FirstCry, an online portal for baby products and toys, founded by Pune’s Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha has just raised $4 million from private equity company SAIF Partners. FirstCry works with 100+ vendors internationally to make available 4000+ items for online sales, and with free shipping. As their website says:
Over time, we hope to ‘Change’ the way, Indian parents buy, so that they can be at home to spend more quality time with their ‘Little ones’ and family.
FirstCry.com receives 10,000 daily visitors and has over 15400 fans on Facebook. It has initiated various contests for parents on Facebook. The firm, which delivers to 25,000 cities and towns in India, expects to do 1000 transactions per day in next three months.
Supam Maheshwari had earlier co-founded Brainvisa in Pune, which was sold to Indecomm Global Services in 2007. Amitava Saha was a Senior Vice President at Brainvisa and had been with the company from 2003.
I hope they dont use this money to send SMS spam, as they did earlier. I used to receive several SMSes every week, saying I get some discount on their ‘inflated’ prices.
yes the prices are infalted. discounts are fake. For example the intex productsthey are selling are worth 200 rs whereas they are sellling above 600 rs. fooling parents who dont visit local markets!
Good Website to fool ignorant and helpless mothers. They display prices above MRP and then give discounts and sell and show that they are cheapest and largest.
Hey,, Guys i have a very good experience with the website.. Money doesnt matter when it comes to the quality of products for baby.. I bought recently a kit for my nephew and I loved their services and quality. In compare to all other baby stores online… I found firstcry.com the best.
Hey ladies; I never found any prices above MRP. They do give the discounts they promise to. In fact not only me but many of my friends have had a great shopping at firstcry.com. The petrol we spend for going out to the market to buy each and every small thing costs us much more where here we get free delivery to the doorstep and discounts as well. Yes if you are comparing local products with International brands, surely it would cost you low but dear mom that may cost too high to your baby. I just wanted to share my views as a mother. 🙂
I agree with Naina and Geetika. The website is fantastic. I always find products there on reasonable prices. You know, It was my first chance to shop online and I just order two toys to see whether their service is good enough or not and I was amazed to know that they did not ask for any advance money. They gave me an option of cash on delivery and they literally delivered product to my place within 3 days. Amazing that was! And they gave me good discount for my first purchase. Now Firstcry.com is my permanent website to shop anything for my baby.
From the PuneTech editor:
We would like to point out to everyone reading this article that the last three comments (i.e. the ones by Moshomi, Geetika, and Naina) appear to have originated from the same (static) IP address.
As far as we can tell, this is possible in the following ways:
1. These three different people co-incidentally ended up using the same computer on different days. (i.e. they went to the same cybercafe on 3 different days, or they share a computer)
2. Or, these three different people work for the same company, or live in the same house/building
3. Or, a single person is pretending to be three different people
4. There are many other ways in which the three comments could endup with the same IP address, including spoofing, hacking, and many other things.
It is impossible for us to tell which of these options represents reality, so this information is provided to our readers on an “as is, where is” basis. Please draw your own conclusions.
Well this post definitely is from a different IP address and more importantly from a regular customer of FirstCry.
I used to shop initially at various kids shops (Am a Punekar :), so know of all those tiny shops in Ravivar Peth/Laxmi Road too) and other shops before I started using the FirstCry services…. I found them to be very prompt/and definitely value for money, so much so that even my kids dresses come from First cry. The discounts offered are also genuine. Never had problem with them.
Well i think all above positive comments are written by firstcry people only to cover up the cheat they are doing. buying branded stuffs is ok with them but clothes n shoes n other stuffs which are not branded the prices are hiked..so the discounts that they offer are good only for brands rest its fake just a gimmick to make money.
I totally agree with you AK. I think they are fooling people by offering discount only on non standard items. On standard items they are hardly offering any discount, so anybody shopping from this site should only do so if they are willing to overpay for convenience.
I’ve never faced any issue with FC till date. And I recommend this site to all would be moms and new moms! They have everything that is essential for bringing up a kid.
And I am one of those moms who is most comfortable shopping online! Saves me the trouble of going out! @Vivek: define non standard items. Everyones perception is different. What is non standard to you could be a normal standard to me 🙂
@Vivek: Half of the wardrobe for my kids is from FC because I like the quality of their clothes and I am talking about the “unbranded stuff”.
Stop maligning a genuine company people. First Cry is a very reliable shopping portal. Never had a problem with quality, delivery or prices. Great job, you guys.
Nice experience from firstcry, I get good amazing kid’s toys & other products which are not available at local market
looting customers thats all i can say. 10 times more the price in local market. i bought intexplayhouse for 500 they are selling for 3000. i bought strawberry piano for 300 and firstcry sells for 800. further they delete all ur feedbacks n post only positive comments.
I am very frustrated with Firstcry.com.. First they have opened up an account using my email address without my consent . Secondly I keep receiving 4-5 email each day about things that I don’t require. I have clicked on unsubscribe link like 8 times by now. Still no respite. Somebody please help me…
First Cry is Totally Fake site please do not buy from this site because i have ordered one product and i received totally different from site they display product and when i talk to their customer care executive she is laugh with my problem like they have no any responsibility for customers so please friends don’t wast your time and money.. This is my order No : 991017MN38495135
I have ordered through firstcry twice, first was a trial, but was a little disappointed with the delivery servive, which took around 10 days for delivery, but the product was as I expected. Second delivery of my ordered products was real quick, ordered it on saturday evening, and got it delivered by monday morning and loved all the baby clothes I ordered. I would definitely prefer this site for baby products and it seems to be cheaper than any other webiste, or branded stores.
Open Letter to Supam Maheshwari, CEO, FirstCry.com FirstCry.com
Hi Supam,
I tried to reach you on Linkedin.
You are 2nd on my connections spectrum.
I was hoping you would take the time to respond.
But it has been over 2 weeks now.
I lost hope.
I try again here.
I am Gourav Soni.
I am writing to you as a disgruntled customer.
I contacted your customer care division but got a very dismal and apathetic response.
They just cited the 7-day return policy and said they couldn’t do anything.
I am hopeful that you will see my agony in this situation.
We bought a swinging cradle from Firstcry in October. (Order ID – 965323MV167D9113)
On Dec 5th, it broke!
My 2 month old daughter was in it when the rods holding the base of the cradle snapped and broke with the baby in it.
She fell on the ground.
Though she did not sustain any injury, I am appalled by the ridiculous product quality that we were given.
I expect a certain level of quality check on every product on FirstCry.
I demand a written apology and full refund of the product.
Thanks.