An Interview with Abhishek Gupta, Founder & CEO of KamukLife.com

Lingerie, yeah, sounds Taboo right? Lingerie as a topic is a taboo in public for many men and women in India. Imagine, what if we start to talk about intimate lingerie? We met a guy who not only talks but sells intimate lingerie online in India. He is Mr. Abhishek Gupta from Ahmedabad, proud owner of his online business ‘Kamuk Life’. Kamuk translates to erotic in English. The lingeries offered by Kamuk Life are intimate and are meant to enhance your daily and erotic life.

Abhishek Gupta, Founder and CEO, Kamuk Life – an online intimate lingerie retailer – speaks to Just For Her about his venture, challenges and his goals for the company.

Thank you so much for taking the time for an interview with us, Abhishek! I know your schedule is super tight and I appreciate sharing your expertise with my readers. Every day hundreds of users visits articles written about lingerie on my website. There is a curiosity among men and women about this topic. You are not just dealing with lingerie but selling intimate lingerie, which I swear no one would like to talk about in public. What made you think of venturing in to intimate lingerie segment? Do you not feel like risking your career?

As a young engineer I was required to go to China, Taiwan etc. for quality control and product development activities, it was during such trips that I first discovered an intimate lingerie shop selling not just lingerie but various types of sex toys and a wide range of products.

This experience made me think why can’t we buy such products in India? This Idea transformed to Kamuk Life as we know today.

Abhishek, please tell us more about you. Where are you from, your education, family and overall experience? What is your background and how did you get started in the lingerie industry?

I did my schooling and Mechanical Engineering from Bhopal after completion of Engineering I started my career in Automobile Industry. My Journey in Lingerie Industry started as I saw a gap in the market where very few Intimate Lingerie products were there in the market.

How was the beginning? When did you start?

Beginning was full of confusion and chaos, the biggest question that came in mind was can something like this work in India and will people pay Rs 700-1000/-  for a Lingerie that was purely a want and wishful thought? However, my gut feeling was that this would work and there is surely a need for it.

So with Fingers crossed we started Kamuk Life in 2010 as Test project.

And what’s the story behind the name – Kamuk Life?

Well Kamuk is Sanskrit means sexy and it has a mystery associated with it and everyone who hears it is keep thinking about it.

Kamuk Life and Kamuk both are now registered trademarks and we are confident that they will become synonyms  with Intimate and Sexy Lingerie in India.

Were the initial days tough? With how much capital did you start the online shop? Can you share your story with my readers?

Well Kamuk Life started with a very small business amount of just 50K in 2010, full business activity started in Sep 2012 and we got our seed funding in late 2014.

Your products are available to buyers both online and offline?

Currently we are focusing only on online sales through Kamuklife.com and sales through all major market places.

How long did it take you to make your brand visible?

We started first by listing out products on all major market places for Kamuk Life we have focused on SEO and CPC ads.

Do you see social media as challenge? Do people like to talk about lingerie on social media?

Social media is opportunity and challenge for Kamuk Life we have taken a content based strategy and we promote our website and not our page through Facebook ads this ensures that we have more organic likes where interact and respond to our posts rather than Paid likes where customer Interaction is very Low.

What are some interesting trends you are seeing in the lingerie market?

Lingerie segment as a whole is changing very fast and we see the Intimate Lingerie segment to open up with customer becoming comfortable in buying new types of products rather than just babydolls.

What is the biggest misconception women have about lingerie?

When it comes to Intimate Lingerie I think both men and women are shocked to such options this starts the journey of exploration of the various product types and options.

Do men buy lingerie on your website? Can you share some insights with my readers?

Well to be honest about 60-70 orders come by Men, we get orders from all corners of the country that sometimes the only delivery option is just SpeedPost.

Where do you manufacture your products? Tell us more about sourcing, quality control and customer support.

About 80% of the product are manufactured locally here in India and rest 20% are Imported from Thailand, China and Taiwan.

Intimate lingerie is a very private affair. How do you ensure all customer data and order details remain private?

Yes, this is genuine customer concern for this we have discreet packing in such a way that only customer name is mentioned on top of the packing even the invoice mentions only the product code and not products name.

What are some of the best comments you have received from your customers?

We have received some great customers reviews about products but the best and import one was for the Glow in dark Night Glow lingerie where the customer mentioned that this was the best gift that he has ever gifted to his wife and that she was totally surprised and wowed by it.

What are your plans with Kamuk Life?

This year we will focusing on adding new styles in glow in dark “Night Glow“ collection as it got superb response from the customers.

Abhishek, thank you for your time and interacting with Just For Her. Best wishes with your venture.