyors have been in various rounds of discussions to raise funds in 2015 calendar. Compared to some of the products on offer, the quantum of funding being discussed at the moment is relatively modest — anywhere between Rs 5 crore to the Rs 30 crore that Saraiya says he is hoping to raise. But the interest is definite and probably driven by pure analysis as much as any less objective factors.
The calculation is simple: people have always wanted these products but have been too embarrassed to look for them, or buy them even if they do find them. As anyone who has walked through slightly grungier shopping outlets, like Palika Bazaar in Delhi or the hawkers near Crawford Market and CST Station in Mumbai, would know, erotic products are available, both legal ones like lingerie, accessories and the more exotic varieties of condoms, and illegal ones, like sex toys and vibrators. Those in business peg the market to be of Rs 1,200-1,500 crore.
But these shops — sometimes just roadside stalls — are hardly comfortable places to buy products meant for intimate use. There are prying eyes, perhaps the risk of being sexually harassed, and also the very real risk of police raids that can shut down the outlets and even target the customers — blackmail has always been a possibility with such intimate issues. Women are particularly wary of such purchases, which effectively reduces potential consumers by half. And they are really only found in larger cities where the anonymity emboldens buyers.
Online sales get around these problems. Those running the sites say that sales from Tier-III cities like Hoshiarpur, Nagpur, Ambala, Khurda, et al are huge and women comprise nearly 40% of their consumers, a number which might be even higher because many may be buying under their husbands' names. They tend to buy lingerie, while men are more inclined to condoms and lubricants. Rahber Nazir, founder of Kaamastra.com, who shifted to this "Bedroom category" as he calls it after working in the renewable energy sector in Bengaluru, says that remote rural pockets comprise 30% of his sales. "Rural Indian is as enlightened about the options as its urban counterpart," he says.
Such business explains why Nazir says they are looking far beyond just capturing sales from the seedy urban outlets. "We are not competing with an offline component and the potential for growth is mammoth," he says. Their products are dispatched in discreet black boxes which do not mention in any way what the contents might be. This VDay, he expects to draw customers with a range of lingerie, role play costumes, lubricants, ambience creating accessories and body jewellery.
"The average ticket size on our site during the run up to Valentine's Day would be around Rs 2,500," he says.
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