Vineeta Singh, founder and CEO of Sugar Cosmetics and Judge of Shark Tank India, once had concerns about street stalls blocking the store’s visibility, but it resulted in the opposite. After 12 months, her concern became an opportunity for her store, skyrocketing her store’s sales. Let’s explore this story in detail.
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Vineeta Singh’s Concern Regarding Roadside Stalls.
Shark Tank judge and founder of Sugar Cosmetics, Vineeta Singh, had doubts about stalls blocking the visibility of her Cobala Causeway Store in Mumbai. But she gave it a try, launching her store in Cobala, and it worked. Her same doubt changed into a business win.
Vineeta Shared on Linkedin, “Before we signed the lease of our Colaba Causeway store, we had apprehensions about street stalls blocking our visibility from the main road. But Colaba is Colaba — every store has a stall in front, and it is the stalls that have more legacy than the stores, so we decided to give it a try.”
Roadside Stalls Turned Into Sales Machine For Vineeta Singh.
Within just 12 months of the store launching, Vineeta Singh’s store turned into a sales machine, exceeding a ₹1 lakh bill on frequent purchases. This boost led Singh to investigate the matter, and the result challenged her concerns while launching the store.
The investigation disclosed that her store’s fastest-growing customer base were Arab Women who visit Mumbai for medical tourism. Singh wrote in the post, “They love Indian makeup because they also have warm undertones like us and need products that suit hot weather, but how do they discover us?”
The answer lay just outside the store — Suraj, a fruit vendor whose stall had been there for years. Many Arab women stopped by his stall to buy local fruits, preferring them over imported ones. Having picked up Arabic over time, Suraj would ask them if they wanted “Kahaal Al Hindi” (Indian kajal), leading them to explore SUGAR’s products. The result? Bulk purchases, with each customer picking up 15–20 pieces of their favorite shades.
The collaboration wasn’t one-sided. Megha, who runs the SUGAR store, also directs customers to Suraj’s fruit stall. When business is slow, she invites Suraj and his father inside for tea, using the time to learn Arabic — especially makeup-related words. “So, when Megha has foreign customers, she, in her broken Arabic, is also able to remind them to shop some authentic Indian fruits before they head out,” Vineeta shared.
Concluding her post, she wrote, “India is truly a land of entrepreneurs. And while we must have processes and systems, in my limited retail experience, it is the people that make the biggest difference — sometimes, people who don’t even belong to the system.”
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