NeedyBee: Dressing Kids Head2Toes

Nidhi Mehta is the co-founder at NeedyBee.com, an e-commerce (B2B & B2C) venture in the kids and moms e-tailing space providing Head2Toe Dressing solutions for Kids. At present, the organisation is growing at a rapid pace and is ambitiously aimed to have a valuation of over Rs 200 crore in the next five years.

Nidhi started her working career as a marketing specialist with McKinsey & Co. After 18 months she left the company and embarked on her entrepreneurial journey. It was in pursuit of her passion for dance. She started a Bollywood Inspired Dance Fitness Company in USA in 2001and sold it in 2005. Within four years the company and student base had grown almost 300% and was a strong brand to reckon with in Silicon Valley.

In 2005, she relocated to India for a short while. Therein she opened a new company (BollyBeatz.com) and started her base for Dance fitness in the country. Her work has been featured by many esteemed publications like Femina, India Today, Newspapers and online magazines like YourStory.

In 2007, life again threw a new curve ball and she found herself in Singapore. Being an entrepreneur from the heart, she started her dance school in Singapore again from scratch only to make it the biggest Dance Fitness company specialising in Zumba and Bollywood inspired dance fitness.

Till this date, she continues to follow and live her passion for dance by running centers across the world with her instructors as partnerships. She herself continues to teach dance and conduct corporate team building workshops in India.

In 2012 after relocating to India again, she co-founded NeedyBee with her husband. She is the Chief Business Officer and focuses on new product lines, expansion strategy and online marketing. NeedyBee again is a passion as it’s all about kids and they have two kids of their own. She loves to use her business skills with the creativity that she finds in product designing and thus have found the perfect mantra for a successful company. Along with Nidhi, her husband and co-founder Alop Mehta, a DonBosco School Almun and a graduate from Rochester Institute of Technology, USA, oversees finance and operations of NeedyBee. So far the company has been self-funded but now to meet their expansion goals they are also on a lookout for the right funding partners to fuel the growth.

When Business Rankers approached Nidhi to write her enthralling entrepreneur journey for the readers of the magazine, she obliged…and rest follows in her typical creative way…BR Bureau

Like so many good stories, ours also begins once upon a time … our first born is a boy. After two exciting years of trucks, trains, planes, dirt and searching for colorful tees in the boys section, our daughter was born on 07/07/07. Overnight, we were surrounded by beautiful clips and bows and the fun of dressing up a girl… we were searching near and far to find the best of kids’ clothes in India, which were both fashionable and functional. We found some good clothes and accessories, but we felt that “there was a gap in the market for quality, design-driven kidswear and accessories like we could find easily in the USA”.

The seed was planted then. We shortly moved to Singapore and got busy in our work roles. Destiny beckons. Five years later we relocated to India to embark on our entrepreneurial journey, and thus NeedyBee was born, and began to grow – initially, as an e-tailing business, soon followed by various boutiques, chain stores buying our products for in-store sales.

Over the last three years, we have expanded through online and wholesale channels. However, our e-tail business remains a key focus for continued growth.

Family is at the heart of everything we do, and our family is now extended to our NeedyBee team, which has definitely grown over the years. NeedyBee has in-principle been a lean and efficient company where we believe in quality work time over quantity! We now employ 15 people. We’re so proud that the NeedyBee brand can be found throughout all the portals in India and chain stores like OyeBaby, FirstCry, KoochieKoo, Just Moms, and more.

This sort of growth doesn’t happen overnight, and it certainly doesn’t happen unless you’ve got something unique to offer. What sets us apart is that our clothing meets the needs of young families at every stage in their childs lives. It’s something we’re really good at, probably because we’re parents ourselves.

Since its foundation in 2012 NeedyBee has become an iconic brand in the childrenswear market. Innovative design is fundamental to this success and the ongoing recognition signifies the underlying strength of the brand.

Product Development

Our Product development includes our strength in design and colors, style creation, product sourcing and control of quality.

NeedyBee has nurtured its brand ensuring that all product design, and marketing to the customer are developed in-house. This delivers a consistent approach to branding which increases brand recognition amongst customers.

Utilizing a fully integrated process, the Company has developed software and information systems that track products from origination through to sale.

The Company’s product range encompasses all stages of a child’s growth – from baby to toddler, nursery kid to eight years – including clothing, nightwear, accessories and footwear. NeedyBee also offers a collection for Mums with a stylish accessories and home range. NeedyBee is an affordable range of fun every day kids clothing & accessories for babies, girls and boys.

Supply Chain

NeedyBee has delivered growth through an effective core of infrastructure and an ability to continually develop new systems and processes for efficient working. From its 5000 sq ft office space and warehouse , we responds daily to the inventory requirements of internet and wholesale sales. The inventory center packs and ships approximately 150-200 orders per day.

NeedyBee prides in embracing new technology and has developed its own forecasting and inventory systems. This enables flexibility and integration with all facets of procurement, distribution, sales and accounting.

The design philosophy encompasses the entire collection – from infantwear to kidswear, which also includes nightwear, accessories, and footwear.

The Team

Our people are dedicated, talented, hardworking, problem-solvers and heaps of fun. We have a strong workplace culture that’s inspired by family values. We aim to treat our people with respect and fairness. We believe in a work-life balance.

Our strong mix of distinctive quality product, marketing expertise, customer focus and up-to-the-moment technology has created a unique brand; but, we know that our success simply wouldn’t be possible without the energy and effort that our people put in every day.

Our continued growth and the loyalty we receive from our customers speaks volumes and makes the hard work so worthwhile.

Expansion and Future Plans

We are continuously working to bring the best kidswear collections, season after season.

Maternity wear : For the Mums-to-be who are determined to retain their fashion style. There is a plan for a great maternity collection and there’s also a developing mom’s accessories and lifestyle range in the pipeline.

Design Team : In order to keep abreast of emerging fashion ideas, to create a design team that spends considerable time researching the market, and absorbing and interpreting international artistic and fashion trends. This will enable us to introduce kids collections appealing to wide socio-economic and demographic ranges of customers.