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The year was 2015 and the growing internet penetration led to the rise of e-commerce in India. Sitting in his Gurugram office at Bain & Company, Bharat Kalia thought about durable consumer goods.

Bharat, who had been using the same household appliances as his parents for about 20 to 30 years, believed that the consumer durables sector needed a digital overhaul.

He says SMBStory:

“In 2015 there were so many developments in cell phones and televisions, but none in household appliances and consumer goods. These old categories included extremely bulky and inefficient methods of production and distribution. “

He adds, “At the time, customers across the country, including those living in small towns and rural areas, wanted more comfortable lives. However, household appliances and consumer goods were not designed for them. “

Bharat had worked in management consultancy for five years and worked his way up from an employee to a team manager. But he felt ready to leave his comfy corporate job behind and take a plunge into the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship.

“That’s why I decided to manufacture these products according to their needs and at honest and transparent prices,” he adds.

A leap of faith

Bharat’s strong convictions prompted him to quit his job as a management consultant and start Lifelong online in the Gurugram in the 2015. A colleague from Bain & Company joined him Varun Grover and entrepreneurs Atul Raheja.

A lifetime online blender mill

Bharat says: “My idea was to create a customer-centric brand, to understand the customer’s weaknesses exactly, in order to develop innovations in products, to concentrate on a very lean supply chain and to sell through a Directly to the customer (D2C) Model. This would help us develop strong products and more efficient prices that we could pass on to consumers. “

The trio started with a small seed capital to manufacture the first product – a mixer mill.

Over five years, Bharat and its co-founders have added a wide range of products in the home, kitchen, grooming and lifestyle categories and developed Lifelong Online into a rapidly growing digital consumer goods brand

In 2019, Bharat and his team raised Rs 40 crore in a Series A funding round of Tanglin Venture Partner.

Today the 60-strong Lifelong online team is looking Rs 40 crore sales in the peak months, Claims Bharat. Around 33 percent of total sales come from household and kitchen appliances, one third from care and sports products and the rest from the lifestyle and health category.

Retail and manufacturing setup

Not to be confused Lifelong India Pvt Ltd. – A manufacturer of assemblies, plastic injection molded parts and die cast parts to which the Bharat brand sells over 500 Indian cities via Amazon, Flipkart, Tata Cliq, Nykaa, Paytm, Snapdeal, 1Mg and offline sales networks.

“Traditionally, a shop assistant tells you which mixer grinder or washing machine to buy. Today, younger, discerning customers look at online content, product reviews and ratings and thus actively participate in purchasing decisions. These are the customers we reach through the brand, ”explains Bharat.

Lifelong Online currently has three factories – one in Coimbatore and two in Haryana – that manufacture exclusively for the brand but are not owned by the brand.

Bharat says, “We have entrepreneurs who build factories for us and only manufacture our products. We don’t tie up the capital for the factories, we just lease them. This year we are planning the commissioning and commissioning of a new system with multiple lines. “

This asset-light manufacturing model, coupled with a D2C retail strategy that eliminates the middlemen, enables Lifelong Online to sell at competitive prices.

Product innovation cycle

Bharat has a 60-90 day product development cycle – A process that depends on identifying customer needs via channel and product review insights. Contacting customers directly through the D2C strategy made it easier for the brand to access customer feedback and data.

A lifetime online washing machine

Lifelong Online reviews the data, and the engineers then create a functional design that meets consumer needs and optimize it across the brand’s value chain – from product specifications to design and supply chain to packaging.

The brand then does a test launch and refines the product based on the feedback while examining the category and market size.

Then Bharat and his team conduct a pre-launch quality test and proceed to the final launch once they are satisfied with the results.

Mastering challenges

Lifelong Online was a bootstrap company in its early years but soon needed capital to fund its expansion. Bharat notes that his business was both manufacturing and selling and it was difficult to obtain outside financing.

“Investors weren’t very open to leveraging a four to five year company. Even as a profitable company, it was difficult to convince banks to give us working capital loans. So we had to choose equity financing, ”he says.

When the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown hit India, it was impossible for Bharat and his team to visit customers’ homes to install and service products. As a countermeasure, they created digital content that explained how customers could install and maintain some Lifelong Online products themselves.

Since Lifelong Online is a digital brand, general demand increased and contributed to the economic recovery.

Market outlook and future plans

Bharat and its durable consumer goods brand D2C are now playing in the Indian home appliances and consumer electronics market that is expected to be reached Rs 1.48 lakh crore in the size of 2025 from Rs 76,400 crore in the 2019according to IBEF data.

“Today we compete with a number of large, established and older brands in our categories. I believe that our relentless customer focus and our technology-driven rapid innovation cycle will help us keep customers happy and ensure they keep coming back, “says Bharat, adding:

“These categories are dominated by big brands, but if they wanted to incorporate a digital first D2C approach like ours, it would be like sharing DNA. You could do this in the long run, but it’s not at the core right now. “

In the future, Bharat plans to further optimize the brand’s innovation cycle and develop more products in different home categories. He also plans to give young engineers and designers the opportunity to build and test innovative durable consumer products for Lifelong Online. “This could be done through a combination of partnerships and acquisitions,” he says.