Sneho: The one-stop needed for parents and their children

In a society where the most highlighted achievements are those of men, the accomplishments of women tend to go unacknowledged. These women contribute to society and aid struggling families in various, meaningful ways. Such is the story of our young entrepreneur, Irmana Monem. Her e-commerce platform, Sneho, launched in 2021, with a desire to make quality products accessible to mothers.

Irmana's story starts as a young woman hailing from an academic field heavily dominated by men. She attended a women's college in Boston, majoring in Computational Mathematics concentrated on Finance and minoring in Business Management and Leadership for Social Impact. She currently works as a Data Scientist in the United States while also spearheading her business. Her entrepreneurial journey was influenced by the three pillars in her life, her grandfather, father, and mother. She says, "My grandfather ingrained in me the notion of nation-building and touching the lives of people through quality products and services, while my father taught me the importance of continuous growth, creativity and innovation within an organisation." Irmana further adds, "My mother's fierce advocacy for women and children pushed me to try and create solutions for modern day families."

Undoubtedly, mothers play a crucial role in our society, moulding and nurturing the next generation. Irmana aims to bring innovative and convenient solutions 'to assist and enable mothers to do what they do best.' Having witnessed conversations surrounding motherhood and a lack of trustworthy baby products, a responsibility to ensure access to authentic, affordable and high quality products weighed on Irmana. Her background in tech and passion for innovation within the women's space motivated the conceptualisation of Sneho.

Sneho has positioned itself as a brand that belongs to its customers. Almost every aspect of operations is tailored to the needs and wants of their customers. Starting from the name, the visuals, the content produced, to the products they stock — the audience has a say in it all. This may be the reason for their incredible 57 percent customer retention rate, one of the highest in the market and a community of 50,000 customers across platforms.

In essence, Sneho goes beyond being an e-commerce platform for buying commodities for baby care and mother care at affordable rates. Sneho's mission is to provide economical and convenient solutions to struggling families. The journey from wanting to establish a family to actually doing so can be difficult, and Sneho wants to be there for their customers every step of the way. When a baby is born, a family is bound by many concerns and responsibilities. Sneho's job is to make this transition as seamless as possible by helping families save time and money. In every area of the parenting process, Sneho tries to ensure affordability, authenticity, and innovation. Their exponential growth has made way for a richer website with advanced data collection possibilities.

"My background is in big data and the data we collect helps analyse the health of my business as well as the efficiency of the strategies we put in place. There is a lot of scope to improve operations and overall customer experience with simple technological tweaks. It is also useful for prototyping and forecasting new ideas. My aim is to make Sneho a company rooted in technology and data driven decisions."

Sneho is unique as it specialises in one segment and is catered to families. Anyone in a family, regardless of age, can access the website to buy what they need knowing that the products are legitimate, quality-checked, and price-matched. Additionally, Sneho houses products from all major local manufacturers and international companies while heavily promoting small businesses. "There was a remarkable rise in female agency during the pandemic which resulted in many women-run businesses. My goal is to provide structure to this fragmented market with adequate scale up solutions, exposure and logistic support. This desire of mine stems from a lack of investors willing to back female led businesses. Through Sneho, I plan to provide access to anyone who has the ability to write a check by creating an informal network of female investors as well as garnering potential projects by reaching out to the businesses ourselves."

Irmana says, "From a young age, I knew I wanted to work with and for women." Given their growth last year, Sneho plans to expand into various other segments within this year while still innovating in the mother and baby segment. She hopes to provide more support to families regarding postpartum and wellness, pregnancy nutrition, baby weaning and providing access to an expert. She argues that there needs to be a re-evaluation of responsibilities in family settings where both parents are able to contribute equitably. However, until then, Sneho aims to be an efficient digital assistant for working or stay at home parents.

Photo: Sneho