A recent LinkedIn post by the founder and CEO of online fashion portal Bewakoof is doing the rounds. CEO Prabhkiran Singh opined that nailing the perfect product-market fit (PMF) does not mean the brand won the e-commerce game.
He reasoned PMF is not a milestone but a “moving” target.
The ever-changing game of PMF
Citing how e-commerce in India has grown over the past 18 years, Singh said initially nobody wanted to pay online and buy products as the industry was nascent. When Flipkart introduced the cash-on-delivery (COD) model, e-commerce exploded overnight.
Soon, Cash on Delivery became the norm and every e-commerce player had the option.
“But it wasn’t enough to win e-commerce in India,” said Singh.
According to the Bewakoof CEO, in 2007 the issue for the e-commerce sector was trust. In the 2010s, the problem was speed and discount.
“Flipkart and Amazon threw massive sales, making discounts the new norm,” Singh wrote. “Consumers got addicted to instant delivery. If a package didn’t arrive in 24 hours, it felt unacceptable. It was still not enough to win the Indian e-commerce,” he added.
In the 2020s, the problem in the industry turned to be personalisation and accessibility.
“Meesho empowered small sellers through social commerce. Blinkit & Zepto made grocery shopping & now food delivery a 10-minute affair. Nykaa built an empire by curating and selling beauty like a content creator,” Singh remarked.
“Again proving, every time a company thought they had “won” PMF, the market changed the rules,” the online fashion startup founder added.
Singh explained there’s no final boss in the PMF game. So, even if startups strive to achieve PMF as quickly as possible, he claimed there is no finish line for this.
“At BEWAKOOF® we are PMFing these days,” he finally said asking LinkedIn users, “Are you PMFing these days?”
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