The Yarn Bazaar Is A Purpose-Led Marketplace

We believe that by helping small businesses succeed, there will be a substantial increase in overall contributions to the economy, says Pratik Gadia

How did the textile industry, as well as small yarn buyers and suppliers, respond to The Yarn Bazaar’s platform since its presence on Shark Tank India? Were there any notable shifts in awareness, adoption or perception of the platform?
The Yarn Bazaar has been blowing up since its appearance on Shark Tank India! The show triggered greater industry involvement and engagement.

The narrative of The Yarn Bazaar completely changed after four sharks invested in it. The show gave The Yarn Bazaar a major boost, as people learnt more about the company and its team, vision and mission. Getting four sharks on board is a big deal, as it shows that the company is doing well and has the potential. This made people view The Yarn Bazaar as a legitimate business with a bright future.

Within just 15-20 days after the show, the users on our platform shot up from 5,000 to nearly 30,000 – that’s a massive 500% boost, proving that the industry paid attention to our episode and started using our platform.

In traditional textile businesses, one-on-one interactions with clients are a necessity. Yet, post the show, this landscape underwent a dramatic shift. Rather than us actively seeking out clients, the clients are reaching out to us. This shift has been a pivotal change in our journey since Shark Tank.

Previously, building trust with new buyers and suppliers took considerable time. However, our appearance on Shark Tank dramatically increased awareness about our platform. Now, as we interact with potential buyers and suppliers, we’re witnessing a distinct uptick in openness. The surge in awareness has majorly enhanced our sales and activation efforts, underscoring the significant impact of our post-Shark Tank journey.

The Yarn Bazaar aims to “organize the textile industry and empower small yarn buyers and suppliers.” Could you elaborate on the core principles and values that drive your organization’s vision and mission?
Coming from a textile background and founding The Yarn Bazaar, we knew the industry’s massive impact on India’s economy, employment and exports. However, we also knew that 83% of the industry is unorganized and decentralized, meaning that most economic contributions come from larger players. Therefore, we knew that empowering small players was essential to increasing the industry’s overall impact.

Hence, it was an unequivocal decision for us to focus on empowering smaller players. We believe that by helping small businesses succeed, there will be a substantial increase in overall contributions to the economy. This approach aligns with our mission to truly harness the vast potential of the Indian textile industry, particularly by organizing its considerably large unorganized segment.

The Yarn Bazaar is a purpose-led marketplace, which means that we are committed to promoting the textile industry and ensuring that it grows in the right direction. Our core values are customer-centricity and taking intelligent risks. We believe in an advisory-first approach. We’re determined to transform behaviour and address the challenges within the broken supply chain. This underscores the crucial role of customer experience in attaining industry excellence.

We are thoughtful and deliberate in our decision-making process. We weigh the potential risks and rewards of each option before making a decision. We are not afraid to take risks, but we are also realistic about the potential consequences.

We don’t want to be only a yarn-sourcing platform; we want to be change-makers. We want to use our platform to create role models and fill the information vacuum in the industry by providing reliable and intelligent content. Our range of media activities, including podcasts and roundtables, is geared towards this.

How do you see The Yarn Bazaar influencing the broader textile industry’s transformation in the next 5 years? What changes do you hope to catalyze within the industry?
We aim to empower our clients to make informed business decisions by providing them with the best possible yarn recommendations. We are building The Yarn Bazaar Bandhu, a recommendation engine that uses a variety of factors to assess your needs, including your specifications, machinery and budget. Our advisory-first approach means that our team of experts will first understand your needs before making a recommendation. This ensures that the buyer gets the best possible yarn for their business.

We are digitizing the Indian yarn industry with a SaaS platform that will streamline the yarn buying and selling experience, cut down on time and effort and increase efficiency for everyone involved. We take inspiration from large textile companies outside India and other industries which are very organized in their internal operations. Our platform will cover the entire yarn supply chain, from procurement to payment. This will make the yarn industry more efficient, transparent and accessible for everyone involved.

We believe that the Indian textile industry lacks role models and is largely unorganized, which has led to a disconnect between the industry and the younger generation. The younger generation is not able to easily access information and insights about the industry, which hinders their ability to participate and contribute. We aim to fill this information gap by featuring industry experts and leaders in different types of content, such as podcasts, roundtables and newsletters.

The Yarn Bazaar is committed to sustainability. For World Environment Day 2023, we partnered with renowned strategic consulting firm Wazir Advisors to release the Sustainability Survey Report 2023, highlighting the growing adoption of sustainable practices by key stakeholders in the textile industry. We plan to release this report annually. We are also committed to responsible sourcing. We are now GOTS, OCS, RCS and GRS certified, which are internationally recognized standards for sustainable and responsible practices in the textile industry. These certifications demonstrate our commitment to sustainability and responsible sourcing.

As the Founder and CEO of The Yarn Bazaar, what advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who are looking to drive positive change in traditional industries?
My two bits of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs will be:

First, don’t wait for validation. If you have conviction in your idea, go ahead and start working on it. Validation will come eventually.

Second, always lead with empathy. When you are working on your traditional business, look for problems that have a large market share and have the desire to solve them. Empathy is always better than sympathy, as it allows you to understand and connect with your customers deeply.