Sparsh – Handpicked just for you

Gents – the next time your ladies (read: mum, wife, sister, bestie or girlfriend) wish to go shopping, allow and encourage her as who knows, she’ll find a spark to be an entrepreneur!

If you don’t believe our words, here’s a success story of two vivacious ladies from Palakkad who decided to embark upon a journey of being an entrepreneur during a shopping spree and backed by their husband and brother. Nice! 😀

The Lifestyle Portal is happy to introduce you to the team – 34-year-old Megha Sarma, 35-year-old Prasad D. Sarma (both medical editors) and 28-year-old Jyothi Sarma a Training Coordinator in Frankfinn Institute of Air hostess Training – strength, vision and power behind it all.

When Megha called us up to talk about her vision, there was an instant connect; it was like talking to an old friend. Her bubbly and cheerful nature came through and we realised that how many happy customers she may have created through her dream venture Sparsh.

We were glad to see how confident she is and rightfully proud of starting something with her family to provide affordable Indian clothing to the world; so ladies and gents, here’s their story…

How did it all begin? 
“Well, it all started as a hobby. Ours is a big family and whenever there’s a function in the family, we travel to places to get in touch with weavers to personally handpick sarees and salwars for ourselves and for our friends and relatives,” recalls Megha.

Seeing the price difference and the quality and exclusiveness of the materials, Megha toyed with the idea of start her own venture along with her husband Prasad and her sister in law Jyothi with the aim to provide good quality Indian garments at an affordable range to women in India and around the world.

Thus, Sparsh – The Touch of Quality was born on 1st January 2011 where the team handpicks the best materials to provide their customers good quality products at reasonable rates.

Initial investments and growth

They started with an initial investment of Rs. 30,000/- and a few baby steps.

Megha adds, “As an initial step, we started our sales through friends, relatives and neighbours. After that, we exhibited our products in Sankalp-Crafts & Weaves Exhibition and other various exhibitions.”

Seeing their exclusiveness and quality, Vanitha – a leading Malayalam magazine reported their venture.

From then on, Sparsh was known internationally and now they’re flooded with offers through their Facebook business page; and guess what, apart from India, Sparsh has already established themselves in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain and London as well.

Challenges faced

Megha shares, “We have struggled a lot to study the market regarding which type of product is selling fast. To find out premium quality products, we travelled various places searching for good weavers and designs as there’s a lot of duplicate low-quality products available in the market as well.”

What makes ‘Sparsh’so unique? 
When we ask her what makes Sparsh so special, pat comes the reply, “Quality, uniqueness, and the price range. Timely delivery of the products also makes our customers very happy.  If there is an online purchase from our hometown, Palakkad, we deliver it personally that gives our customers much more satisfaction.”

Another interesting aspect about Sparsh is that since Megha has stayed in different states of India, she’s aware of the different weather conditions as well as the culture of people that helps her to choose the products accordingly.

She adds, “When we travel, we keenly observe the types of dresses people wear and also check out stores to see what are the latest trends in garments.”

Not only that, the girls always call their customers back to get their feedback of what they have purchased from Sparsh, which always helps them to improve their handpicked items for next time.

Products available

If you’re wondering what you can pick up at Sparsh, well they’ve got an enviable list ranging from – pure cotton, chanderi silks, Banaras silks, ghicha tussar silks, muga silks, tussar silks, jaccord cottons, lawn cottons, kantha embroided materials, kota materials, kora silks, gadwal cottons, net silks, jutes, brasso, georgettes, crepes…all within the price range between Rs. 400/- up to Rs. 3,000/-.

Marketing and promotion

We thought that what Megha said about marketing is really awesome; she says, “Customers are our best marketing executives. Once a customer is satisfied with our product, they will automatically bring their friends and relatives.”

So you see how at a different level, womanpower helps – it’s the “word of mouth” publicity that has helped Sparsh to grow big apart from the regular online marketing.

The team

Megha Sarma (alias Janaki) and Jyothi Sharma (sister-in-law), play a major role in handpicking, marketing and selling the products, while Prasad D. Sarma (Megha’s husband) assists and guides them in managing all inventory and financial controls. In fact, he’s instrumental scouting for unique weavers for Sparsh.

Future plans

Before signing off, Megha gives us a sneak preview of her future plans for Sparsh, “Our next plan is to start Sparsh-Aabharan, a unique jewellery store. Meanwhile, we are planning to expand our wholesale business in a wide range. We will be also launching soon an online website where people can buy our products easily which will also include features such as cash on delivery and also custom-made designer wear.”

And we at The Lifestyle Portal, can’t wait to see what’s in store for our readers next!

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