Dulith Herath - Sri Lanka witnessing the boom of e-commerce market

"10 years back, Kapruka was focused on wooing two million Sri Lankan Diaspora wanting to gift their loved ones in Sri Lanka. Because at that time there were no many credit card users or people didn"t lean forward to online shopping. But currently, in Sri Lanka there are more and enough credit card users and people moving forward rapidly with very good integration to the global market," stressed Kapruka Founder/ Chief Executive Officer Dulith Herath in at exclusive interview with Ceylon FT recently.

"Now e-commerce concept has good potential and people become quite a busy with their day today work and sometimes they do not prefer outdoor shopping. Now people need everything at their finger tips. Along with that, people are very enthusiastic to use global products and they believe in international products. They love to shop through amazon.com and e-bay. But when they are going to buy a rather expensive product like camera, mobile phone, they still have some hesitation. They have no assurance about the product, and its after sales service as well as the income tax, which they need to pay when importing the products. Today, Kapruka has become the single-most used portal for diaspora to reach out to family and friends in Sri Lanka," he highlighted.

Kapruka.com Sri Lankan largest and only e-commerce site is a Brain born child of phenomenal young inventor Dulith Herath. Dulith has vast experience working in Sri Lanka and overseas. Via Kapruka.com Dulith made an easy access to Sri Lankan customers to buy their dreamed products within one finger touch. Kapruka is a successful profit making company giving a very fertile contribution to the Sri Lankan economy, whilst creating a new facelift in the Sri Lankan marketplace.

"Now, Sri Lanka has become a very fruitful business place with its having potential. The country is stepping forward and people have good awareness about the current market trends. It seems, backward integration of the people is fading away and people are moving into the global perspectives. Technology becomes a key element in each and every industry, and it is vital to create a strong platform between people and businesses by making this kind of e commerce concepts," Herath opined.

Dulith Herath, Entrepreneur and Web Technologies Specialist and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Founder of Kapruka.com, keeps his legacy of setting new benchmarks in Sri Lanka"s nascent e-commerce industry alive and well with his latest venture. The one-of-its-kind "Kapruka Global Shop" was unveiled to shoppers in May 2013 to offer discerning shoppers products ranging across every conceivable category. This wide shopping experience is made possible by Kapruka"s tie-up with amazon.com and ebay.com online shopping portals which together offer more than 50 million products to Kapruka customers.

While he credits his young and dynamic staff for the success of Kapruka, it is evident that the entrepreneur in him has brought his education in the US and work experience with Microsoft and Dell to bear on his success thus far. Kapruka was set up in 2003 at a time when e-commerce was not even on the radar for shoppers in Sri Lanka, which is why he reversed his attention to the diaspora – more tech savvy and accustomed to online shopping. Today, Kapruka is a billion-rupee company with many more big dreams to achieve over and above having become Sri Lanka"s most popular and largest online store.

"Online shopping is a relatively unknown concept to many in Sri Lanka who are unaware of how it works. In this scenario Kapruka will be the interface for these people and demonstrate to them the fantastic bargains you can get on products when you shop online as compared to visiting brick and mortar stores. Secondly, the people who are accustomed to order online are often disheartened by the high shipping rates to Sri Lanka and other incremental problems that might crop up. Subsequent to purchasing the product, the global shop staff will provide the customer with a receipt which will also include the shipping cost. Customers will be informed once the product arrives in Sri Lanka, and they can come and collect it," he highlighted.

"Now People can shop and buy their dreamed international products at an affordable price. People were very excited to be able to order genuine high quality products from the US market and bring them down to Sri Lanka reliably and at the lowest cost — we knew it was a unique concept but even we were surprised by the overwhelming response — we never realized it would become this popular and catch on so fast," he added in lighter vein.

"This is the niche we occupy — helping customers who shop at the Kapruka Global Store by informing them of the cheap shipping rates we charge, since we take over the duty of taking delivery of their products from the online store, then shipping them to Sri Lanka and even clearing them from customs. As a result, after the customer has ordered online at our store, all he has to do is to return on the agreed date to collect his order," Herath stated.

However, he noted that unlike air freight, shipping takes a longer period to transport goods, which could be between 35 to 40 days. He, however, assured the safe delivery of all products ordered while emphasizing that when a customer requests a quote, the final price of the product will include all charges including tax and freight, delivery and so on, thereby preventing unnecessary hassle and shocks for the customer.

"There are a limited number of Sri Lankans who use the online shopping facility via Amazon.com and Ebay.com, but often they pay a very high shipping rate to ship items to Sri Lanka from the United States. This is where the Kapruka Global Shop will come in and allow Sri Lankans to order items from these popular websites and get them shipped for a very nominal shipping fee. All, the customer has to do is, purchase the product online via the Kapruka Global Shop with the click of a button, and we will do all the hard work including transport to Sri Lanka, paying taxes and duties, and getting it cleared from customs and so on, when it arrives in Colombo and is cleared, we will call the customer to come and pick it up from our global shop showroom in Bambalapitiya," Herath added.

Herath intends to persevere his pioneering role and feels that the Global Store will bring about a revolution in the way customers shop. "The Kapruka Global Store will liberate shoppers in unimaginable ways because of the sheer choice of products where your imagination and tastes need not be curbed. You can browse for just about any item you have ever wished to possess and find it at the click of a button. Our online shopping managers will be on hand to guide customers if they need help. Best of all, you have to pay a nominal fee once you order and pay the rest only on delivery," he stressed.