Out of the box
By: Shivani Kagti
This website sells refurbished and unboxed mobiles, laptops and electronic goods at discounted rates
Saptarshi Nath (32) and Alexander Souter (34) Managing Directors, Overcart
Going by the rates Saptarshi Nath and Alexander Souter’s website Overcart offers on some premium mobiles, one is bound to ask, ‘What’s the catch?’ The catch is actually up front and centre. Overcart sells refurbished (an item repaired to mint-new condition) and unboxed (a product whose seal has been broken but which has been returned to the manufacturer without being used) gadgets that have been marked down from 20 to 50 per cent.
Nath says this wasn’t the plan they started out with. “We started by providing a platform for people to trade in their old games (in 2012 as GamesINC). We got some really good traction and got accepted into the GSF Accelerator (a start-up incubator) and started expanding categories (in early 2013).”
Since they had built a strong network within retailers and manufacturers by then, Nath recalls how one of them mentioned: ‘If you are looking for stuff to sell, why not just pick up our unsold items? We can’t sell them anyway!’ “At the time we didn’t know how big a problem unsold stock/returns were for companies,” says Nath. They rechristened themselves Overcart.com about four months ago.
Nath was earlier working with a consulting firm where he met Souter (originally from France). While they initially put in Rs 40 lakh of their own savings, they’ve since managed to raise capital from GSF, K Ganesh (Growth Story), Dinesh Aggarwal (IndiaMart), Alok Bajpai (Ixigo) and more.
One of the main concerns of buying electronics from the secondary market is the quality. The duo realises this and has “stringent checks” to test each piece. “For Android devices, we have developed an app that runs a test of all the mobile functions and sends a report to our server. Based on that, the product is either certified or sent for refurbishment. And experts physically verify issues that are escalated to them,” Nath adds. Most devices come with six months warranty.
Overcart doesn’t source goods from end-users. “We source from retailers and manufacturers looking to liquidate excess stock and customer returns. Typically, they use our services to sell the excess inventory or unboxed customer returns that they can no longer sell.” Apart from mobiles and laptops, they also sell products such as speakers, headphones and used video games.
They’ve recently opened an office in Bangalore. “In the short to medium term, our focus is on adding more categories and integrating with our clients’ returns processes,” says Nath. But with “world domination” being the larger plan, their long-term goal is to become the main shopping destination for all seal-opened and refurbished goods.
This website sells refurbished and unboxed mobiles, laptops and electronic goods at discounted rates
Saptarshi Nath (32) and Alexander Souter (34) Managing Directors, Overcart
Going by the rates Saptarshi Nath and Alexander Souter’s website Overcart offers on some premium mobiles, one is bound to ask, ‘What’s the catch?’ The catch is actually up front and centre. Overcart sells refurbished (an item repaired to mint-new condition) and unboxed (a product whose seal has been broken but which has been returned to the manufacturer without being used) gadgets that have been marked down from 20 to 50 per cent.
Nath says this wasn’t the plan they started out with. “We started by providing a platform for people to trade in their old games (in 2012 as GamesINC). We got some really good traction and got accepted into the GSF Accelerator (a start-up incubator) and started expanding categories (in early 2013).”
Since they had built a strong network within retailers and manufacturers by then, Nath recalls how one of them mentioned: ‘If you are looking for stuff to sell, why not just pick up our unsold items? We can’t sell them anyway!’ “At the time we didn’t know how big a problem unsold stock/returns were for companies,” says Nath. They rechristened themselves Overcart.com about four months ago.
Nath was earlier working with a consulting firm where he met Souter (originally from France). While they initially put in Rs 40 lakh of their own savings, they’ve since managed to raise capital from GSF, K Ganesh (Growth Story), Dinesh Aggarwal (IndiaMart), Alok Bajpai (Ixigo) and more.
One of the main concerns of buying electronics from the secondary market is the quality. The duo realises this and has “stringent checks” to test each piece. “For Android devices, we have developed an app that runs a test of all the mobile functions and sends a report to our server. Based on that, the product is either certified or sent for refurbishment. And experts physically verify issues that are escalated to them,” Nath adds. Most devices come with six months warranty.
Overcart doesn’t source goods from end-users. “We source from retailers and manufacturers looking to liquidate excess stock and customer returns. Typically, they use our services to sell the excess inventory or unboxed customer returns that they can no longer sell.” Apart from mobiles and laptops, they also sell products such as speakers, headphones and used video games.
They’ve recently opened an office in Bangalore. “In the short to medium term, our focus is on adding more categories and integrating with our clients’ returns processes,” says Nath. But with “world domination” being the larger plan, their long-term goal is to become the main shopping destination for all seal-opened and refurbished goods.
