Life’s too short to live in an uninspired space. Founded by Neha Bhandari and Avisha Gopal, The Auri Collective aims to separate itself from other online players who mostly operate under a marketplace business model, by bringing a brand-first approach to the home décor industry.
“It was after my wedding, when I was first setting up my home that I got really curious about the industry,” says Neha. At the time, she was working at a corporate immigration firm. “I started asking showroom owners about their businesses and I was really blown away by the fact that no one was talking about e-commerce. The few companies that were talking about it were only mentioning Pepperfry or Amazon, and obviously, there’s so much more to the industry than that.” The likes of these giants have dominated the e-commerce world and driven many small businesses to extinction by pricing that ruthlessly undercuts upstart retailers. “Their primary mission is to dominate at all costs. All without providing top quality products or top quality service.”
It was this realization that led her to the idea for Auri. After teaming up with her sister-in-law, Avisha, who too shared a passion for e-commerce, they set the ball rolling. Avisha pushed to bring experimentation and innovation to an industry that’s often quite comfortable with the old way of doing things. Auri’s uniqueness all comes down to a brand-building, customer-centric approach first. “While this is not a new model by any way, it is one that is certainly lacking since other big e-commerce companies dwell in service and branding on a purely surface-level approach,” says Avisha.
“We pride ourselves in truly trying to understand what our users have to say about our brand, what their concerns are, and how they see our products enhance their living space. Because of this we are able to create lasting, memorable relationships and use that as our trump card to steal our customers’ hearts. We can be nimble, creative, charming and trustworthy and that’s what Auri will be known for.”
To mark the arrival of its global online store, Auri will offer early patrons the opportunity to shop the week-long grand opening sale and avail a flat 20% discount sitewide by visiting www.theauricollective.com
