You can’t imagine how proud we are to know that you, Zlio members, are all over the world ! An example below with Peter Pradeep from India who was kind enough to answer our questions.
Could you introduce yourself ?

36 Male, from the hospitality industry. New entrepreneur, restaurateur. I own and manage a restaurant named Dal Fryday – Fine Indian Food, in Bangalore, India. Have been an avid blogger. In a growing economy like ours the opportunity for growth is tremendous and with a highly flexible and unique ways of doing business here I thought it would be interesting to see how technology can be used to develop and sustain business’ especially when one has limited time available at hand.

What made you want to launch a “blog store” ?

Have been a blogger for the past three years and have fascinated by the medium and power the Internet wields. Blogs and blogging is becoming a mainstream event in India and the number of people involved in it rises by the day. These are the specific people we intend to target be it a restaurant business and or a blog store. The response to the restaurant business has been very impressive and we are happy. I decided to launch a Zlio blog store as I wanted to do more than selling food which I would have never imagined possible when I sowed the seeds for my dream many years ago. Now its virtually possible to wear many hats and be good at it…In a Zlio blog store the returns could be small or huge with no fear of failure ( read loosing money) which got me very excited. I am thrilled at what web 2.0 has been able to achieve so far. Although, to be honest, I started the store just for a little bit of fun in the beginning.How are you planning to promote it ?

I dont intend to do large scale promotions right now… I have created a Zlio store specific page on a very popular blog I manage called Funny Emails. This blog of mine gets enviable traffic and is quite popular with its readers. I would hope people who visit the blog would also try their hand at hosting their own shops and promoting them and start earning money. Am sure more women would come forward and set up their stores. I have been inviting my friends to join in… with spam and filters prevailing everywhere its making things a tad difficult but am sure a classic product like Zlio will ultimately come up trumps.Do you have other shops ?

Yes, I have a few shops on Zlio, my favorite is the one on Indian Art. I foresee a huge market for Indian Art globally in the coming decades…what people have seen is just the tip of the iceberg and since Internet penetration has not reached the grass roots level some of the finest art forms will take time to be visible online and to the western world. This needs to change and I think a Zlio shop can be a very effective catalyst. My others Shops are Funny Emails online shoppe, The Nike and Reebok store , Blogging Store.

What did you think of the Zlio service?

I think its brilliant. I am still a novice in many ways and I am learning… I think the features available on the Blog store has been very carefully planned out and are very easy to use and therefore very effective.

What new features would you like to see added on Zlio ?

Firstly I would like to see more Indian websites made, more Indian products visible on Art , handicrafts, hand made toys,…There is a treasure trove of antiques available here, sadly not much of it has been catalogued.This is easily possible if more people are made aware of what a Zlio shop can do to their business.

Secondly I’d like to see Zlio grow in popularity the world over, which means I’d like to see Zlio come away from being a web store made specific for the French and American markets. I can only imagine what this can do for your bottom line. I believe the faster you get this done the better you will be.

How do you foresee the future of your ZlioShop ?

I can only see you grow and become popularity. With every big gun of the blogging world praising you, you can be sure of a great future. Here’s wishing you all the very best for an exciting future !

This entry was posted on Monday 16 April 2007 at 4:48 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.