Meet the Mumbai couple who started a company to sell their mother's homemade pickles

When the world is busy with tech start ups, a Mumbai-based young couple have taken the path less taken – they are selling mother’s yummy pickles.

Ishita Shah, who co-founded Goosebumps Pickle with husband Pinank, managed to convince her mother Mita to let the world know of her traditionally cooked authentic pickles. The online portal soon created a unique local market for her pickles.

Speaking exclusively to Business Insider, Pinank said, “My mother-in-law used to make more than 700 kg pickles every year for friends and relatives. So, we thought why not make it a commercial online business. Hence we defined out target audience, started with the branding exercise, sorted out the packaging & logistic, created a website and launched the store virtually in 2012.”

He added - “We closely watch the brand image created by the 'cool' gadget brands, because that's what people are attracted to, and we try to create a similar imagery - young, unique, mouth watering, also keeping the essence of authentic Indian & mother’s home-made secrets very clear.”

Goosebumps pickles are available online for anywhere between Rs 150-210 for a 250 gm jar.

The recently launched Jalapeno-Olives Pickle and Vintage Gol Keri in fusion form have met with a ‘delicious’ response, claim Goosebumps founders. Besides, the consumers also have the option of making their own pickle with their choice of assorted ingredients because the website also boasts of home ground spices and spice mixes.

It recently extended its offering to after-meal products seeing the demand. The founders have taken to fruit pickles like Mango, Chickoo and Oranges. They have gone on to exotic varieties as well like Kiwi, Cranberries and Plums. Goosebumps infact has a spread of 12 unique after meal varieties with an exclusive mix of five select fruits.

The only concern Goosebumps has as of now is to make sense of its product for a wider audience. “Young generation don't connect to Pickles. So we are re-looking at the strategy to package & communicate them differently so the acceptance becomes higher in the market,” Ishita said.

He further said - “The focus is shifting to aftermeals at the moment because of its high acceptance in the market. The most motivating part for us in this category is the products are appreciated by all the age groups unlike pickles which means one communication investment can reach all at one go.”