How chumbak evolved from a Souvenir brand into a lifestyle brand

Founded in 2010 and known for its apparel and home decor products having quirky designs and bright colors, Chumbak, for the last five years, has managed to grow over 300% year over year.

Founded by the husband-wife duo, Vivek Prabhakar and Shubhra Chadda, Chumbak was conceived at a time when there was an increasing demand for well-designed and crafted products that could be used as accessories but were not easily found in the market. With a vision to fill this void, Vivek and Shubra started their brainchild, Chumbak in 2010, with an aim to provide fun, usable and distinctively designed products for everyday people.

Initially, the products on offer were limited to magnets(Chumbak) ,key chains, mugs etc. with India themed design elements. However, with time, Chumbak has evolved into a complete lifestyle brand. Over the last 5 years, it has evolved to offer a variety of products touching various aspects of a consumer’s lifestyle including souvenirs, stationery, tees and boxers to phone cases, jewellery, laptop sleeves, bags and wallets targeting consumers worldwide.

Apart from selling its products online, Chumbak has a large format retail stores in major cities in India. The products were initially sold online but based on customers’ feedback, the couple decided to open kiosks in major retail stores. Currently, Chumbak has Flagship stores in six major cities including Bengaluru and Delhi and over 35 popup stores in major malls across India.

In 2014, Chumbak started off its Home collection marking their foray into the larger lifestyle segment. The home collection includes home décor products like Furniture, Lighting, Crockery etc..Chumbak  ventured into the fashion category in October 2015 .Their maiden autumn-winter collection has over 250 styles, with shoes, bags, jewellery and other complimentary accessories.

Chumbak has also won the Home Improvement – Speciality Store Award in the 9th Edition of In-Store Award presented by Roland. It also became the first start-up to win the VMRD (Visual Merchandising and Retail Design) Award for Design in 2015.

About the founders :

Vivek began his career in Marketing and over the years he has built his expertise in the field of brand building and retail. He started Chumbak along with his wife Shubhra Chaddha, with a mission to make everyday objects interesting with colourful and contemporary designs.

Currently, he is working towards expanding the customer base and retail footprint of Chumbak by building a brand that brings smiles to people’s lives. Understanding the increasing demand and growing market, Vivek is spearheading the team to create a lifestyle brand catering to both men and women with a vision to elevate Chumbak as a lifestyle brand driven by great design.

After completing her graduation, Shubhra Chadda, worked for about 1 year before joining an NGO, Kadambari, working with artisans from Gujarat. After her project with the NGO, Shubhra had a stint in the field of Marketing. Finally, In 2010, Shubra co-founded Chumbak with Vivek.Her vision of creating an internationally recognised Indian design house is what has kept her going for the last 5 years.

Recently, in January 2016, Chumbak partnered with IBM Cloud to host its ERP(enterprise resource planning) applications. It will enable Chumbak improve its management efficiency of critical data. It will also enable Chumbak to make its IT infrastructure more robust so that it can help sustain Chumbak’s growth.