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Sachin Katira The Entrepreneur Behind ZoomIn’s Transformation into a Profitable Personalized Gifting Venture

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Personalized gifting has become a ubiquitous way to convey affection and thoughtfulness, whether it’s a custom mug, keychain, photo frame, or poster. This industry, which gained momentum in the mid-2000s, has evolved into a multi-billion-dollar global phenomenon. In India, the trend has surged in recent years, driven by increased internet access in tier 2 and 3 cities and rising disposable incomes.

When Mumbai-based Company ZoomIn embarked on its journey in 2009, the personalized gifting landscape in India was nascent and showed slow growth compared to Western markets. Sachin Katira, who initially joined ZoomIn as Head of Customer Service and later assumed control of operations, witnessed the potential but also the mounting losses. In 2018, ZoomIn‘s founder, whose name remains undisclosed, made the tough decision to sell the business to focus on other ventures abroad. However, Sachin chose to stay, believing in the business’s long-term prospects.

In 2018, Sachin, in partnership with a friend, acquired ZoomIn, determined to turn the company’s fortunes around. He shifted the focus to the online business model, harnessing the potential of ZoomIn‘s website and mobile application. Under Sachin’s leadership, the company claims to have achieved a remarkable 60 percent year-on-year growth and successfully weathered the storm of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reviving and Thriving: The ZoomIn Turnaround:

Sachin acknowledges that the appeal of personalized gifting remains strong, but he recognized the need to diversify beyond the conventional photos on mugs and frames. When Sachin assumed control of ZoomIn, he expanded the product categories to include calendars, magnets, photo books, planners, and more, available in a variety of base materials. According to data from detained, the global personalized gifts market was valued at $26.3 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $41.3 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.5 percent during the forecast period 2020-2026.

Capitalizing on this growth, Sachin initiated backward integration to control the entire value chain. Today, all raw materials are locally sourced, and design and printing are handled in-house. ZoomIn boasts around 20 stock keeping units (SKUs), each available in multiple variants, providing customers with a wide array of choices.

Under Sachin’s stewardship, ZoomIn’s customer base has grown from eight lakh in 2018 to 21 lakh today, with app users increasing from seven lakh in 2018 to 17 lakhs. Impressively, half of ZoomIn’s orders are repeat customers, indicating a high level of customer retention. The company now receives approximately 25,000 orders per month, a number that continues to rise.

Navigating Challenges and Competition:

Sachin acknowledges that customer acquisition has been one of the primary challenges. “Competition is intense, but it’s healthy as it expands the market. However, like any direct-to-consumer brand, acquiring customers is demanding, and we are also investing significantly in marketing.”

In terms of competition, Sachin notes a proliferation of players in the market, both organized and unorganized. What sets ZoomIn apart is its penetration into tier 2 and 3 cities. The company has even successfully delivered products to remote locations like Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh, covering a total of 18,000 pin codes. Sachin’s vision is to further expand ZoomIn’s reach and increase this number.

The Road Ahead: Embracing Technology and Expansion:

Looking forward, Sachin has ambitious plans to incorporate emerging technologies into ZoomIn’s website and app. Augmented Reality (AR) will enhance the user experience, allowing customers to preview personalized products virtually. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools will assist users in selecting the best photos for their customized gifts.

Sachin is also exploring strategic partnerships to accelerate ZoomIn’s growth and expand its footprint into untapped regions of the country. As the personalized gifting industry continues to thrive and evolve, Sachin Katira’s leadership has positioned ZoomIn as a resilient and promising player in this dynamic landscape.

Entrepreneurs

The Power Couple of Instagram: Sara’s Journey to 5.5M Followers

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Sara’s growing online fame is marked by her creativity, reliability, and deep engagement with her audience. From comedic sketches featuring her husband Ghaith to aspirational lifestyle imagery, Sara has effectively demonstrated her capability as an artist in keeping her followers interested in her content. With adept use of humour, honesty, and aesthetic sensibility, Sara stands out as one of the dearest influencers in the UAE.

Versatility is one characteristic that best describes Sara. She posts more on Beauty and Cosmetics, Apparel, and Accessories, but often crosses over into areas like Fitness, Healthcare, and Healthy Living. She offers a great deal of value to her audience through beautifying tips, exercises, and product recommendations among other content forms. This variety keeps audiences interested and puts her in the lead position as a go-to partner for brands who wish to create a more memorable impression.

Characterized as luxurious and a dynamic way of life, no destination aligns more with Sara’s fulfilment than Dubai. Through the travels she takes through the Maldives, Seychelles, and Turkey, Sara embodies luxury exploration spirits that epitomize Dubai as the ultimate and highly sought-after destination around the world for glamorous and adventurous characters. The tales are not just inspiring ones for her listeners but also speak to the part Dubai played in unlocking access to the extraordinary destinations around the world.

Collaborations underpin all of Sara’s accomplishments. For example, in a recently collaborated project with Garnier, one of her social media reels had nearly 4 million views with 130,000 interactions. Similarly, in another collaboration with Temu, such an engagement was conducted in an informative and entertaining manner, thus it gained an impressive 7.7 million views and about 500,000 engagements. These above collaborations represented the potential of marrying creativity with brand messages and finally producing something authentic and relatable. The synergy of relating to her husband, Ghaith, has that effect for Sara. A build-up in her persona comes about through the collaboration bestowed upon her with some quality that makes not only aesthetically pleasing but also emotionally meaningful. While comedy up to poignant moments, the dynamic between Sara and her husband, Ghaith, is something that essentially encompasses Sara’s brand. Their connection to her talents allows her to build a followership that enjoys an impressive 80% credibility score—a notable achievement, undoubtedly, within the realms of influencers.

Amazingly, the engagement metrics attached to Sara’s account average 9.6 million views and 1.1 million engagements per post. For a long time, such performance left in its wake most of her colleagues from the blogging community. Furthermore, she has averaged engagement rates between 4 and 5 percent, which is all proof that she indeed is extremely trusted and interesting for her audience.

Effects of Sara touch the lives of individuals. Her GRWM videos are revealing and inspiring, along with beauty tips and Q&A sessions that make them feel valued and included. This is genuine, and she welcomes each other with her excitement about cementing herself as one of the authentic social media icons in the UAE.

Sara represents a vibrant and dynamic culture about Dubai, full of energy, diversity, and aspirations, but she also keeps her feet on the ground, inspiring her followers through this story to pursue their passions and be true to themselves, but concurrently enjoy all of life’s pleasures.

When the digital world may dismiss trends, Sara’s story continues—logical, funny, hopeful, and full of energy. She has been an inspiration among young aspiring influencers, and a very revered personality among her subscribers, thanks to her capacity to capitalize on entertainment that also harbours heavy content. Through her consistent creation of content that deeply connects with her audience, Sara represents how true enthusiasm and authenticity contribute to a long-term record of success in an area that, from day to day, seems to be constantly changing with each shift in social media trends.

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Entrepreneurs

How Varsity Tutors Connects the World through Personalized Learning

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Varsity Tutors seems to be one trendsetter in the world of education, doing an edge in leveraging the technological front towards tailoring and making learning accessible. Conceptualized on the idea that every child is as special as his needs, Varsity Tutors connects learners of all age groups with experts in multiple subjects for fulfilling academic tutoring needs, professional skills training, and much more towards assuring that every individual’s unique educational needs are met.

What makes Varsity Tutors distinct is its dual platform approach. While for them, a learner has the option between in-person sessions or online and mobile platforms-most of which take place remotely-award-winning digital tools allow learners to get high-quality instructions from anywhere in the world. Where the finishing school kind of excellence in education is one aspect of the culture of Dubai, the parents and the students here have come to trust Varsity Tutors. Its flexibility coupled with highly advanced methods would dovetail easily into the forward-thinking approach towards education in Dubai.

The academic tutoring isn’t where it ends. Varsity Tutors also deals with professionals who want to up skill or achieve certifications for boosting their careers. Live, interactive learning makes some rather complicated subjects quite digestible, thus making this an engaging and very immersive experience. Online learning is ultimately isolating because with Varsity Tutors, one gets human contact and real-time feedback so that learning is effective but also fun.

Varsity Tutors boasts an impressive record: three million hours of live instruction delivered to date. Its strong showing does, in fact reflect the capacity to be flexible and grow within a highly dynamic educational landscape. The platform offers many different subjects through its extensive network of experts, giving any learner the chance to find an appropriate match for their goals. The reach of the program worldwide resonates with diverse communities everywhere-from students and professionals in multicultural Dubai, all of whom are seeking top-notch learning solutions to thrive in a competitive environment.

Innovation is one of the leading factors for Varsity Tutors’ success. For instance, learning in its mobile app is at the fingertips of the user: a user can schedule sessions, view resources, and interact with his instructor quite easily. This convenience has been a game-changer for many busy professionals and tight-scheduled students. Dubai’s bustling educational and professional scene has found synergy with Varsity Tutors’ vision. The platform aligns with the city’s goal of fostering a knowledge-based economy, equipping its residents with the tools needed to succeed in a globalized world. With its emphasis on personalized learning, Varsity Tutors supports Dubai’s mission to nurture talent and encourage lifelong learning.

The impact of Varsity Tutors goes beyond individual learners. Students will be empowered to reach great academic and professional heights, contributing to the building of a brighter future in communities around the globe. Quality, accessibility, and innovation ensure the firm does not only serve but lead an evolving education sector globally.

Varsity Tutors is a legacy of transformation and change in the face of education through technology potential. The platform combined personalized instruction with avant-garde digital tools that changed the face of learning. From young students to professionals undergoing training, there have been many from New York to Dubai and everywhere in between who have found a haven in Varsity Tutors.

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Entrepreneurs

Nomadic Capital’s Visionary Founder: Ziad Ghosn’s Journey of Success

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Ziad Ghosn, however, goes beyond being an entrepreneur; instead, he is a visionary who moulds industries in the GCC. Having been around over 15 years and immersed in the intricacies of the UAE market, Ghosn has converted Nomadic Capital into a thriving hub of innovation, incubating game-changing ventures in fields such as technology, food and beverage, and healthcare. Ghosn, along with his co-founder wife, Stephanie Khouri, is on the forefront of debunking traditional business models to herald smarter and more efficient solutions. He is the epitome of innovation and resilience.

Education and corporate experiences formed the base for Ziad Ghosn’s entry into the entrepreneurial world. He graduated with honours from the American University of Dubai, and a Master’s Degree in International Business from London, further helping him polish his skills in the bigger organizations of Wunderman, Y&R, Emirates Lebanon Bank, and Pragma Group. This experience gave him the much-needed knowledge and market insights to create his own ventures.

Ghosn, alongside his wife Stephanie Khouri, has partnered with Nomadic Capital Limited since 2017. Founded on a vision to introduce innovation in the GCC region, this start-up aims to tap into untapped markets by offering services either incu-bating potential ideas or undertaking their own ground-breaking initiatives. Collaboration is what made Nomadic Capital a leader in fostering innovation and tackling modern business challenges. Pushdot was the mobile application which Nomadic Capital produced and which earned the company a place among the top 50 start-ups to watch in the UAE. The app has been acclaimed within the region and has further received international accolades such as the Appy Awards in New York. This recognition has, therefore, underlined the app’s capability to update business needs through innovative digital tools.

Ghosn’s initiatives cover much more than mobile technology. Operating Nomadic Capital, he has done much to create opportunities in the food and drink sector, as, with his team, he was granted the International Business Excellence Award for Innovation in F&B. Among the concepts of the firm, of great significance is the Automat, a fast-food restaurant model whereby hot meals and beverages are dispensed via vending machines. Such a concept not only offers convenience but also addresses efficiency and operational issues in the industry.

Recognizing the potential of technological integration with healthcare, Ghosn has turned his attention to this booming industry recently. The focus of his last efforts has been on providing better patient care and streamlining business operations through advanced digital features. Through these gaps in traditional models for healthcare, Ghosn manages to deliver smarter solutions that are more accessible and promise to redefine the industry in the GCC and beyond.

The entrepreneurial pursuits of Ziad Ghosn reflect the kind of relentless drive for innovation and adaptation to modern business needs. His ability to turn from retail automation towards health care reveals the visionary of an entrepreneur who stands out in today’s competitive landscape. Through leveraging cutting-edge technology and deep market insights, Ghosn continues making opportunities that challenge conventional norms and redefine possibilities.

Through his firm Nomadic Capital, Ghosn gives more than just ideas to life; he creates a culture of innovation that resonates across industries. His entrepreneurial success is a blueprint for would-be business leaders, outlining how strategic vision and adaptability lead to transformative outcomes.

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