ANTIBRND -A reality! The rise of a real M2C model (Manufacturer to customer)

The mission was ready and it was execution time with a new set of challenges before us. Being the first platform in the country selling unbranded products, we had to overcome several obstacles like onboarding manufacturers, raising money, getting customer feedback, and so on. We knew we had a long road ahead of us.
We started with manufacturers and began by reaching out to all the manufacturers available through India Mart, Trade India, offline events, etc – you name it and we’d been there. We knew that holding inventory, as we did for GOFO, was not possible. That was our first roadblock, as throughout history, manufacturers in India dealt only in bulk quantities and upfront payments- and we wanted them to sell directly to customers.
Our edge was that with ANTIBRND they had a real opportunity to earn more per unit, but the problem was that it had never been done before. Days went by and we cold-emailed/cold-called more manufacturers refining our pitch after every call. We started with “Do you know how much the brands sell the products you make for them?” getting them enthusiastic in sharing how ridiculous the amount was that went to the brands. We pitched our idea that you can now sell it directly to the customers and increase their income. A win-win for both manufacturers and customers.

As we did not have big orders to be manufactured, the next road block was to ask the manufacturers to produce a few extra pieces for us in every order. Again, the control was not in our hands because either we didn’t know when these orders were going to come in or what kind of products were going to be manufactured. Neither did we have the luxury of time.

The process continued. We reached out to more manufacturers. Slowly we found some manufacturers who were ready to give us the products and they even had pictures! Finally, there was light at the end of the tunnel. We just had to select the products and upload them to our website. However, the products and the photographs failed to match the standards we had in mind.

Meanwhile, we decided to communicate this idea to the world. We made a website that had just the idea written on it and asked people to signup for a year of free membership. More than 1200+ people signed up, more than 50+ people called and a lot more started texting us regarding the idea. We moved to a paid membership later and people paid Rs.99 and Rs.299 without even seeing the products. This made us more confident about the need for Antibrnd and enthusiastic to figure out a way on delivering the promise.

Meanwhile, the manufacturers found the benefits too good to be true and they wanted to see proof that unbranded products will sell.

We went ahead by investing our money and launching Luxury quality shirts, shorts, Chinos, and satin bedsheets, all at manufacturing cost. By manufacturing just 30 units of each product, we could still undercut the market prices by a large extent. We were amazed to realize that if WE could produce such high-quality products at upto 80% lesser than market prices, imagine how less it would cost the brands when they manufactured in lakhs.
The experiment worked and we immediately sold out and ran out of inventory.
People who bought from ANTIBRND loved the quality and experience

People who bought one pair of shorts, bought all three, shirts went out of stock and people couldn’t believe the prices. We had officially opened the REAL D2C(Direct to consumer) or as we would like to term it, M2C(Manufacturer to consumer) model.
Learning from our experiences so far, we are looking forward to a bigger, better and more focused 2023 for ANTIBRND.