Planting an entrepreneurial seed

dubai - Designed with the end-user in mind, plantshop.ae recreates a gardener's shopping experience virtually

HI-TRAC: The author's shorthand for Happiness Index, Infrastructure, Talent, Regulations, Access and Capital. The six pillars that make the UAE a great place for a startup. This week's article is about infrastructure and talent.

Following last week's article on Legal Advice Middle East's stated objective of having a social impact in addition to pure financial success, this week we feature a company that is committed to a green future.

The latent UAE demand for garden and indoor plants is estimated to be about $800 million. Currently, a little over a $100 million is being serviced. The key challenge is the traditional nature of the business. Gardens and nurseries require land. Urban real estate costs are prohibitively high. Taking this into consideration, entities in this domain get continually moved out of key residential and office areas. Consequently, people and businesses find it difficult to travel long distances to pursue a green agenda. This is a paradoxical situation. The demand side ensures that the supply side becomes increasingly unavailable. Unlike the well-defined food and agricultural value chain, logistics for this domain is highly underdeveloped. Most homes and offices value greenery but the whole process is prohibitively expensive due to the broken nature of the market. This artificially depresses demand.

Germinating the idea
For Jimmy James, founder of plantshop.ae, this business was a natural fit. His father works at one of the largest indoor wholesale plant companies in the UAE. Going out with his father for sales was his most loved pastime till he graduated from school. During his growing years, Jimmy was busy handling plants at the nurseries in Jaddaf, which have now moved to Warsan, quite unlike his friends who were more into watching movies and visiting parks and malls. The seed of the idea of starting an online portal for this domain was planted in his mind in 2009 but he did not pursue it immediately. After graduation, Jimmy took the conventional route and joined the corporate world. He worked with Emirates NBD for three years.

Planting the seed
In 2015, he got into conversation with Abdul Sameer who shared a similar passion for plants and gardening. Sameer is a is a UI/UX expert and a product development specialist. Jimmy quit his conventional job in 2015 and joined Sameer at the latter's company, Admireworks, a UI/UX outfit. They discussed the idea of selling plants online, did their market research and discovered a tremendous and untapped potential. Sameer came on board as co-founder of Plantshop.ae. The market was just right for an innovative startup to change the way people and businesses in the UAE buy and grow plants. The two brought complementary skills to the table. Jimmy is an entrepreneur by nature and Sameer brings visualisation, design and product development skills. During the business development process, two more partners - Shafeeq Rehman and Siyad Salim - joined the initiative to provide funds and support. Together, the four partners went around the UAE, participating in pop-up markets and events, selling plants physically and promoting the idea of plantshop.ae. The massive response from the public boosted their confidence and solidly validated the business idea. Plantshop.ae was officially launched in November 2015.



The value proposition
Designed with the end-user in mind, plantshop.ae recreates a gardener's shopping experience virtually. From their homes or offices, customers can browse through, select and purchase from an extensive range of indoor and outdoor plants, gardening accessories, equipment, seeds and fertilizers. The customers also receive useful tips regarding their purchase and have it delivered right to their door. In addition to being a store, plantshop.ae also has a learning platform for budding growers. The website provides expert help, free of charge, regarding the care of each individual plant offered. The site also raises awareness about the need to go green, the importance of planting more as well as the advantages it offers.   

It visibly and solidly contributes to the UAE's dream of a greener tomorrow. Unlike other plant shops in the region, the target market also includes the gardening novice in addition to the expert. The social aspect of plantshop.ae's objectives is apparent from their vision to take on the challenge of teaching the country's population about plants and gardening. And the hope of a better future for us all.

The plant bears fruit
Plantshop.ae is built on a lean methodology and this is used in all aspects of our daily operations. The founders and partners firmly believe that lean thinking is the best way to produce the results wanted as well as to drive and sustain growth. The effect of this method can be seen in their growing customer base. With over 10,000 online visitors weekly, a conversion rate of 15 per cent, and returning visitor rate of 25 per cent, the company is on its way to establish itself well in the field. Their stated aim is to have a plant in every house and office in the UAE.
From being the first such online portal in the UAE, plantshop.ae will expand into the GCC region and thereafter in to the wider Middle Eastern area.

Strengthening the roots
Plantshop.ae was initially incubated by Clutchi Capital. Clutchi themselves provided a seed fund for refreshing plantshop.ae's website as well as for scaling up. Clutchi Capital is currently helping plantshop.ae to raise Series A fund.
Looking forward to a greener future and plantshop.ae's continued progress over the next few years.

The writer is founding partner at BridgeDFS, a bespoke digital financial services advisory firm (www.bridgeto.us). Views expressed are his own and do not reflect the newspaper's policy. He can be contacted at sanjiv@bridgeto.us.