In the very first week of the website launch, digni-tee.com already has five orders lined up, and as the name suggests, the website specializes in Nepali pride t-shirts.[break]
Digni-tee is selling nine different designs at digni-tee.com. American pricing is at US$30 payable via PayPal while Nepali buyers get it for about Rs 1,500 by contacting Ashish via the site. The site is also offering an introductory discount at the moment.
To check out the t-shirts and buy, visit www.digni-tee.com. Republica had a chat with Ashish on his Nepali pride and his new business.
Why did you decide to leave America?
After living there for so long, I got tired of living the American life. I stopped identifying with the country and didn’t see the point in living there any longer. It was an alien country and I missed my family and my home.
It took a lot of thought because I didn’t want to end up doing odd jobs again and I saw so many prospects here. Things had changed, Nepal was catching up and I could see endless possibilities here.
Plus I never liked working under other people, I never enjoyed following orders and back in Nepal, I could see the market for new ideas and new businesses.
How did your business start?
After I came back to Nepal, I started working for this technological company called Double Space International (DSI) that my brother Ritesh Adhikari had started. The people at DSI were amazing, there were Kathmandu University graduates and were brilliant people.
I was a businessman and these people at DSI had the expertise to bring to life what ideas I had. I shared my ideas and they immediately came aboard and we’ve taken our first step. This is my first idea, I still have two more ideas I want to work on.
How do you manufacture these t-shirts?
We produce t-shirts on on-order basis because I don’t want to keep an inventory until I have a place to store it and display it. I’m looking forward to setting up a store in Kathmandu and some kiosks in Pokhara and Dharan so I can market to the three big cities of Nepal.
So I don’t want to order in bulk and get my money stuck. So until I get a place, the printing will be on on-order basis. We get high-quality fabric from Bangkok that doesn’t shrink or lose color. Apart from that, all the stitching and designing is done here in Nepal.
Digni-tee is marketing more to people abroad than in Nepal. Why is that so?
The way I see it, Nepal is still developing and the industry of e-commerce isn’t that well-established in Nepal. We need banks willing to support online payment through debit and credit cards, we need good courier service that delivers within Nepal and we need security so that hackers can’t get into bank accounts.
We need a lot more infrastructure to support e-commerce which is just not available in Nepal but it is in America. This makes it easier for me to start up my business with people abroad while I ease into Nepali market in time. Because the way I see it, the Nepali market demands a physical location and it’s going to take some time to set that up.
What are your future plans?
I’m definitely going to keep working on Digni-tee. We currently have nine designs and I’m going to work on some more ideas. I’m definitely thinking of expanding, more physical stores and try to work other e-commerce services or courier services and sell through the website in Kathmandu as well.
I do have other ideas to work on, but let’s see where this one goes first.
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