E-Commerce

Building a ₹3 Crore/Month E-Commerce Brand: The Journey of Lakshya Batra & JM Looks

In a recent interview hosted by Satish K, Lakshya Batra, the founder of JM Looks, shared his entrepreneurial journey—from leaving his hometown at age 17 to building a thriving e-commerce footwear and fashion brand generating over ₹2.4 Crore to ₹3 Crore per month in revenue.

1. Early Struggles and Early Beginnings

  • Background: Lakshya hails from Khurja, Uttar Pradesh. Right after completing 12th grade in 2015, he moved to Delhi at the age of 17.
  • On-the-Ground Experience: He began learning the footwear trade in Delhi’s Karol Bagh market, traveling across India, meeting retailers, showing samples, and understanding ground-level distribution [02:04].
  • Transition to B2B: By 2018 (at age 21), he launched a wholesale B2B footwear venture [02:26].

2. Pivot to D2C and Launching JM Looks

  • Pitfalls of B2B Wholesaling: Wholesaling limited creative control because inventory had to cater to retailer demands rather than end-consumer fashion trends [03:05].
  • Launch of JM Looks: In late 2022, Lakshya launched JM Looks to focus directly on modern, trendy, and comfortable women’s footwear (heels, sneakers, boots) and later expanded into bags and clothing [03:29].

3. Scale, Operations, and Sales Multi-Channel Presence

  • Multi-Platform Distribution: JM Looks lists its products across major Indian marketplaces including Myntra, Flipkart, Amazon, Ajio, Meesho, and Snapdeal [03:50]. Myntra acts as their primary channel, followed by their own D2C website [07:36].
  • Website & Mobile App Growth: The brand launched its own D2C website and mobile app, crossing 50,000+ app downloads [04:12].
  • Revenue Growth: From making around ₹40 Lakhs in their first financial year ending March 2023, the brand scaled to processing over ₹2.4 Crore to ₹3 Crore monthly in sales [07:18], processing 2,500 to 3,000 orders daily [00:05].

4. Innovative Launch Campaigns & Marketing Strategies

  • The “₹1 Sale” App Launch Campaign: To drive initial app adoption, they ran a flash campaign offering shoes for ₹1 to the first 100 customers [05:08]. The campaign drove over 30,000–40,000 simultaneous users, crashing their OTP server momentarily [05:38].
  • Performance & Organic Marketing: The brand leverages organic Instagram content (boasting 97K+ followers) [06:33], performance ads on Meta (spending ₹7 Lakhs–₹10 Lakhs/month) [03:49], barter influencer marketing, and UGC videos [03:22].

5. Warehouse Infrastructure & Order Fulfillment

  • Scale of Facilities: The brand operates out of a massive 22,000 sq. ft. warehouse spread across two floors in an industrial area [00:11].
  • Inventory & Systems: JM Looks manages over 10,000 SKUs and nearly 1,000 unique styles [13:23]. Inventory tracking and rack addresses are completely digitized through software [09:32].
  • Quality Control (QC) & Packing Stations: Every item passes strict QC checkpoints before packaging [11:03]. Packing stations are equipped with Video Management Systems (VMS) that record video footage of every packet packed [08:07].

6. Tackling the Returns Problem in E-Commerce

  • Customer Return Rates: Return rates in women’s footwear linger around 18% to 20% due to sizing and fit preferences [18:31].
  • Managing Returns & Protection:
    1. Strict QC: Ensuring product quality minimizes defect-driven returns [17:33].
    2. Video Proof: Using CCTV/VMS footage during packing shields against fraudulent customer claims [18:00].
    3. Return Refurbishment: Returned stock is immediately inspected, cleaned, repackaged with fresh tags, and fed back into inventory rather than piling up as dead stock [11:53].

7. Product Sourcing, Design, and Supply Chain Management

  • In-House Design: Lakshya designs 100% of the products internally, deriving inspiration from international trends and material swatches [21:41].
  • Outsourced Manufacturing Network: Instead of owning factories, JM Looks partners with over 100 dedicated vendors [22:14].
  • Controlling Raw Materials: Lakshya provides raw materials (soles, upper fabrics, box packaging) to manufacturers to maintain strict cost control and prevent vendor dependence [22:25].

8. Advice for Budding E-Commerce Entrepreneurs

  • Start Small & On Marketplaces: Beginners with low capital should start on platforms like Meesho or Flipkart before spending heavily on independent website infrastructure [23:22].
  • Account for Hidden Costs: Pricing must factor in return shipping fees and invisible losses; products sourced at ₹500 should ideally be priced around ₹1,000 for a healthy net margin [31:48].
  • Build Systems to Scale: Transitioning from lakhs to crores requires stepping away from manual tasks, building dedicated teams, and using data-driven decisions over intuition [38:22].
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