Bikram Shrestha had to wait for hours when he once ordered a cake for celebration. He then felt the necessity of e-commerce sites providing reliable and timely delivery of cakes for various occasions, and shared the idea to one of his engineer friend to open e-commerce site for cakes. The idea has now turned into a promising business, after they left their high-paying corporate jobs to start the company, Mr. Cake Nepal.
“Cake is a part of attraction on celebration of birthdays, anniversaries and other occasions. We came for the cakes with true discipline and a commitment to provide better quality service,†says Bikram Shrestha.
“Normally, cakes are popular among ladies. We believe, cakes are for boys too and thus kept the name Mr. Cake Nepal for this venture,†adds Shrestha.
Mr. Cake tied up with Chefs Bakery and Confectionery to provide hygienic and quality cakes to the customers as per their requirements for different occasions and purpose, including birthday cakes, wedding cakes, farewell cakes, for those going abroad for study and work.
As of now, as they deliver cakes only inside the Kathmandu valley, they have to cancel 5-10 orders daily, as they get calls from people even outside of the valley, ordering for the cakes. They have planned to scale up the business outside the valley, very soon. Though it’s just one month they kick-started the business, they have already been successful to serve to more than 200 clients.
They also get cake orders from Nepalese abroad, for their family members in Kathmandu. In this way, the company is bridging the distance between those living abroad and having their relatives and kids here in Nepal.
Having carried out the marketing of the business through social media including Facebook and Instagram, they are soon planning to go offline marketing, through different fairs/festivals and events being organized in the town.
Coming this far, they have experienced that people still don’t have full trust on online-shopping in Nepal. The orders from the website is very insignificant as most of the users here surf internet on their mobile phones. Moreover, there is not good payment gateway.
The company sometimes faces the challenge to deliver cakes on time because of the Kathmandu roads and traffic jams. “While other goods can be carried inside a normal bag, it’s difficult in the case of cakes. If the clients are not available while the cakes are being delivered, it gives further problems as the cakes are made for specific persons, with their names, and specific shapes, sizes and flavors. The other challenge is locating the destinations in a messed-up place like Kathmandu where even Google map can’t be a better solution.
Sharing their recipe for success, they say that taking feedbacks from each of the clients and improving the faults is what makes them to move ahead. To those willing to start e-business, the team finds that it’s the right time to start one as e-commerce sites focused on customer satisfaction, a very rare scene in Nepal with chances of instant success.
Giving a message that as startups are born to solve the solution, Shrestha says that people should try to do something unique that others have not tried yet.
“Instead of asking the children to become doctors and engineers, it would be better to ask, which of the problems prevalent in the society will they solve. This makes their life more meaningful and successful. Don’t backtrack from the decision. It is the challenges themselves that make people perfect. You’ll find if you can do or not, only after you start it. If you can, you’ll move ahead in the business. If you can’t, you can backtrack and start another as per your potential. Even time can’t stop you from success as you become a self-made person,†suggests Shrestha.
Presented By: Basanta Kumar Dhakal
