Today, online businesses are moving beyond the big metro cities and we’re seeing entrepreneurs from smaller towns join the big leagues. Even if you don’t have as many resources available to yourself today or are operating out of a remote area, the ability to dispatch and deliver orders to the smallest of corners across India is enabling smaller towns to grow at a pace like never before.
We’ve all heard stories of entrepreneurs coming from small towns and cities turning into the biggest of success stories. So we decided to bring forward some of these journeys that we’ve seen on Shopify.
1. Udyan Tea from Siliguri
Udyan Tea is a premium, award-winning online tea brand based in Darjeeling district, where residents believe that tea isn’t just a beverage, but a lifestyle. The brand was started by Punit Poddar, along with Soveet Gupta and Parvez Gupta, from their experience living in Siliguri, a city near the tea gardens of Darjeeling. Their proximity to these tea plantations inspired them to start Udyan Tea, and take authentic blends to every home across India.
2. Muddy Hands from Siliguri
Muddy Hands is a lifestyle brand reimagining our deep-rooted connection with nature. The brand is known for its home decor products that bring back the much-needed warmth to our spaces in urban jungles. Founded by Vartika Agarwal, out of love for nature, Muddy Hands aims at adding colour and life to our spaces with plenty of greens.
3. Liinara from Ujjain
When it comes to traditional wear, we’re always looking up to some authentic, something that we see Bollywood stars donning at events or functions. Liinara makes it possible for us to stay up-to-date with these trends with a gorgeous collection of daily sarees, kurtas and even celebrity-inspired traditional wear made out of the best quality material and is available at the most reasonable rates.
4. Slate Hash From Vadodara
Slate Hash is a store that sells clothing for men and women featuring emphasizing quotes, slogans, and sarcasm. They are one of the few popular printed T-shirt brands in India with almost a cult following. Born out of Vadodara, the brand aims at making products last both in style and personality.
5. D'sign Lab from Nashik
D'sign Lab is today an established brand from Nashik that sells functional and stylish storage products for home and garden. It was founded by Vishal Rajput and has flourished under his business and design leadership, leading it to become a household name for functional yet innovative home decor.
6. OnlyMat from Cherthala
OnlyMat is one of India's largest online store for indoor and outdoor mats, coir mats, personalized, and stencilled mats. The brand employs skilled practitioners of the oldest handloom industries to sell authentic mats, with expertise that goes back more than 100 years. The brand aims at bringing the oldest Handloom industries alive.
7. Two Brothers from Bhodani
Born out of love for organic food, farm-fresh, and zeal for farming, Two Brothers was actually founded by two brothers based out of Bhodani, Maharashtra. The brand’s mission is to make organic lifestyle accessible to all and not just a luxury purchase, with their brand AmorEarth. Today, their store has a wide range of products to offer - right from peanut butter, to jaggery powder, ghee and more, that you could trust for your family.
8. Unique Plastic Industries from Himachal
Unique Plastic Industries have become a leading brand for industrial plastic items like PVC Tarpaulins, Shade Net, Industrial Rope, Mulching Sheet, Anti Hail Net, Shade Nets, and Green House Sheet, Seed Tray, Jute Gunny Bag, Hessian Cloth, Foldable PVC Tanks, Flower Pots, etc. as well as household items such as buckets, dustbins, mugs, racks, etc. The brand was first established in 1986 in Solan, Himachal Pradesh and has since transitioned into an online store.
No matter what your passion looks like if you have a plan and a goal to take it to everyone, there’s no stopping you. We at Shopify are proactive advocates of following your dreams, no matter where you come from or how small your market offering may look like. You never know it could be a product that consumers have been looking for all this while!
Know an Indian brand that should be on this list of inspiring online businesses on Shopify? Reach out to us on Twitter and share your story to be featured!