A cool startup idea that found online success

Pratik Doshi is an young entrepreneur from the land of dreams, Mumbai, started the business of selling quirky designer umbrellas under the brand name Cheeky Chunk. The designs are created by his friend and the entire mnaufacturing of the umbrellas happens in Mumbai.

When he first started selling on Amazon, Pratik's umbrellas were on Page 25 and he did not get any sales because monsoons had just passed. He then watched a lot of Amazon Seller Help videos and learnt about search analytics, product photography and other aspects of selling. By applying this to his business, he was able to get about 250 orders on a single day during monsoons. His umbrellas became the #1 Bestsellers on Amazon. Now Pratik is an FBA seller and sends about 500-1000 umbrellas every week to the FBA facility. Pratik's journey is a testament to how a cool startup idea can find online success through innovation, hard work, research and a little help from Amazon.

Hi I am Pratik Doshi from Mumbai and I sell designer umbrellas on Amazon under the brand name Cheeky Chunk.
After graduation I didn’t want to do a regular job like all my friends, I wanted to do something new.
That’s when I researched about various untapped businesses,which is how I got the idea of selling designer umbrellas.
I got in touch with a designer friend of mine, who was still studying in college and I asked her to please design for me.
I wanted to create an emotional connect with the rains, so I asked her to illustrate vadapav, chai, music, bollywood and everything that connected us to the rains.
The entire manufacturing process of the umbrellas takes place in Mumbai itself.
Retail wasn't working well with me, so I thought of selling online.
I got in touch with an Amazon executive who helped me list a couple of products on Amazon
But they were on page 25 at that point of time and I hardly got any sales.
Honestly I was pretty disappointed but instead of giving up what I did was I researched about selling on Amazon.
I saw all the seller help videos, I learnt about the importance of photography, the importance of describing your product well, of search analytics
I got 10-15 orders a day, sales gradually increased but when monsoon came in, on one particular day I got 250 orders.
One week after this my umbrellas were the No.1 best sellers on Amazon.
The orders that were initially 10-15 increased to 100-150 per day,
It was a lot of hard work. To get rid of it I opted for FBA.
Through Fulfillment by Amazon, it is Amazon’s responsibility to pick, pack and deliver each and every order themselves.
So what I do now is, I ship 500-1000 umbrellas at a go to Amazon’s warehouse and Amazon manages everything for me.
I still remember the time when I used to sell 600 umbrellas in 6 months, my friends used to tease me calling me Chatriwala.
And now I sell 1000 of umbrellas all year long.
And I am so grateful Amazon has helped me connect my idea to the entire nation.