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The Gifting Connoisseur: Ruchita Bansal Ruchita thought of utility as a gifting idea. She promoted the idea of non-disposable gifting to utility gifting. Her thought process started by creating something which is more useful and sustainable so that people will use it for the long term.

By Punita Sabharwal

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Ruchita Bansal, Creative Director and Founder, Izzhaar

When a young Ruchita got married to Anupam Bansal, she moved to Delhi. The wife of a successful businessman, who was busy building his footwear brand Liberty could see his better half not being happy just being a homemaker. Her urge was to do more. That's when Ruchita started concentrating on her hobby of candle making.

As a woman, she got more time at hand when her kids went to boarding school. 20 years back with one of her friends, Ruchita started her journey. She started doing exhibitions at hotels and served a good clientele. With a single category product of candles, one can only serve a limited number of customers that too only a number of times. She further decided to enhance her product portfolio to an entire gifting range. Soon, a lot of her relatives from both sides of the family asked her to shop in Delhi for upcoming weddings for invitations and gifts. At one of those weddings she informally was in charge of all wedding invitations and gifts. When people started liking her work, she grew more confident in developing this interest in the form of a business. Shares Ruchita saying, "This is how my thought process became a business idea that if I have to shop all day for people, why shouldn't I make it into a business?" Her husband, Anupam knew she is managing things somehow but doing interesting work. Soon, he helped her establish a factory wherein she could dedicatedly work with her team and grow the business.

I always thought of, what I would like to receive from people in case somebody wants to give me something. So the idea started there. I'll try and do those things at gifting.

That's where the entire rebranding took place from Core Designs, the name was changed to Izzhaar. The business model was pivoted on bespoke experience, wherein she was trying to create gifts as per the customer's requirements. This would result in unique and personalized gifts bespoke in nature. Ruchita reminisces, "I always thought of, what I would like to receive from people in case somebody wants to give me something. So the idea started there. I'll try and do those things at gifting. Whatever exposure I got was because of traveling by seeing what's trending. I catch things very fast."

Ruchita thought of utility as a gifting idea. Ruchita promoted the idea of nondisposable gifting to utility gifting. Her thought process started by creating something which is more useful and sustainable so that people will use it for the long term. Her basic question while designing such products was how do you make a gatte ka dabba used for gifting sweets transform into a more usable thing? "So that when the product is used, after the gifting is done, it keeps on reminding you about the person who gifted it to you. This further brings in the personality of the giver," she adds. So far, she has served the likes of Adanis from the business side to the likes of Sonam Kapoor from the celebrity segment wherein the biggest orders still come from referrals.

Punita Sabharwal

Entrepreneur Staff

Managing Editor, Entrepreneur India

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