Kapruka Selling Sri Lankan goods on Global E-Commerce Platforms

January, 3, 2022

One of the pioneer e-commerce brands in Sri Lanka has reached global markets with constant innovative business strategies, Kapruka has spearheaded in the market.

Kapruka will connect local brands to international platforms, giving entrepreneurs the support to showcase the product. Dulith Herath, founder and chairman Kapruka talk about the four initiatives and the platforms.

Kapruka has already taken over the market in almost all aspects. So Mr. Dulith what are the future plans for the organization? 

There are four projects that are currently in the pipelines. We are expanding into B2B e-commerce, selling wholesale products through businesses. Secondly, we will also be selling used goods through our new platform Soldout.lk. The third is called “Kapruka Cross Border” where we sell renowned local brands in western market e-commerce platforms.  The fourth, “Kapruka Partner Central”, where established brick-and-mortar vendors are allowed to sell directly through Kapruka.

If you could change one aspect of Kapruka’s current strategy, what would it be? 

Strategy is a wide area, so to think back in retrospect, it is difficult to say how things could have been done differently. In general, I am satisfied with Kapruka’s journey so far. One thing we could have done differently is to invest more in increasing our product range.

What local brands have global demand? 

Tea and cinnamon are two products that have a very high demand. Products of Link Natural Products LTD, such as Samahan have a good traction as well. When it comes to cinnamon, Kapruka has its own brand that we have white labelled under the name “Kapruka Ceylon Cinnamon”.

Some of these brands are already available internationally. How would you choose to promote them differently? 

The products are provided to us, the e-distributor at a competitive price. Other entities such as Amazon, cannot go under the price that we have listed, as it is the most economical. Therefore, sales will come to us. If we were buying these brands from another distributor, there is a chance that they might undercut us. When you buy it directly from the supplier of the brand, we get the best price.

How do you aid start-up brands and SMEs to connect with a global audience? 

For the last ten years, I have supported small businesses and I am passionate about uplifting local entrepreneurs and helping them develop their brands further. If a particular product doesn’t have a brand value and we feel that it has potential, we accompany them every step of the way and conduct incubator programmes to take them to a wider market.

How long have these incubator programmes been in practice? 

Kapruka Cross Border has only been functional for one and a half years, Now, most of our efforts are concentrated on launching the major brands online and to get them moving. The incubator programmes are relatively new, they have been in operation for about 3 months. Right now, we have about 9 small sellers in the programme and we are looking forward to their success.

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