Now you can buy industrial goods online too; just log on to Tolexo

From apparels to groceries, houses to toys, almost everything is sold online, but Brijesh Agrawal, co-founder of Indiamart, says he has forayed into something which is not sold online: hardware and industrial goods.

Tolexo.com launched in July 2014, is a separate entity from Indiamart, which invested “a few million dollars” in it according to Agrawal.

The portal will sell hardware products such as measurement equipment, fasteners, safety and security tools. Currently, there are more than 50,000 products listed on the website and Agrawal said at least 10 more product categories will be added this year.

“In our research, we found that industrial goods and supplies as a segment is close to about $100 billion market opportunity in India. Given the fact that this is also the largest segment on Indiamart for us today, we had a clear validation,” said Agrawal, founder, Tolexo.com.

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He said Tolexo inherits a lot of existing relationship with sellers and buyers from Indiamart to leverage the brand quickly.

Launched as an online directory in 1996, Indiamart is funded by Intel Capital and Bennet & Coleman Co. Ltd. It currently lists a variety of products such as transportation, hospital equipment, housewares supply, industrial goods, etc. and has around 1.5 million sellers listed.

Tolexo will sell its products both to other businesses and individual buyers. “Enterprises face a lot of trouble for their unplanned purchases, in terms of finding the right seller and right price. Almost 30% of the overall b2b purchases are unplanned and they account for almost 70% of the SKUs that they buy,” said Agrawal.

To be sure, other portals such as Asklaila, Sulekha, Indiamart, etc. are also a marketplace of such goods, but they don’t do the fulfillment, but just help meet the buyer and the seller.

Tolexo has partnered with Delhivery, a Delhi based logistics start up, to deliver its products and covers more than 200 cities.

Agrawal said there are challenges around handling goods that are heavy and big. “But given the fact that nobody has done anything in this segment we also believe it’s a great opportunity for us to go and find the problems first,” he said.

Sahil Barua, co-founder, Delhivery, said, “Compared to b2c deliveries, the b2b shipments could be larger or bulkier, which makes it sort of challenging to handle. We are comfortable handling small to medium weighing goods, ranging anywhere from half a kilogram to hundred kilograms.” Delhivery provides technological, packaging and logistical support to Tolexo.

“If you go and buy a hammer today there is almost no packaging in it, the seller will just hand it to you. But we are changing that and with Delhivery we are building a complete technology to manage the entire supply chain,” said Agrawal.

He said the company is also thinking of special warehousing capability to have these products stocked for the sellers. The company currently handles 500 orders every fortnight and has around 140 brands listed on the website.

“It’s very early to project future figures based on the current progress,“Agrawal said.

He is currently focused to see the development and is also looking at expanding the product category. “We are keen on including electrical products, power transmissions, lubricants, etc. as a category,” he said. The company has 50,000 plus products listed on the website so far.