Taking a vision from-concept-to-cash. The case study of Kalaa.in - an online art market place

KALAA is an “online art marketplace” where artists, art enthusiasts, art buyers, art lovers come together to showcase, get recognition, buy, sell and recommend art. KALAA is more than just a gallery - online or otherwise.

The Business Need:

• When we met first, Kalaa was just a vision, an idea.
• Though the broad business rules and the go-to-market strategy were roughly drawn out, the online product had to be envisioned and conceptualized
• A product had to designed to strongly differentiate from the existing online art portals or auction sites. It had to capitalize on an unserviced need suddenly made serviceable with the use of the Internet and the social media boom

The Solution:

After gaining an understanding of the constraints and opportunities, we took a four-stage approach to formulating an Internet strategy to envision the product.

Stage 1 - Business Design

Faced with trying to simulate the real world experience of 'art search, selection and purchase' on the Web, we gathered input from all potential users - artists, buyers, critiques, art collectors, logistic partners etc. We documented the business case in minute detail and prepared the product requirement document

Stage 2 - Product Design

We then got down to brain storm on the product features and functionalities which was to provide a seamless buying experience and which would, simultaneously be, economically feasible. The key here was to innovate and come up with new 'little' ideas that would add on to the user experience. The user requirement, and the supply side complexities were documented in detail. At the end of this stage we were sitting with a lot of clarity, all documentations complate, most of the work flow diagrams and a feeling that we now have a grip on this thing.

Stage 3 - GUI/ Usability/ Look & Feel Design

All that was abstracted got down to specifics in this stage. All possible screens of the product as designed with attention to the minutest of details. The documents were updated as and when we acquired more clarity or when we deliberately changed the rules. It's only once we see the product in these screens that we can actually visualize the experience. The product was prototyped and subjected to usability analysis and design

Stage 4 - The technology was then arrived at with due consideration of the costs involved, the need for rich user experience and also the time frames. The product went into development, testing and beta.

Stage 5 - An integrated marketing plan was already drawn up when we had a breather during the development process. This was actioned out one by one - the Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Online Advertising, Viral Marketing and other off line promotions.

We haverecently gone live with Kalaa.in beta. Please click here to visit the portal. While we continue to add value and make continuous changes based on user feedback, the main focus has shifted to the core business itself.